similar events have been happening across japan. they're attracting people who walk work in social welfare. these people may have noticed the increasing media report of how a robot can help elderly sufferers and nursing home staff. about 20 people with senile dementia. this baby seal is fitted with sensors. when stroked or talked, to it responds by blinking. this 93-year-old woman came to the home about a year ago. she has dementia and was already very forgetful. she kept to herself. at night she couldn't sleep. she sometimes took out her anger on the staff. >> translator: she became obsessed with going back home. she'd get argumentative saying i have to go and cook the dinner. but the curious thing happened. after caregivers brought in the robots, she began to change. she used to look after her grandchild while the parents, her daughter and her husband, went to work. the robot reawakened such feelings in her. she began treating the seal like her grandchild. little by little, her emotional ups and downs have eased. she gets angry mu

japan and china do not have an extradition treaty. >>> people in japan are getting back to the grind after the new year holidays. streets, trains and offices were full on friday across the country. residents in the northeast are heading into 2013 facing the work they left behind by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. people who went to the first auction of the year at this market in iwate prefecture are still seeing fewer fish than they did before the disaster. market spokespersons say the catch between april and december last year is almost 90% of what it used to be. still bidders were able to buy cuttlefish, salmon, scallops and other fish on friday. >> translator: i'm very happy that we can hold new year's opening sales as usual. >> reconstruction minister takuji nemoto gave his first instructions the year to senior officials from his agency. >> translator: i ask you to tackle your work in a creative manner. sectionalism could hamper you in dealing with various issues but i'll back you up politically. >> officials at tokyo electric power started their work at a new

as for japan precipitation is snow rather than rain. we're seeing snow showers ongoing across the northwest. we have a high pressure system over the continent. we have a high mountain range in the middle of japan. this is why we usually see dry weather across the pacific side and snowy weather across the of japan side. further snow could cause avalanches. now in north america, pacific storm is drifting into the west producing widespread snow showers across the mountains and rain across the coast. we have winter storm warnings and advisories posted here. we have another system spreading frozen precipitation and snow along the west canada border and similar situation is happening in the southern part of ontario, quebec and the north eastern states. to the south there will be severe weather in oklahoma tonight. the threat will also spread to the southern parts of the mississippi river valley and parts of tas within the next 24 hours. we talked about bone chilling temperatures across the east last week. conditions are changing. you can see

the question is, is japan ready to reciprocate? is japan ready to make new initiatives? for example, if china was the first country to propose a bilateral fda with asean, why doesn't japan become the first country to produce a trial fda but in japan, asean and india? this requires diplomatic initiative, courage, imagination. and that's sometimes missing in japan. >> reporter: but mahbubani also pointed to the advantage japan holds over china and hinted at what asean expects from japan. >> japanese culture is extremely attractive. and people love japanese culture. so when you talk of soft power, soft power comes from culture. and the japanese people can come and do more in southeast asia. but you got to decide that southeast asia is the future, is a priority. >> reporter: asean nations want deeper ties with both china and japan. it's a huge balancing act. and how japan will respond remains unclear. nhk world, singapore. >>> that wraps up our bulletin. i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. >>> a japanese government panel has drafted a guideline for compiling next year's budge

bank of japan and eight others agreed on it saying they. boj officials have previously made it a goal to bring 1% inflation within reach but the new, clearer target requires some bold steps. the document also addresses the role of the government in revitalizing japan's economy. it describes how politicians should promote growth and restore fiscal health. along with drafting the joint statement, boj officials have agreed to introduce open-ended asset purchasing. under a new program from january 2014 the central bank will purchase a certain amount of financial assets every month. no termination date is being set for the scheme. the new measure will expand the total size of the asset purchase program, or app, by about 10 trillion yen, or $110 billion, in 2014. the program is expected to be maintained in the future. following the meeting prime minister and revital minister reported on the release of the joint statement to prime minister abe at his office. >> translator: the government strongly hopes the bank of japan will a monetary easing poli

