One of the last commercial flights chartered by the government to transfer Japanese nationals from Indonesia was canceled Thursday afternoon for lack of passengers, and the remaining charter may be canceled as well, government officials said Thursday.
The cancellation came after one chartered flight returned to Narita airport with only one passenger, and another with only nine.
The canceled All Nippon Airways flight had been scheduled to fly from Jakarta to Narita International Airport, Chiba Prefecture, in the evening. The last government-chartered flight, scheduled to leave the Indonesian capital this evening, had no bookings as of 3 a.m. Thursday, the officials said. A decision on whether to cancel it will be made later, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday afternoon that an estimated 4,000 Japanese nationals remained in Indonesia and that about 14,000 had already left.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry said about 75 percent of the 5,323 Japanese employees of 218 Japanese firms in Indonesia had left the country with their family members. Of family members alone, 98.7 percent have returned to Japan, according to the ministry.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka told reporters Thursday afternoon that the government still has six C-130 Air Self-Defense Force transport planes standing by in Singapore, in case of an emergency. In addition, two Maritime Safety Agency patrol vessels headed for waters off Jakarta will continue as planned, government officials said.
Despite Suharto's sudden resignation, the government will not downgrade its danger warning for Japanese nationals there because there is no way to predict how the situation will develop over the next few days, Muraoka said.