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A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 15 January 2020
Deputy prime minister calls Japan a nation with single race

By MARI YAMAGUCHI law enacted last year to In his speech Monday, Aso
Associated Press protect and promote their also praised Japan’s suc-
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s culture. cess in last year’s Rugby
deputy prime minister de- Japan also has 2.7 million World Cup and noted its
scribed the country as the foreign residents, more ethnically diverse team.
only one in the world with a than 2% of its total popula- Japan became “one
single race, language and tion of 126 million, accord- team” while maintaining its
2,000-year-old monarchy, ing to government statis- own culture and language,
sparking criticism that he tics. That includes more Aso said, stressing the im-
was ignoring an indigenous than 400,000 ethnic Kore- portance of having a clear
ethnic group and Japa- ans, many of whom came sense of Japanese identity
nese racial diversity. voluntarily or forcibly to as the country competes
Taro Aso, who is also fi- Japan during its 1910-1945 internationally in sports and
nance minister and one of colonial rule of the Kore- in other ways.
most influential lawmak- an Peninsula, and about Last year, Aso blamed the
ers in Prime Minister Shinzo In this Jan. 6, 2020, file photo, Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso 360,000 Koreans who have elderly and childless for Ja-
Abe’s government, has poses during a ceremony marking the start of this year's trading been naturalized. pan’s aging and declining
made a series of remarks in Tokyo. International couples com- population. In 2018, he de-
in the past deemed insensi- Associated Press prised more than 3% of fended a top bureaucrat in
tive and discriminatory. the marriages in 2017. Last his finance ministry against
“No other country but this Aso, 79, apologized on er ethnic groups. year, Japan relaxed visa sexual harassment allega-
one has lasted for as long Tuesday, saying he meant Indigenous Ainu people requirements to allow more tions. He was also criticized
as 2,000 years with one lan- to say Japan has survived have lived in what is now foreign workers to make up for comments interpreted
guage, one ethnic group a long time without expe- northern Japan for thou- for a declining workforce in as defending Adolf Hitler’s
and one dynasty,” Aso said riencing any major migra- sands of years and were a nation with an aging and motives for the killing of
in a speech Monday. tions or occupation by oth- officially recognized by a falling population. Jews by Nazi Germany.q

Harsh weather kills

70 more people in

Pakistan, Afghanistan

People sit around a fire to warm themselves after a heavy
snowfall in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020.
Associated Press
By ROSHAN MUGHAl and National Disaster Manage-
RAHIM FAIEZ ment Authority.
Associated Press Among those fatalities, 41
MUZAFFARABAD, Paki- died in a single avalanche
stan (AP) — Severe winter in the Neelum Valley while
weather has claimed more 14 people died in else-
lives as avalanches trig- where in the region, he
gered by heavy snowfall told The Associated Press.
killed 55 people in Paki- Avalanches are common
stan-administered Kashmir in Kashmir, which is divided
while 15 died in neighbor- between Pakistan and In-
ing Afghanistan, officials dia and claimed by both in
said Tuesday. The latest its entirety.
deaths raise the two coun- Earlier on Tuesday, Ahmad
tries’ overall death toll from Raza Qadri, the minister
the severe weather to 126 for the disaster manage-
since Sunday. ment authority in Kashmir,
The disputed Himalayan said they had declared a
region of Kashmir was the state of emergency in the
worst-affected area, with affected areas. “Rescu-
55 deaths in the past 24 ers are facing difficulties in
hours, said Waseem Uddin, reaching the stricken vil-
a spokesman for Pakistan’s lages,” he said, q