20110416

244,000 foreigners leave Japan in week after quake

by Kyodo

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A total of 531,000 foreigners left Japan in the four weeks from March 12 to April 8, including 244,000 in the first week after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Justice Ministry said Friday. The number of foreigners who left Japan in the first week after the disaster increased sharply from the 140,000 who left in the week before the calamity, reflecting the recommendations of their home country governments, the ministry said. (Kyodo)

HIV infection damages suit settled in Osaka court

by Kyodo

A damages suit over HIV infection was settled Friday as the government and five drugmakers accepted a court-proposed settlement plan calling on the defendants to pay damages to three plaintiffs. The move left only one person in Japan yet to reach a settlement over the infection of the AIDS-causing virus through tainted blood products, among more than 1,380 plaintiffs in suits filed with the Tokyo and Osaka district courts since 1996. Under the compromise plan agreed at the Osaka court Friday, the defendants will pay 28 million yen in damages to each of the three plaintiffs. (Kyodo)

China imposes de facto ban on Japanese food imports

by Kyodo

China has effectively halted the import of all food and agricultural products from Japan due to concerns over radiation contamination, despite ostensibly only banning such items from 12 prefectures of eastern Japan, sources familiar with Sino-Japanese relations said Friday. China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has since April 8 been requiring that importers of food and agricultural products provide it with documents issued by the Japanese government when applying for quality inspection and quarantine at customhouses across China, including certificates for radioactivity- free inspection and for places of origin. (Kyodo)