A group of 30 Japanese university students arrived in Taiwan yesterday on a visit to express their gratitude for the nation’s support after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
The students from Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures — among the areas hardest-hit by the disasters — will visit several private groups and local governments to thank them for their donations and assistance after the disaster, Interchange Association, Japan said.
They will visit the Red Cross Society, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, the Greater Tainan Government and the Nantou County Government among others, the association said.
The students will provide updates on progress made in rebuilding their areas, said the association, which represents Japanese interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties.
The group of Japanese students will also attend a reception held by the association on Monday to mark the second anniversary of the disaster.
Representatives of Taiwanese groups that provided relief have also been invited, the association said.
The visit by the students is part of a program sponsored by Japan’s foreign ministry to thank Taiwan for its support, the association said.
Under the program, more than 300 Taiwanese students have traveled to Japan over the past several months to learn more about reconstruction efforts, it added.
Before returning home on March 14, the Japanese students will meet with Taiwanese students who visited Japan under the program to share their experiences, it said.
Following the March 11 disaster, Taiwan donated about US$260 million in relief and reconstruction aid to Japan, the highest amount of any country in the world.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
RSS