Amid all the help being offered to Japan from around the world, Thailand recently offered some real "heavy" support: two electricity generators weighing in at 900 tons.
Amid all the help being offered to Japan from around the world, Thailand recently offered some real "heavy" support: two electricity generators weighing in at 900 tons.
The Thai government said Tuesday it will lend two gas-turbine generators with a combined capacity of 244 megawatts to Tokyo Electric Power Co. for use over the next three to five years.
Thailand said it decided to lend the generators after TEPCO inquired at home and abroad whether there were any surplus generators available. Intended for emergency use, the two generators remained almost idle recently.
TEPCO's electricity supply has fallen far below the demand in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures since the March 11 mega-earthquake and tsunami severely damaged its nuclear and thermal power plants.
TEPCO projects a shortage of 8.5 to 9 gigawatts in the humid summer months due to a spike in electricity to power air conditioners.
The generators, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) of Japan and put in use in 1995, will be shipped to Japan to start operations around August.
Where they will be set up is still under study. One generator, with related equipment, takes up 1,700 square meters of space.
An official of MHI, which will be in charge of shipment, says transportation of this scale from one country to another is unusual.
In Seoul, South Korea's Red Cross said it has raised 21.34 billion won (1.57 billion yen, or $19.2 million) in donations to help those hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake, a record for an overseas disaster relief campaign. South Korean Red Cross officials said they have already sent $8 million to the Japanese Red Cross Society and other organizations.
The government and private sector in South Korea have both been active in drumming up support for Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has collected 0.4 percent of monthly salary from all its employees, and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan handed 24 million won to South Korea's Red Cross on March 24.
The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper is carrying out a campaign titled "Ganbare Nippon" (Hang in there, Japan), printing the Japanese words on its front page. The daily has called for donations via the Red Cross and others.
"We started it because we could not just sit by, looking at the misfortune that hit our neighbors," said Shim Kyu-sun, managing editor. "We printed the title (in Japanese) after young people suggested we make an appeal in Japanese as well."
South Korean TV stations have kept phone numbers on display on the screen so people can donate by phone. KBS has raised 1.45 billion won from 720,000 calls.
China, which saw its relations with Japan sour last year following a diplomatic row over disputed islands, is also active in extending support.
"As a neighbor, we feel as if the disaster had hit us," Ambassador Cheng Yonghua told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.
Cheng said the Chinese government decided to send emergency relief supplies worth 30 million yuan (373 million yen) one day after the quake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan.
The Red Cross Society of China said it will offer 26 million yuan to its Japanese counterpart.
Meanwhile, TEPCO asked China's Sany Heavy Industry Co. if it could purchase a pump truck with a 62-meter arm to blast water into damaged reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but Sany offered the pump truck to TEPCO for free.
The truck, designed for pumping liquid concrete, has already been delivered to Fukushima Prefecture.
Cheng added that Japan refused to accept a Chinese naval hospital vessel because of the damage to ports in northeastern Japan.
(This article was compiled from reports by Daisuke Furuta, Tetsuya Hakoda and Kim Soonhi.)