an independent party takes power in elections in osaka, reflecting voters' dissatisfaction with the status quo. welcome to "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. grass roots movements seem to be finding their way to japan. candidates from independent party won elections sunday for

mayor and prefectural governor and osaka city mayor. it is the second largest business center. they ran on a platform of creating a metropolis with structure similar to tokyo. kampai! >> formhe took steps to reform spending, formed a new party, osaka restoration association. then resigned as governor. he said he needed the power of the mayor's post to realize his plan. he says his program of reforms willie limb nate overlapping services from prefecture and municipal governments. >> the voters handed down the judgment after thorough institutions. so i asked the administrative organizations to take the

election results seriously. >> hashimoto says his party will consider fielding candidates in the next election if the central government and major political parties don't support his reforms. traders in markets in tokyo looking to recover after a rough week. yogi joins us. we saw volatile trading in japanese shares last week. what can we expect this week? >> analysts expect stocks to come under pressure this week as well. let's go straight to the market reporter to find things out. the dow ended last week in the negative a third straight week, following continued debt turmoil in eurozone economies. to see how things are kicking off this monday morning in japan, we go to ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange.

good morning, ramin. how are things looking so far? >> very good morning to you. a bit of a positive start here after a grim sentiment last week as you mentioned with the dow and european indexes. this week, a lot of data out of the u.s. to look forward to. let's have a look at the opening levels and you can see what i'm talking about as far as a positive start. you can see the nikkei up almost 100 points. that's a positive start. we did last week actually post year lows for four consecutive trading sessions. looks like we are rebounding from that. last week, we saw selling in blue chip exporters, but also for shipping and industrial stocks, and that's following the strong yen, and also weaker than expected data out of china. but having a look at the currency levels this monday morning in japan, and we can see

the dollar yen holding pretty steady at the upper 77 levels and euro yen, 103.33 to 39. holding even keeled. as we mentioned, there are going to be some key data out of the u.s. this week, covering the housing, manufacturing, and the all important jobs numbers which are due out friday. those three sectors are three of the most keenly watched by economists, housing manufacturing jobs out of the u.s., and economists want to see if there are signs of optimism for 2012 for the world's biggest economy. recent data, including retail sales tracking shopping over the weekend in the u.s. seemed to show also positive trends. still, while the u.s. figures look a little -- market players are concerned about europe, there are key bond auctions this week in italy, spain, belgium, those will be keenly watched as

well. another point of interest, we have the governor of the bank of france in japan and later today in tokyo, he's going to be giving a speech very lightly talking on eurozone debt turmoil and how that may effect the global economy, including japan's economy. for now, a positive start. this monday, nikkei up over 100 points. >> thanks for that. that was ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. japan's biggest investment trust fund operator is selling italian bonds and other european sovereign debt to avoid risk from europe's fiscal crisis. they said in november they sold all italian, spanish, belgium bonds part of the global sovereign open fund. the fund the largest in japan in terms of assets, totalling about $26 billion. italian bonds accounted for about 4% of the bonds in the

fund. the company says the fund's standard price had fallen more than 8% during the course of a year to the end of october, due to the strong yen and europe's debt troubles. the trust fund is following suit of other firms slashing stakes in european debt. eight major japanese life insurers reduced holdings of sovereign bonds from five countries, including italy and spain by 44% in the past month or so. while the global economy struggles with unstable markets, one country that continues to show strong potential is india. its vibrant city was host to the world economic forum earlier this month. this week we feature interviews with key leaders in the indian economy in a series entitled an indian's india. we start with the information technology sector. here is our report. >> india's rapid economic

development changed the industrial structure and social fabric. in mumbai, it is a place to find out. the venue of the world economic forum with economic pundits and business. there is no better place to get a sense of what the future holds of this emerging giant. this is the co-chairman, and he was among top executives at this year's world economic forum on india. in 1999, infosys was the first indian company listed on the nasdaq stock exchange. factors contributing to the company are the quality of indian engineers, india's status as an english speaking country, and close competitiveness with

europe and the united states. but what does the future hold? he believes the key to the company's future lies in the evolution of internet and computing. >> even in a country like india, we have 700 million mobile phones. that's the democratization of technology, democratization of factories, access to knowledge that has happened. a lot of those services will be delivered using cloud as the service delivery platform, so cloud cokoch -- cloud technolog will become commonplace. probably something that will impact us in the future, three or five years from now, the internet of things, where all kinds of appliances and devices will get connected to the internet. it will be the lights we use, it will be the air conditioners we

use, the fans. everything will be connected to the internet. the price has to be affordable because the people that need these access are some of the poorest people and places like india. can provide local language, we need to provide different -- for example, this information technology, digital technology will have impact on our lives the next 30 to 50 years. we smoke with the chairman in

the first of the interview series. in the next edition, we hear from the minister for human resource development. here is a recap of the latest market figures. that's all for now in business news. back to katherine with the main news. >> thanks very much. a former president of olympus corporation says he only recently learned of the cover-up of the company's huge investment losses and denied involvement in the matter. the company racked up losses of over 100 billion yen during japan's bubble economy and used a facade of corporate acquisitions to conceal them.

