“We asked the Government to take security measures at the airport in order to prevent such tragic events from happening in the future and so that Romanian-Japanese relations should not be affected,” he said. The ambassador of Japan to Romania also specified that travelers need to be more cautious.
Romania was visited in 2010 by a little over 12,000 Japanese tourists, according to the Japanese embassy in Bucharest. The embassy’s officials also said 326 Japanese live in Romania, while in Japan there are 2,000 Romanians, according to the latest information available.
The value of Romanian-Japanese commercial exchanges amounted to around EUR430 million last year (imports of EUR260 million, with the remainder being exports), according to data of the National Statistics Institute.
After the August 15 incident the Romanian Transport Ministry has not informed about any measure to improve airport security or made any comment on the case of the Japanese young woman, despite the fact that the tragic event occurred in part because of the faulty information system in the airport (there isn’t even a tourist information center on the premises) and the lack of intervention by the authorities.
On Thursday the officials of the Transport Ministry said they would organize a meeting on Friday, setting the obligations of all parties involved in personnel and passenger security measures.
The meeting will be attended by representatives of the Transport Ministry, of the National Bucharest Airport Company, of the Romanian Police, Gendarmerie, of the Romanian Intelligence Service and of taxi company associations.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)