Typhoon Kills 20 People Across Japan - TIME

(TOKYO) — Typhoon Talas dumped record amounts of rain Sunday in western and central Japan, killing at least 20 people and stranding thousands more as it turned towns into lakes, washed away cars and triggered mudslides that obliterated houses. At least 50 people were missing, local media reported.

Evacuation orders and advisories were issued to 460,000 people in the region, which is hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the country's tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast.

At least 3,600 people were stranded by flooded rivers, landslides and collapsed bridges that were hampering rescue efforts, Kyodo News agency reported. (See more on Japan's Tug-of-War Between Nature and Technology.)

Public broadcaster NHK showed a bridge swept away after intense rain caused a river to swell with brown torrents. People holding umbrellas waded through knee-deep water in city streets and residential areas.

The typhoon dumped record amounts of rain in some areas, and more was expected. It was the country's worst storm since one in 2004 that left 98 people either dead or missing, the Yomiuri newspaper said. By Sunday, Talas had been downgraded to a tropical storm.

Ten people were killed and 32 were missing in Wakayama prefecture alone, police said. One landslide there buried three homes; a woman was killed and four people were missing, but a 14-year-old girl was rescued from the debris.

In nearby Nara prefecture, seven people were reported missing after their homes were swept down a river, NHK said. A 73-year-old man died in Nara when his house collapsed in a landslide, police said. (See more on How Japan Became a Leader in Disaster Preparation.)

The storm damaged Nijojo castle in the ancient city of Kyoto, tearing a large piece of plaster from the gate wall. The castle, a popular tourist destination, is designated an important cultural treasure.

The center of the season's 12th typhoon crossed the southern island of Shikoku and the central part of the main island of Honshu overnight Saturday. It was moving slowly north across the Sea of Japan off the country's west coast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

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Official calls for better sentiments between Chinese, Japanese people - Xinhua

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Wang Chen, director of China's State Council Information Office, on Sunday called for more efforts to improve the sentiments between the Chinese and Japanese people.

"People-to-people exchanges are heart-to-heart exchanges, which is playing an increasingly important role in the bilateral ties between China and Japan," said the official, adding that those are the best ways to deepening understanding, trust and good feelings between nations.

Wang made the remarks at the 7th annual Beijing-Tokyo Forum held in Beijing to promote understanding and strengthen ties between the two nations.

China and Japan have witnessed great leaps of people-to-people exchanges over the past decades since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1972, Wang said.

A total of 5.7 million Chinese and Japanese people visited each other's country in the year of 2010, compared to some 10,000 when the relationship was normalized, according to the official.

"We need to make more efforts to increase dialogue and exchange between the people of the two countries from all walks of life, to make more people become staunch supporters and enthusiastic participants in advancing the China-Japan relations," said the official.

Days before Sunday's forum, a public opinion poll on Chinese and Japanese's views of each other's country was released, showing that 28.6 percent of grassroots Chinese citizens have positive views on Japan, while 20.8 percent of Japanese have positive views on China.

The forum gathered some 300 participants from various circles in the two countries and they conducted dialogues on issues covering politics, economy, media and security.

The forum, held annually since 2005, is jointly organized by China's biggest English newspaper, China Daily, and Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank.

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