it is a chance for japan to rebuild trust. the new administration should swiftly present a clear direction. they need to quickly state the energy portfolio and decide on the use of nuclear energy in the first half of next year. >> reporter: people in japan are frustrated because they don't know where their country's energy policy is headed and what the future holds for nuclear power. they want clarity. prime minister abe's decision on this issue will face plenty of scrutiny and will be among the first of many tests for his administration. >>> stocks rallied here in tokyo, fukushima from the business team. they are here with more. >> the core index advanced for the fourth session in a row mainly on back of weaker yen, the japanese yen. the tokyo stock market closed the final session of 2012 at the year's highest level. investors are hoping prime minister shinzo abe's administration will tackle inflation and spur economic growth. a festive mood dominated at a ceremony that marked the end of trading for the year at the tokyo stoc

the two items before you one is a lease for the japan center garage with the japan center garage corporation. and a lease with the uptown parking corporation for the sutter stockton garage. both of the general terms for both leases are essentially the same. they are 10-year leases for $1 and they both have two 5-year options to extend. a provision of termination for cause with a 90-day notice. both leases are updated to incorporate new provisions and that include sfmta facilities and management regulations, corporation employee hiring guidelines, and a change in the capital set aside from a percentage net income to an annual fixed amount. the japan center garage totaled 920 spaces and generates $4.2 million annually and accommodates 500,000 transient vehicles. the sutter stockton garage is 1 865 spaces on 12 levels. this garage generated l12.8 million annually and accommodated 500,000 transient vehicles annually. the japan center garage corporation lease, the current lease was entered into in 2002. the current lease expires in 2017. so that corporation technically is not obligated to enter i

frigid across northeastern japan. northeastern asia i should say japan included in that as well as the korean peninsula and northern china in the grips of icy weather. as for the snow, well the sea of japan side of the country has been getting some fairly heavy snow as is usual this time the year in the last 36 hours or so another 30 centimeters of snow has fallen. that will wrap up on saturday. there's potential to see snow on the pacific edge of the country which is unusual, 50% chance we'll see in yokohama. if it does. >> it's the first snow of the season. let's look at temperatures. 5 degrees in tokyo. low is around the freezing point. minus one for the high. as for your low down to minus 11. beijing sitting around the freezing point. starting point your high minus 18 in ulan batur. let's go the americas. small snowstorm moving through texas. it's going to turn over to rain as it heads towards the gulf of mexico but not before dumping about 25 centimeters of snow in some places. elsewhere mostly high and dry. temp

/japan alliance to criticize the abe administration or use china to isolate japan. >> kono issued the statement in 1993 when he was japan's chief cabinet secretary. it apologized to so-called comfort women in south korea and other countries. many of the women were called in to provide sexual services for japanese soldiers during world war ii. the issue has kept japan and south korea at arm's length for years. >> what people in japan have to appreciate is korea is an important ally. when japan/korea relations are bad, we suffer. it only complicates our ability in washington and tokyo to work together with south korea to deal with the two big challenges we have, the rise of china and the north korean nuclear weapons program. >> green said the u.s. relationship depends on the strength of its ally japan. that in turn he concludes depends on how disciplined prime minister abe can be in helping japan's falling policy. nhk world, washington. authority official expressed readiness to hear opinions on the matter from other experts and the plant's operator. japan atomic power company. he said i

in the japan airlines case the battery caught fire. ntsb chair says there's evidence of short circuiting in the chemical reaction. that's when high temperatures trigger an uncontrollable reaction. >> the photo on the right, and you can see the cells that are outlined in red, show the eight damaged cells of our battery that we're investigating in the lab. >> reporter: among the batteries eight cells three were heavily damaged just as investigators are trying to figure out why those differ differently than others. >> we're working very hard to determine what happened and why it happened. we're going to be completing examinations into failure scenarios and coordinating with our colleagues around the world. >> reporter: aviation authorities in japan also are looking at the battery program. they have been examining the battery from an old nippon airways 787. they detected smoke coming from it last week. the crew made an emergency landing in western japan. investigators say the flight data recorder gives no indication of excessive voltage ra

