Tokyo, 23 March, /AJMEDIA
Russian author calls Ukraine invasion “stain” on country’s history
TOKYO – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “will one day be written into textbooks as one of the darkest stains on Russian history,” internationally acclaimed Russian novelist Ludmila Ulitskaya told Kyodo News in a recent written interview.
The 79-year-old contemporary writer, who had expressed to Russian media in late February that her country’s actions brought her “pain, fear and shame,” also called the military aggression “a crime being committed in the name of the Russian people against our will.”
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Power supply on tightrope in Tokyo, 15 other areas after quake
TOKYO – Tokyo and 15 other prefectures from central to northeastern Japan faced tight power supply-demand situations on Tuesday, as some power plants remain offline following a powerful earthquake last week as well as larger-than-usual electricity consumption due to cold weather.
The industry ministry and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. warned a power outage might occur after 8 p.m., affecting around 2 to 3 million households in the areas serviced by TEPCO and Tohoku Electric Power Co., due to a smaller-than-expected decline in consumption despite their requests that power be conserved.
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M6.6 quake hits Taiwan, strongly felt in island’s southeast
TAIPEI – An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 rattled Taiwan early Wednesday, with strong shaking felt in the southeastern part of the island, local weather authorities said.
According to the Central Weather Bureau, the quake occurred at around 1:41 a.m. local time and registered lower 6 of 7 on the island’s seismic intensity scale in the southeastern Taitung County.
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China steps up search efforts after crash of jet with 132 aboard
BEIJING – Chinese authorities stepped up search and rescue efforts on Tuesday after a China Eastern Airlines Boeing jet with 132 people aboard crashed in the southern part of the nation the previous day, but the number of casualties remains unknown.
The B737-800, bound for the southeastern city of Guangzhou from Kunming in Yunnan Province, lost radar contact two minutes after it suddenly descended from cruising altitude of around 8,900 meters, a tabloid of the ruling Communist Party reported.
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Mizuho Financial to tie up with Google to ramp up digitalization
TOKYO – Mizuho Financial Group Inc. will tie up with Google LLC to utilize the American tech giant’s know-how to analyze clients’ transaction data to improve the quality of customer service, a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
Mizuho also hopes to boost digitalization through personnel exchanges with Google, as the Japanese group has lagged in the field because of the need to deal with repeated system failures experienced at its key banking unit, the source said.
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Ex-Japan PM Abe, Taiwan’s Tsai oppose attempt to alter status quo
TOKYO – Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen agreed Tuesday that any attempts to change the status quo by force would not be tolerated in reference to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Abe posted on his personal Twitter account that the pair had reached the consensus during a virtual meeting to exchange opinions on the issue. With China ramping up military pressure on Taiwan, Tsai said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine “was not without implications” for her people, according to Japanese lawmakers.
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Russia to halt peace treaty talks with Japan over sanctions
TOKYO – Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it will suspend negotiations for a postwar peace treaty with Japan, deemed as an apparent reaction to Japan’s sanctions against Moscow for invading Ukraine, prompting Tokyo to protest the move Tuesday.
Russia also announced Monday that it was halting a visa-free program that allows former Japanese residents to periodically visit the Russian-controlled, Japan-claimed islands off Hokkaido, while indicating that it will withdraw from joint economic activities on the disputed islands.
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N. Korea’s Kim sends message of sympathy to Xi on jet crash in China
BEIJING – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a message of sympathy to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday after a China Eastern Airlines Boeing jet with 132 people aboard crashed in the southern part of the country, state-run media reported Tuesday.
The move indicated that North Korea is trying to cozy up to China, with Pyongyang suffering a severe economic downturn in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and international sanctions designed to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions, pundits said.
