One year after a massive quake destroyed the Japanese school in central Taiwan, a new school building is rising among paddy fields and banana plantations outside the city of Taichung.
The main structure of the two-story complex, which consists of three separate buildings, is already nearing completion in the village of Hsiushan, about half an hour's bus drive from Taichung, where most of the school's students live.
With construction work proceeding smoothly, the new premises will be ready to take in students as scheduled by year's end, said Teruyuki Fukuhara, principal of the Taichung Japanese School.
The school's 120 elementary and junior high school students currently attend classes in a temporary prefabricated school complex just a stone's throw from the new premises across an athletics field.