firm in japan. senior nh officials and employees got together at the company's headquarters on friday to celebrate the milestone. the service started in june of 2011. it took on lie 19 no, sir reach that 100 million mark. that's faster than facebook. nh officials say more than 40 million users are here in japan but the service is also very popular in south korea, taiwan and middle eastern countries. companies and public institutions are using the service for advertising and public relations. the japanese government uses it to send out the prime minister's messages. other i.t. firms have begun providing similar service. a japanese company dna started to provide a service called come last october. yahoo! has tied up with a south korean business to start a business, kakau talk. >> sony reached a deal to sell it's u.s. headquarters in new york. the electronics maker announced the plan on thursday. it will sell the building to a group of investors for $1.1 billion. sony says the deal will be completed th

forces in japan should steadily be carried out. japan's participation in u.s.-led negotiations for the transpacific partnership is another controversial issue. the obama administration wants japan to join the talks aimed at creating the free trade zone, but abe's government faces strong opposition from the domestic farm lobby and other groups. these and other pending bilateral questions have led some government officials to call for caution in setting the timing of abe's trip to the united states. >> emerging economic powers still struggling with poverty, emboldened citizens still demanding democracy, the threat of violence, the push for peace, the shadow of conflict. get news and insight on south and southeast asia every weekday, live from bangkok, only on nhk world "newsline." >>> a bomb has exploded near the site of a political rally in karachi, pakistan. at least four people were killed, 40 others were wounded. police say the bomb was planted on a motorcycle parked near a number of buses. the buses were carrying political workers returning from the rally. t

a vacation to japan used to be a dream for most people. but for the middle class, it's now a real possibility. in order to get more tourists to go to japan, this travel agency offers different types of tour packages to hokkaido, among many other places. the president of the company and her staff are busy planning new trips for spring. >> for this year we will concentrate on things that we should not miss in japan, the cherry blossoms. >> reporter: some of the filipino tourists heading to japan will travel on a local carrier, operating between tokyo and manila last march. collections like these are helping the travel market. >> we'll continuously grow, again, because of the affordability to diversify by product. those are the strategies. >> reporter: japanese destinations are eager to show what they have to offer. the street fair in manila last month attracted 29 different companies and municipalities from japan. >> this is for the hot springs lovers. you have to let the water from the river into your home. and then you can make your own ho

other participants said japan and the u.s. must maintain their high-level nuclear technology because many developing countries want nuclear power. >>> criminals in japan have raked in a record amount of money using fraud. police say con artists stole about $400 million last year from victims, due in part to more sophisticated technique. these scammers have, in the past, pretended to be family members of their targets. they phone to ask for money and convince their victims to make bank transfers. but in more than half the cases last year, con artists visited their victims at home. they posed as representatives of relatives, and in some cases, walked away with cash. national police agency spokespersons say criminals are also duping people with fake financial products. they say returns from this kind of fraud have nearly tripled to around $200 million. investigators say con artists target individuals using fake products, such as the sale of stocks in non-existing companies or they sometimes claim bogus transactions could amount t

japan's private railway companies use a different model. first they build railways into the suburbs then large residential areas. they provided quality housing at reasonable prices. people living along the railway could get to the city. ey also show supermarkets and amusement parks. as consumer incomes grew the companies made money. tokyo hopes to adopt this model for vietnam by building commercial developments. >> translator: this window looks like it's closed but it's not. rain could leak in through here. >> reporter: using his research he proposes different types of housing suitable for the area. >> translator: i think it's important to think hard and work together with people on the ground to develop the area. >> reporter: it's interested tokyo with the project and they have high expectations. >> translator: we are very glad to establish a partnership with a company that has so many years of experience developing urban areas and transportation networks. the railway centered approach from japan isn't the only idea on the table. companies

a senior official says japan has a lot of expertise in renewable energies. >> translator: japan has advanced technology which should be put to good use. there are also business opportunities. not only the private sector but the government has to be involved with strengthening ties with the uae. >> reporter: another leading oil producer saudi arabia is facing a similar situation. a group last year released a report that says that the gulf nation could become an all important country by 2030. >>> weavers in kyoto have passed down their techniques for more than 500 years. but fashions have changed and fewer people are buying their textiles. so some craftsmen are trying out some radical new approaches. >> reporter: making the cloth is an intricate process. the finished weave is a work of art with colored threads including gold or silver. in the last ten years, however, the number of workshops has halved. so some weavers are shipping to products other than traditional kimono. weaving the high-tech material cotton fiber is also used in airplanes. carbon fiber is extremely light and strong, but it

