A series of activities will take place throughout Taiwan to mark the one-year anniversary of Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami, including events to show Japan’s gratitude for Taiwan’s disaster relief efforts, a Japanese official stationed in Taipei said.
A reception will be held tomorrow in Taipei to thank Japan’s “Taiwanese friends” and bring them up to date on reconstruction following the disaster, Interchange Association, Japan, Secretary-General Kenichi Okada said.
The association represents Japanese interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties between the two nations.
Photo: CNA
Japanese Representative to Taiwan Tadashi Imai is also running a notice in major Taiwanese newspapers today to express Japan’s gratitude for the aid and generous donations from the Taiwanese public, Okada said.
In the wake of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that battered northeastern Japan and led to a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, Taiwan donated about ￥20 billion (US$260 million) to the victims, 90 percent of which came from private donors.
Two television programs made to thank Taiwan for its help will also be broadcast on two channels in the coming week, Okada said, adding that a commercial thanking Taiwanese will be shown on several local stations.
Citing statistics that showed the number of Japanese visitors to Taiwan reached a record high last year, Okada said the record “just shows that Japanese really love Taiwan and feel grateful for Taiwan’s help.”
Okada, who assumed his post in August last year, said he was touched by the story of six Japanese swimmers who completed a 150km relay across part of the Pacific Ocean as a gesture of gratitude to Taiwanese.
In September last year, the swimmers battled rain and strong currents while a typhoon was approaching, Okada said.
Their determination to complete the swim under such difficult conditions “just proved how grateful the Japanese people are to Taiwan,” Okada said.
Meanwhile, today in Nantou County a foundation will host a series of events at the site of a paper dome from Japan to commemorate the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami.
A concert, photo exhibition and other events will take place at the Newland Community Education Center in Puli Township (埔里), where the dome is located.
The dome, built from 58 giant cardboard columns, was moved in 2008 from Japan where it had served as a temporary church following the Kobe earthquake in 1995.
According to the New Homeland Foundation, which is organizing the event, the church serves to remind victims of disaster that they can become stronger if they stand united.
A prayer meeting was held at the dome following the disaster last year.
The foundation said Japanese harpist Rikako Fujioka, who held a fundraising concert in her country after an earthquake hit Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999, will perform with her students and friends at the dome to thank Taiwanese for the concern they showed.
Photos of the disaster areas by Japanese photographer Satoshi Ueda, who lost his mother in the tsunami, will be shown at the dome until April 8 in an exhibition called “Tears of the Earth.”
Several Taiwanese artists will also take part in the commemorative activities by selling their works to raise money to help with reconstruction in the disaster-affected areas.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS