Japan will provide around $27 million in emergency humanitarian aid for Turkey and Syria, devastated by powerful earthquakes earlier this month, the top government spokesman says.
While supplies have flowed into heavily damaged regions of neighboring Turkey, in Syria the areas hit are mainly controlled by anti-government forces that President Bashar al Assad has been battling since 2011.
As rescuers are racing against time to find more survivors in Turkey and Syria amid the harsh freezing temperatures, the death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck the two countries earlier this week has increased to 15,383 as of Thursday.
Japan firms send canned fish to poor kids in gratitude for 2011 aid
Manufacturers of canned fish in eastern and northeastern Japan that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster have been offering the protein-rich items to feed school children in developing countries in gratitude for reconstruction aid given to them.
Photo taken on March 1, 2021, in Tokyo shows canned mackerel sent to developing countries via the World Food Program as part of Japan s foreign aid. (Kyodo)
Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the March 11 catastrophe next week, president of Iwate Canning Co., a maker of canned sardines and mackerel, said the last decade has been about how to repay people for the various support the disaster-hit areas have received, including from the Japanese government and other countries.