this corporation is one of japan's major trailing companies. it imports lng from asia and the middle east. they expect imports of lng to be at least as high as last year, but the cost will be much higher as the value of the yen continues to drop. >> translator: we are really getting a triple punch in the shortage of lng supplies, the high price of the gas and the depreciation of the yen. as an energy importing company, we are concerned about what level the exchange rate will subtle at because it has a big import on our costs. >> reporter: experts think a weaker yen will hurt importers more than it helps exporters. and it may cause a trade deficit to widen even further in 2013. >> another sluggish economic situation. we cannot expect that export will grow by enough paces, but huge imports of fossil fuels is expected to increase this year also. so i estimate that this year's trade deficit will lead to 7.6 trillion yen. >> reporter: japan has a reputation as a trade powerhouse led by exports, but now it has fallen into the red. the question is whe

japan time right here on "news line." >>> japan's nuclear regulators have been wondering how to save the nuclear power that crippled fukushima. they've drafted new standards. authority officials are preparing new filter vents for the plants. the ventwould reduce pressure in the containment vessel and filter contaminated steam. they worked on them after the tsunami. they are considering a proposal to build stand-alone facilities to cool down its reactors. workers would inject water from a safe distance. they will release suggestions by the end of the month. the proposals will then face a public review. they are to announce the new standards by july. >>> when a massive earthquake hit western japan in january 1995, it killed over 406,400 people. many businesses were unprepared, a bigger quake could have occurred on the west end of japan. many companies are busy drawing up contingency plans. they profile two that are taking the warnings seriously. >> last year, he upgraded the damage would be far bigger than previously predicted. they are bracing for the worst. >> translator: its crisis

japan and china do not have an extradition treaty. >>> people in japan are getting back to the grind after the new year holidays. streets, trains and offices were full on friday across the country. residents in the northeast are heading into 2013 facing the work they left behind by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. people who went to the first auction of the year at this market in iwate prefecture are still seeing fewer fish than they did before the disaster. market spokespersons say the catch between april and december last year is almost 90% of what it used to be. still bidders were able to buy cuttlefish, salmon, scallops and other fish on friday. >> translator: i'm very happy that we can hold new year's opening sales as usual. >> reconstruction minister takuji nemoto gave his first instructions the year to senior officials from his agency. >> translator: i ask you to tackle your work in a creative manner. sectionalism could hamper you in dealing with various issues but i'll back you up politically. >> officials at tokyo electric power started their work at a new

one potential solution is inspired by lessons from japan. this man works for a tokyo corporation, a japanese company head quartered in tokyo. next to vietnam's largest city, ho chi minh. he's trying to sell a business model that helped japan during its own period of economic growth. >> translator: industry in the area is already booming. we hope to contribute to developing not only industry but housing and services, too. >> reporter: private japanese railway companies create an important role helping other areas along cities like tokyo. without master plan, cities have concentric circles of mix residential and commercial areas. the farther the suburb, the more inconvenient it is to get to the city center. downtown traffic congestion only gets worse. but japan's private railway companies use a different model. first, they build railways into the suburbs and then large residential areas. they provide quality housing at reasonable prices. people living along the railway could easily reach the city. they also include supermarkets and amusement p

the crew made an emergency landing in western japan. investigators say the flight data recorder gives no indication that excessive volt age ran through the battery. but they are not ruling out the possibility of an overcharge. >> translator: we do not see evidence of overcharging. but it is too early to say if there is no excessive voltage. we would like to uncover the cause of the trouble through the examination of other data and the battery. >> reporter: no one can say when the investigation will wrap up and how the investigation will affect the 787 dreamliner. until then, dozens these jets will stay grounded. boeing will continue to build the plane, but the company won't make deliveries. the eight airlines operating the 787 and dozens of airlines hoping add this plane to their fleets will have to maintain a holding pattern. nhk world, tokyo. >>> pakistan and other countries have been targets of drone strikes used in counter-terrorism operations by the u.s. it announced on thursday that the team will look into the legality of drones a

