US readies relief as Japan earthquake toll nears 100

The United States said yesterday it is preparing military logistical support and aid for regions in Japan devastated by an earthquake that killed 94 people, forced about 33,000 people to leave their homes, and left over 200 people unaccounted for.
“The US is here to support our friend and ally in its earthquake response. Military logistical support, food, and other supplies are being readied,” US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel posted on social media site X.
Japan is in talks with the US about emergency assistance and rejected offers for help from other countries including China for the time being. “We are not accepting any personnel or material aid from other countries or regions at the moment given the situation on the ground and the effort that would be required to receive them,” Japan’s top spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
A US official who declined to be named told Reuters the two governments were coordinating on possible assistance from US troops. About 54,000 US forces personnel are based in Japan, the biggest US military presence abroad, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. US armed forces were deeply involved in disaster relief efforts in the 2011 earthquake, providing over 24,000 personnel with 24 ships and 189 aircraft. They also provided earthquake aid in Kyushu island in 2016.
“All of US Forces Japan remain ready to support our Japanese Allies during this difficult time. We are unable to provide specifics on military support operations at this time, but we will provide updates when we have more that we can share,” the US Forces in Japan said in a statement.
The 7.6-magnitude quake struck western Japan’s Noto peninsula on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, flattening homes, triggering a tsunami and cutting off remote communities.
As the emergency response moved from rescue to aid and recovery, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said there were offers for help and messages of condolence from governments including Taiwan and China.
The full extent of the damage remains unclear, with rescue teams struggling to reach remote areas due to severed roads and broken infrastructure. But with more than 200 people missing, the disaster is likely deadlier than the 2016 earthquake and could be the worst since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the east coast of Japan in 2011.
Shigeru Sakaguchi, the mayor of badly-hit Wajima city, said there are likely more than 100 people still trapped under collapsed buildings and rubble, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The US will provide a $100,000 aid package that includes resources such as blankets, water, and medical supplies, according to a statement released by its embassy in Japan.
Volunteers such as Aydin Muhammet, who is usually based in Nagoya, are also heading into areas wrecked by the tremor to give whatever aid they can provide. “You can’t turn a blind eye after seeing that...I felt like I had to go, I just had to do something,” he said.
At least 120 hectares of land also appears to be flooded from a tsunami triggered by the earthquake, according to Japan’s land ministry.
“We still don’t have a full picture, and it’s likely that the area flooded by the tsunami could spread,” an unnamed land ministry official said to the daily Asahi newspaper. A preliminary probe led by researchers at the University of Tokyo estimated that the highest point of the tsunami on the western coast of the peninsula could have reached up to 4.2m above normal sea level.
The first wave of the tsunami may have reached the northern-most tip of the Noto peninsula within a minute of the initial quake, according to Tohoku University tsunami expert Fumihiko Imamura, giving residents barely any time to evacuate.
Details of the tsunami had been unclear as the tide gauge stopped emitting data immediately after the initial quake, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.
Japan’s Coast Guard said it was searching one missing person who was washed away by tsunami in Suzu city, the first known potential casualty from the tsunami so far.
Survivors still face a long road to recovery, even as businesses rush to return to business as usual. The earthquake has also cast doubt over Japan’s push to restart nuclear plants that have been idled.
Japan will spend 4.74bn yen ($32.7mn) from state budget reserves to support those hit by the quake, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told reporters yesterday, according to media reports.


Plane wreckage being cleared from Tokyo airport after collision

Japanese workers began clearing the burnt wreckage of a passenger jet on Friday, three days after a near-catastrophic collision with a coast guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Five of the six crew on the smaller aircraft died in the incident on Tuesday but all 379 people on the Japan Airlines Airbus were evacuated just before it was engulfed in flames.
TV footage from Haneda, one of the world’s busiest airports, showed diggers with cutting equipment sawing up the wings and the charred fuselage as planes took off and landed on adjacent runways. A Japan Coast Guard spokeswoman said clearance work was also underway to remove the mangled remains of its plane, which had been heading to deliver aid to earthquake-hit central Japan.
The evening collision saw a ball of fire and black smoke erupt underneath the JAL airliner as it sped down the runway after hitting the coast guard plane on the tarmac. Videos shot by passengers showed bright orange flames seen from the plane windows as babies cried and people shouted for the doors to be opened.
In one clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: “Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god.” All 367 passengers and 12 crew escaped down emergency slides and were all off within 20 minutes, with only two suffering minor physical injuries, JAL said.
Soon afterwards, the entire aircraft was an inferno and dozens of fire engines were trying to put out the blaze. The cause of the accident is being investigated, with specialist teams travelling from France, Britain and Canada to help with the probe. The flight recorder and voice recorder from the coast guard plane have been found, as has the flight recorder from the passenger jet.
According to a communications transcript released by the Japanese government, the Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 was cleared at 5:44pm by air traffic control to land. On the tarmac, the coast guard plane was instructed 15 seconds later to “taxi to holding point C5” near the edge of the runway.
The pilot acknowledged the order immediately afterwards, the transcript showed. Roughly two minutes later, the Japan Airlines plane landed and slammed into the coast guard’s DHC-8, suggesting that the latter had proceeded onto the actual runway.