The suffocating smog that blanketed swathes of China is now hitting parts of Japan, sparking warnings yesterday of health risks for the young and the sick.
The Japanese Ministry of the Environment’s Web site has been overloaded as worried users log on to try to find out what is coming their way.
“Access to our air pollution monitoring system has been almost impossible since last week and the telephone here has been constantly ringing because worried people keep asking us about the impact on health,” a ministry official said.
Pictures of Beijing and other Chinese cities shrouded in thick, choking smog played out across television screens in Japan last week.
News programs have broadcast maps showing a swirl of pollution gathering strength across China and then spreading out over the ocean toward Japan.
Pinks, reds and oranges that denote the highest concentrations form a finger of smog that inches upward to the main southern island of Kyushu.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing are already strained, over the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan, which calls them the Senkakus. On the streets of Tokyo, reaction was tart.
“China is our neighbor and all sorts of problems happen between us all the time,” Takaharu Abiko, 50, said. “It is very worrying. This is dangerous pollution, like poison, and we can’t protect ourselves. It’s scary.”
Japanese officials were coy about lumping all the blame on their huge neighbor, but Yasushi Nakajima of the environment ministry said: “We can’t deny there is an impact from pollution in China.”
Air pollution over the west of Japan has exceeded government limits over the past few days, with tiny particulate matter a problem, Atsushi Shimizu of Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) said.
Prevailing winds from the west bring airborne particles from the Asian mainland, he said.
Of specific concern is the concentration of particles 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, which has been as high as 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air over recent days in northern Kyushu. The government’s safety limit is 35 micrograms.
Yellow sand from the deserts of Mongolia and China is a known source of these particles, as are exhausts from cars and smoke from factories.
“At this time of year they are definitely not yellow sand, so they’re toxic particles,” Shimizu said, adding that “people with respiratory diseases should be careful.”
Toshihiko Takemura, an associate professor of Kyushu University who runs another air pollution monitoring site, said “the impact of air pollution originating from China on Japan was scientifically discovered more than a decade ago.”
“Especially in Kyushu, the level of air pollution has been detectable in everyday lives since a few years ago,” he told reporters. “People in eastern and northern Japan are now belatedly noticing the cross-border air pollution.”
Takemura added that pollution in Japan over the past few days has not been quite as bad as it was in February 2011, when “very hazy days continued for several days in western Japan.”
The Central Weather Bureau could issue a sea alert for Super Typhoon Mawar, as it is forecast to turn north and come closest to Taiwan from Tuesday to Wednesday next week. Mawar was downgraded from a super typhoon to a typhoon after sweeping across Guam on Wednesday night, knocking down trees and leaving much of the US territory without power. Many residents of Guam yesterday remained without power and utilities after Mawar tore through the remote US Pacific territory the previous night, ripping roofs off homes, flipping vehicles and shredding trees. There were no immediate reports of deaths and injuries, but the
ADJUSTMENTS: Over the next five years, every year except 2026 would have only one makeup workday to compensate for national holidays, the government said The Executive Yuan (EY) yesterday announced the official workday calendar for next year, which includes one makeup day and four holidays with more than three days off. It also announced new standards for makeup days in the event of consecutive holidays. The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration cited the importance of the Lunar New Year and Tomb Sweeping holidays to the public as its reason to mandate flexible off-days. The 115 total off-days dovetail with dates that international financial markets are closed, minimizing the effects of state holidays on stock and currency exchange trading, it said. Over the next five years, only the calendar for
EMBRACE CHANGE: Jensen Huang told NTU graduates that instead of worrying about AI itself, they should worry that people with expertise in AI would be taking their jobs Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the computer industry, and Taiwanese companies could play a major role in replacing the world’s traditional computers as they are the foundation of the industry, Nvidia Corp cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said in Taipei yesterday. Huang made the remarks while giving the keynote speech at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) commencement ceremony. AI has created immense opportunities, and versatile companies can be expected to take advantage and boost their position, while less flexible firms would perish, he said. “In every way, this is a rebirth of the computer industry and a golden opportunity for the companies of
‘ARCHAIC’: An interpretation of a law that considered Chinese as Taiwanese nationals was scrapped after the death of a Chinese in Kaohsiung led to state reparations An administrative mandate to consider Chinese as Taiwanese citizens was outdated, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday, a day after the Executive Yuan ordered that agencies disregard the 30-year-old interpretation. Chen made the remarks at an event held by the Environmental Protection Administration in Taipei following changes to the administrative mandate concerning the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例). The previous interpretation of the law was archaic and contrary to the workings of laws and regulations, he said, adding that the order was made to avoid unnecessary problems created by the mandate. The Mainland
RSS