he met with the leader of japan. the countries have maintained a friendship by shelving the matter of the senkaku islands. japan nationalized the islands in september. china and taiwan claim them. if current leaders do not have the wisdomo solve the problem they shod leave the debate to future generations. japanese and chinese should learn more about each other through culture and economic changes. financial analysts are looking into the future and projecting the big picture from the year ahead. what are analysts saying about japan? >> we just heard from those at the imf yesterday. now we're hearing from the japanese government. officials there project that the country's economy will grow 2.5% in the coming fiscal year. that's due to stimulus measures and a global economic recovery. a large scale economic package will push up the gross domestic product. they forecast a moderate global economic recovery will lift corporate sentiment and boost spending on plant and equipment. the officials expect people will rush toake

pound against the chinese currency and of course that's where the war is it's the china japan or japan it's a proxy for the u.s. and china is wants to revalue up but only if it can take a huge piece of america's and canadian assets as a result of this interaction and that's what they're angling for and they're already buying huge pieces now of american member just a few years ago the conoco phillips deal was rejected by the china was considered a strategic asset that they would not be allowed to have sense that deal china's bought. and worth of assets than that one single deal this is been talked about in the us press because why alert the citizen about a hot war coming down the pike when they should be just buying lots of stuff and borrowing lots of money and eating themselves to death because that's the model of course as i mentioned the united states a lot of their geopolitics of the past decade or two has precisely been about this is about three warding china's rise to keep it from rising this is what donald rumsfeld and dick cheney said in one thousand nine hundred eighty one thou

a flight took off on wednesday from an airport in western japan. crews were forced to evacuate the plane. they checked a battery in an area beneath the cockpit. >> translator: there was a strong burning smell in the electronic equipment locker. melted material from the battery oozed out and stuck to the floor. >> the inspectors found no visible damage to e lek tlectris around the battery. they are still investigating. airline executives around the world have been attracted to the dreamliner. it uses 20% less fuel than other planes. it has a lighter body and advanced computer electronics. former aviation expert says it's unlike other planes. >> translator: you could call the aircraft a monster. the plane is computerized and uses a lot of electricity. >> commercial jets use engine power to maintain cabin pressure and hydrolic pumps for steering. engineers at boeing decided to use electronics for manyhe 787. the engine's power can be used more efficiently for flying. the wiring system is required to cope with the larger voltage. engineers had to incre

japan's competitors in japan, namely komutsu and construction machinery. as i said, we're going to start getting erjz out of japan, and kddi, japan's second biggest mobile cell phone user, which carries apple's iphone and ipad as well as softbank as well. ai? >> since the bank of japan decided to deliver mormon taer easing last week, a lot of focus has been on currencies. how are we trading today? >> currencies, we did see quite a bit of volatility last week, but let's look at the earnings right now. look at the dollar/yen. firmly at 90.96 to 98. we did see it touching 90 at one point. euro/yen, 122.44 to 49 as well there. the euro gaining against the yen as well. so that's going to be an interesting factor to see how that plays into today's markets as well. ai? >> what key data can we expect this week other than earnings reports? >> we're going to go through quite a few, but of course the perils due out on friday. also some manufacturing and housing data to two other key areas, which analysts will be looking at closely, the big drops numbers on friday. we

eastern japan will have very rough weather as that pushes over ahead. tokyo remaining rather mild, a high of 10. near freezing temperatures through overnight hours. seoul getting up to 3. shanghai at 9. across the tropics you're still into the 30s here on your saturday. looking at europe, british isles are seeing fair conditions for the time being but going into the weekend it looks like temperatures will be cooling off for starters. but also you're going to be seeing widespread rain, then some influx of snow as this continues to push in from the west towards the east. cold air will be wrapping right around it. you'll be seeing temperatures drop off across the british isles 5 to 10 centimeters. some higher elevations of snowfall is going to occur. finally toward the east, balkans, towards turkey, we had a little break in the rough weather this week but it looks like another system will be developing up here along the coast of the mediterranean. you're even seeing the risk of some severe weather across much of this region. meanwhile, temperatures remain

