Current affairs

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen has decided to grant a donation of EUR 500,000 through the Finnish Red Cross for the relief work carried out by the Japanese Red Cross Society. The donation will be used, for instance, for acquisitions of medicines, water, food and supplies needed for daily hygiene.

Operations of the Embassy of Finland in Tokyo were transferred on 18 March to a temporary office in Hiroshima. The embassy will open on Tuesday, 22 March, after the local holiday. It provides consular services and in a limited manner visa services. Resident permit applications can not be handled at the moment.

The Foreign Affairs Council of the EU will meet in Brussels on 21 March. The main topics of discussion are the situation in the EU’s southern neighbourhood, especially Libya and the European Union’s support to the region, and the situation in Japan. Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will represent Finland at the meeting.

The Embassy of Finland in Tokyo is transferring all its operations to Hiroshima on Friday, 18 March. This is done in order to ensure the embassy's operating capacity and possibilities to serve Finns in Japan. The measure is a precaution, done to secure the activities of the embassy in Japan under all circumstances. Of the EU countries, thus far Germany and Austria, among others, have made the same assessment of the situation.

The Foreign Ministry follows continuously the situation of Japan and the Finnish citizens still in the country after the earthquake. Up-to-date information is especially important right now. “We hope that people would report themselves to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs after they have left Japan if they have not done it yet,” Minister Stubb appealed on 15 March. The Ministry will assist Finns still in Japan to leave the country, but evacuation is not considered necessary at the moment.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has updated its travel bulletin on Japan on Thursday morning, 17 March. Finns are urged to withdraw from an area within an 80 kilometre radius of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs also recommends that Finns in the greater Tokyo area and to the north of the metropolis travel by land or train to the Nagoya–Kansai area or south of it.

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. Intelligent Priority SMS services provided another means of contact. The telephone helpline 0800 0 4444 (number from abroad +358 800 0 4444) remains open.

The Government’s Heads of Preparedness convened at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to discuss the state administration’s response to the natural disaster in Japan. The Embassy and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are providing regular updates through their websites, Facebook and Twitter.

Due to the massive earthquake in Japan, the other coastal states of the Pacific Ocean are watching closely the tsunami situation. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has been in contact with its own missions in the region and the Association of Finnish Travel Agents. The general guideline is that especially those living or spending a holiday in coastal regions need to follow the instructions given by local authorities and the local media.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo are following the situation after the massive earthquake in Japan. People can contact the Ministry for Foreign Affairs telephone number in Finland 0800-0-4444 to inquire about their relatives. In Japan the telephone communications are overloaded and text messaging operates only sporadically. Therefore, Finns living in Japan are also asked to primarily call the contact number +358 800-0-4444.