ID :
171671
Tue, 03/29/2011 - 19:26
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https://oananews.org//node/171671
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Quake-hit Japan receives over 1 bil. yen in donations from abroad
TOKYO, March 29 Kyodo - Japan has received more than 1 billion yen in donations for reconstruction from foreign governments, private-sector groups and individuals as well as 1,300 tons in relief supplies following devastating the March 11 quake and tsunami, government and customs officials said Tuesday.
The amount received by Japanese diplomatic missions abroad is expected to surpass 10 billion yen in the near future, when aid pledges already made or reported are taken into consideration, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto told a press conference.
''We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude'' for the financial assistance, the foreign minister said, adding that a total of 134 countries and regions, and 39 international organizations have expressed their intention to support Japan.
Relief supplies such as blankets, water, food, clothing, medicine, mobile phone handsets, radiation protection suits and children's toys have also arrived in Japan from 28 of the total, he said.
Matsumoto said the government will study specific ways to effectively use the financial aid to help rebuild the lives of disaster victims.
Japan's customs authority said around 190 types of relief goods weighing a total of about 1,300 tons had arrived from 29 countries at Japan's Narita international airport near Tokyo between March 12 and last Friday.
''The amount seems greater than what Japan received at the time of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake,'' said a worker at the Narita office of Tokyo Customs.
Around 600 rescuers from 25 nations including Germany, India and Singapore also entered Japan via the airport in the same two-week period, according to the customs office.
The Japanese government is waiving import tariffs and the consumption tax on relief goods and expediting procedures required under the food sanitation law so that the goods will reach quake victims as soon as possible.
Also on Tuesday, a 53-member Israeli emergency medical team began treating survivors of the disaster at a provisional clinic set up near a facility where around 1,500 people have taken refuge in the tsunami-hit town of Minamisanriku in northeastern Japan's Miyagi Prefecture.
The Israeli doctors and nurses, who conducted blood tests and X-rays, are members of the first foreign medical team to be sent to the area stricken by the quake and tsunami.
A 46-member Indian relief team accompanied by a medical doctor and two paramedics has also set up a base in the town of Rifu in Miyagi to carry out relief operations in Onagawa in the prefecture, the Indian Embassy in Japan said.
The amount received by Japanese diplomatic missions abroad is expected to surpass 10 billion yen in the near future, when aid pledges already made or reported are taken into consideration, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto told a press conference.
''We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude'' for the financial assistance, the foreign minister said, adding that a total of 134 countries and regions, and 39 international organizations have expressed their intention to support Japan.
Relief supplies such as blankets, water, food, clothing, medicine, mobile phone handsets, radiation protection suits and children's toys have also arrived in Japan from 28 of the total, he said.
Matsumoto said the government will study specific ways to effectively use the financial aid to help rebuild the lives of disaster victims.
Japan's customs authority said around 190 types of relief goods weighing a total of about 1,300 tons had arrived from 29 countries at Japan's Narita international airport near Tokyo between March 12 and last Friday.
''The amount seems greater than what Japan received at the time of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake,'' said a worker at the Narita office of Tokyo Customs.
Around 600 rescuers from 25 nations including Germany, India and Singapore also entered Japan via the airport in the same two-week period, according to the customs office.
The Japanese government is waiving import tariffs and the consumption tax on relief goods and expediting procedures required under the food sanitation law so that the goods will reach quake victims as soon as possible.
Also on Tuesday, a 53-member Israeli emergency medical team began treating survivors of the disaster at a provisional clinic set up near a facility where around 1,500 people have taken refuge in the tsunami-hit town of Minamisanriku in northeastern Japan's Miyagi Prefecture.
The Israeli doctors and nurses, who conducted blood tests and X-rays, are members of the first foreign medical team to be sent to the area stricken by the quake and tsunami.
A 46-member Indian relief team accompanied by a medical doctor and two paramedics has also set up a base in the town of Rifu in Miyagi to carry out relief operations in Onagawa in the prefecture, the Indian Embassy in Japan said.