the visit would be her first to japan in 27 years. she stayed in japan from 1985 to 1986 as a guest researcher at the center for southeast asian studies of kyoto university. aung san suu kyi won the nobel peace prize in 1991 for promoting democracy and human rights. she spent many years under house arrest during myanmar's former military government. and last april she was elected to the lower house of parliament in an election. since then she has visited various countries, including the united states. she used those visits to seek international support for reform in myanmar. >>> afghanistan's president hamid karzai is meeting barack obama at the white house on friday. it will be a critical meeting to negotiate the scale of any long-term u.s. military presence in the war-torn country. ahead of those talks karzai on thursday met with leon panetta at the pentagon. the secretary of defense says the military campaign is reaching its final chapter. >> after a long and difficult task, we finally are, i believe, at the last chapter of establi

and japan. a battery pack caught fire early last week on a japan airlines 787 on the tarmac in boston. the next day, another jal dreamliner was leaking fuel. transport minister akihiro ota is putting priority on the case. >> translator: we've seen a number of troubles, including oil leaks, happening in just a week. we need to conduct thorough investigations. >> a spokesperson for boeing says the company is willing to cooperate with airlines and authorities. ana mechanics checked the electric room under the cockpit and found a battery had changed color and liquid had leaked. the head of ana has called the transport minister to apologize. ito says their first task is to establish what caused the problems. wednesday's emergency landing has prompted both ana and japan airlines to ground all 21 of their dreamliners. u.s. aviation authorities say wednesday's forced landing of the 787 in japan will be included in a safety review they are conducting on the aircraft. >>> a bomb explosion in kabul added t

japan time right here on "newsline." >>> more snow on the way in some parts of japan. it's going to be a cold one over the weekend. meteorologist robert speta is here with more. robert. >> reporter: well, gene, at least in tokyo you're right very cold here. the good news things are just too dry for any cloud cover really to develop here across much of the continent. where you'll be seeing that snow is off here towards the west, about 70 centimeters is expected going through saturday as the sea effect snow machine pulls in that cold air from the northwest running across the warm waters in the sea of japan and that moisture has to go somewhere and it dumps on the west coast. that's what we've been seeing. tokyo maybe by tuesday going into wednesday there will be a system developing up. we'll watch that. there's a risk of some light snow by then. but for now out here towards the west high pressure is dominating. bringing very dry conditions. cold temperatures as it continues to push further down there towards the south. you'll be seeing temperatures dropping as far south

the visit would be her first to japan in 27 years. she stayed in japan from 1985 to 1986 as a guest researcher at the center for southeast asian studies of kyoto university. aung san suu kyi won the nobel peace prize in 1991 for promoting democracy and human rights. she spent many years under house arrest during myanmar's former military government. and last april she was elected to the lower house of parliament in an election. since then she has visited various countries, including the united states. she used those visits to seek international support for reform in myanmar. >>> afghanistan's president hamid karzai is meeting barack obama at the white house on friday. it will be a critical meeting to negotiate the scale of any long-term u.s. military presence in the war-torn country. ahead of those talks karzai on thursday met with leon panetta at the pentagon. the secretary of defense says the military campaign is reaching its final chapter. >> after a long and difficult task, we finally are, i believe, at the last chapter of establi

that far surpasses the number of visitors from japan. until four years ago it was japan that sent the most tourists. many in taiwan are concerned by the inroads pro-chinese interests have made in the economy. and now the taiwanese worry their media may not be far behind. naoki makita, nhk world, taipei. >>> a laugh a day keeps the doctor away. or so the old saying goes. women in a port town in northern japan are carrying that message as they honor a local tradition. nhk world's takumi hayashi has the story. >> reporter: hachinohe in aomori prefecture is one of japan's busiest fishing ports. over ten years women here have had a contest with a difference, to find the funniest fishwife. they're using old-fashioned humor to keep people in the city smiling. the current champion is yoko kanehama. hachinohe has a long tradition of women fish sellers. these days there are fewer actual fishwives. but their legendary vigor and energetic humor are being kept alive by the annual competition. in fact, kanehama is anything but a fishwife. >> translato

