Ministry reaches contact with all Finnish nationals in Japan

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has now accounted for all of the over 800 Finnish nationals who are known to be in Japan. They were reached via the Ministry’s crisis management lines and the Facebook and Twitter pages of the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo.  iSMS, Intelligent Priority SMS services provided another means of contact.

The Ministry has received more than 1,300 inquires from concerned relatives.

On Monday morning the Facebook pages had more than 3,500 followers. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs wishes to thank all the people who contributed to sharing and distributing information.

It is possible that there are still independent Finnish travellers in Japan of whom the Ministry is not aware. These people or their family members are urged to contact the Ministry on 0800 0 4444; the number from abroad is +358 800 0 4444.

The Ministry advises citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Japan. EU Member States are working closely to coordinate their travel advice and other activities. As yet no EU country has plans in place to organize evacuation flights from Japan.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Finnish Embassy in Japan and other Finnish authorities are continuing to monitor the situation in Japan. Three members of the consular rapid deployment team have flown out to reinforce the Embassy staff in Tokyo.