Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Japan has decided to establish what it described as a “humanitarian corridor” to deal with the “critical situation” in Gaza and sent UEMURA Tsukasa, an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the region as a “special envoy” for this purpose.

Chief Cabinet Secretary MATSUNO Hirokazu told a press conference on October 16, “The situation remains critical in Gaza, where many casualties have occurred, and we are monitoring that closely.”

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa held a series of telephone diplomacy with her counterparts of Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar and discussed the Japanese role.

Matsuno added, “We are committed to accelerating humanitarian aid. There are a small number of Japanese citizens in Gaza, and we are committed to protecting them and are working in partnership with the countries concerned to achieve this.” Matsuno noted that that so far, there have been no reports of Japanese casualties. 

On Saturday, Japan made the necessary arrangements to evacuate Japanese citizens from Israel and Palestine via a chartered plane to Dubai, and three military planes were sent to the Japanese military base in Djibouti, in preparation for the possible evacuation of Japanese citizens who wish to leave Israel, officials in Tokyo said.