about 50 millimeters and will eventually work over to japan. the problem with all that snowfall we are talking about, that is also going to be warming up the temperatures. what that's going to do is bring the snow melt along with the heavy rain, flood manager the valleys as well a problem. tokyo with a high of 13 here on friday. expect that to get into the teens going into saturday. off to the west, shanghai at 13. then we look at the tropics both into the 30s for manila to bangkok. now we'll take a look at europe with a storm system moving across the british isles bringing gusty winds at this time, but good news going into friday. it will start to taper off. winds will start to decrease. still seeing a lingering rain shower. it will be shifting over to snow as the jet stream continues to drip down to the south even into the alps with heavy snowfall. temperatures will be cooling off, too. london and paris, a high of 10 and 11 on thursday. paris, your low through the overnight going into friday will be dipping down near and even below the freezi

japan time right here on "newsline." >>> more snow on the way in some parts of japan. it's going to be a cold one over the weekend. meteorologist robert speta is here with more. robert. >> reporter: well, gene, at least in tokyo you're right very cold here. the good news things are just too dry for any cloud cover really to develop here across much of the continent. where you'll be seeing that snow is off here towards the west, about 70 centimeters is expected going through saturday as the sea effect snow machine pulls in that cold air from the northwest running across the warm waters in the sea of japan and that moisture has to go somewhere and it dumps on the west coast. that's what we've been seeing. tokyo maybe by tuesday going into wednesday there will be a system developing up. we'll watch that. there's a risk of some light snow by then. but for now out here towards the west high pressure is dominating. bringing very dry conditions. cold temperatures as it continues to push further down there towards the south. you'll be seeing temperatures dropping as far south

. >>> central bankers in japan are searching for the right words. they'll release their latest statement in just a few hours, and many expect them to adopt a different tone. ai joins us from the business desk. ai, you studied bank statements before. what do you expect this time? >> there's going to be a few things different or expected to be different, rather. first, it's not only a statement from the boj. second, i expect it to be much more agressive than previous statements. actually, these are both things that the prime minister shinzo abe has been asking repeatedly for. policymakers are set to give the prime minister what he's been pushing for in a joint statement with the government this afternoon, bank of japan officials are likely to announce a 2% inflation target. now, the target is part of abe's plan to tackle deflation with bullish monetary easing measures. >>> eight other board members will decide the policy together with the minister as the two days wrap up. they are still discussing the precise wording of the statement. the announcement

japan time right here on "newsline." >>> people have responded to japan's disaster and its aftermath in many ways. media report on it. academics study it. artists base works on it. one filmmaker picked up his camera soon after last year's earthquake and tsunami and headed to the northeast. he wanted to forge ties with survivors. so he called his documentary "katawara," which means on your side in japanese. nhk world's jun yotsumoto has the story. >> reporter: "katawara" has no narration and no dramatic story development. the camera just travels through japan's northeast and documents the aftermath of the disaster. shows people going about their daily lives, capturing the changing of the seasons. shinichi ise directed the film. he spent decades making documentaries featuring people who face challenges. he focuses on the preciousness of human life and the of individuals. the march 2011 disaster was a subject he couldn't ignore. >> i felt like i had no choice. i had to go to the disaster areas. i needed to make mental notes. >> reporter: ise's team went to watari in miyagi prefecture fo

is advise ing that your japan not to push its luck saying even the i.m.f. is a this is curry's the right no this will this will end up with a hot war with john i mean that's what we're seeing this is a japan basically declaring war on china through through through the currency markets somewhere that we're in world war three japan and china are now at war through the currency markets they're now they've got ships positioning themselves out down and that ridge and they're ready to do a shooting war so we're there betty we're there we're in world war three i would like to encourage you to keep buying gold and silver well the japanese pension funds are starting to buy gold and they do mention that the japanese pension funds are now net sellers of japanese government bonds because of all the please listen to me this isn't me this is liz's look at ok i'm talking to you mrs watson only forget the carriage forget the speculating on that in the icelandic krona buy gold and silver your husband's down at the pub getting drunk right now as he is every night he didn't w