former president tsuyoshi kikukawa told the company's third-party investigation committee that he learned about the cover-up just before the company announced it in a news conference on november 8th. his statement contradicts those of the former vice president hisashi mori and also former auditor hideo yamada, who told the committee that they had informed kikukawa of their accounting manipulations for years. olympus told reporters earlier this month that three former executives, including kikukawa, had been involved in the cover-up. the committee will continue its investigation into the matter to try to unravel the contradicting explanations by the three former executives. a plaj or challenge in areas devastated by the march 11 disaster is how to dispose of the mass of debris. the amount estimated at 22 million tons, the equivalent of

ten years of garbage normally produced in those areas. heavy chunks of concrete most difficult to deal with. can't be easily eliminated or recycled. in our weekly segment, the road ahead, we look at construction materials, using a rather unorthodox method. >> this professor from the university specializes in concrete engineering. he is trying to think of ways to use the big concrete chunks in rebuilding efforts. >> it's better to use everything that's available. it's such a waste just to use this material for landfill. >> but the problem is the concrete debris was soaked in sea water at one point, and salt quickly erodes the material. he became interested in a new technology developed by a major

construction company. >> let's pour in the sea water. >> the technology which uses sea water to make concrete was considered to be unworkable because the salt in the sea water was thought to be concrete's greatest enemy. gravel and other particles contained in concrete tend to swell when they react with salt. as a result, the material develops cracks and breaks apart. after a series of experiments, the construction firm discovered a solution. mixing cement made up of less alkaline components with a special agent can limit its reaction to salt. the company also found that the use of sea water can actually increase the strength of concrete. the needle shaped materials on the screen are created when concrete reacts with salt. they fill in tiny spaces, adding

strength to the material. on the left is a piece of concrete made with sea water, and on the right, one made with fresh water. the concrete made with sea water is 1.4 times stronger. >> translator: i never thought sea water would work better in concrete. it is a product in chance. >> then another challenge arose. rust on the reinforcing rods. when the rust developed, the steal would swell and the concrete would break apart. so the researchers decided to coat the rocks with a special resin. they confirmed the coated rods remained resistant to rust for a long time, and drew up a plan to put the technology into practical use. he visited sendai city where the sorting of debris is under way.

he thinks breaking the debris into pieces about four centimeters in size, then using them in the place of gravel, will result in a new type of concrete. >> translator: if we make use of this technology, we won't need to worry about finding dump sites for the debris. >> a senior city official promised to cooperate in the research. local governments think the new technology will be most useful in the reconstruction of break waters and levees. transportation and other costs can be reduced because most of the necessary materials can be collected on site. >> translator: demand for reusing debris is very high. my priority is to help the effected areas to deal with the massive amount of debris. >> he plans to carry out

experiments in reconstruction projects as early as next year in sendai. >> he hopes to take what he learns in sendai to other areas recovering from the disaster. "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan post march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. nuclear watch brings insight and information on the fukushima daiichi crisis. the road ahead examines the efforts to recover and rebuild. don't miss nuclear watch and the road ahead on "newsline." senior officials from japan, the uz and india will have a meeting to discuss strengthening their relations in the asia pacific region. the move comes from china's growing influence in the south china sea and indian ocean.

they say the gathering will be held in washington december 19th. they add it is the first meeting of its kind. the u.s. president barack obama said november 17th in an address in australia that the united states thinks the asia pacific region is one of the most important to the u.s. he noted u.s. will increase involvement in the area. obama also said china should uphold international norms. india is worried because china has been expanding economic and military assistance to india's neighbors. it plans to undertake with vietnam joint development of an oil field in the south china sea, but china is opposed to the project. pakistanis have taken to the streets to protest the killing of 24 troops by nato forces. about 1200 staged protests sunday in front of the u.s. consulate in pakistan's largest city.

they criticized saturday's attack on pakistani military posts by u.s. led nato helicopters that crossed the border from afghanistan. the protesters said the united states again violated pakistan sovereignty. this follows the killing in may of al qaeda leader osama bin laden by a u.s. team in pakistan. hundreds of people also rallied in the capital of islam bad. they closed supply routes for nato forces in afghanistan in retaliation for the attack. the pakistan foreign ministry launched a protest with the afghan government sunday. it called for steps to prevent cross border attacks by nato led forces. now let's look at the latest in sumo. all eyes on one man on sunday, the final day of the kyushu grand sumo tournament.

yokozuna hakuho had come to put a little icing on the cake. the mongolian yokozuna had already clinched the championship by friday, but he's a highly motivated rikishi, and he wanted to finish the tourney undefeated. big charge by baruto. hakuho works hard to get a double-inside grip. but he gets him in the back. hakuho tries to recover but loses his footing. hakuho bites the dust for the first time in the tournament, but he still walks away with the emperor's cup. ♪ >> translator: march 11th, when the earthquake and tsunami

struck, was my 26th birthday. it was very scary, but it's nothing compared to what people in the stricken areas experienced. a new ozeki will be born at the new year's tourney, and i hope to make 2012 a very good year. >> another thing we talked about throughout the 15-day tourney was kisenosato's chances of earning promotion to the sport's second highest rank of ozeki. entering day 15, kisenosato had ten wins and four losses. a win here would lock up his ozeki promotion. a big collision at the get-go, his aggression seems too much for kisenosato to handle. kisenosato loses, but the finish of ten wins will likely move him

up to ozeki. >> here are the wupz that won special prizes for their performance. fighting spirit prize for finishing as runner-up with 12 wins, 3 losses. a prize for splendid maneuvering. i hope you enjoyed the kyushu basho. don't forget, we'll be back to cover the next competition, the new year's tourney, in detail, as usual. so sumo fans, see you in january. tokyo is experiencing overcast conditions this monday morning. let's take a look at the global weather forecast with saki ochi.

and welcome to your weather update. getting a look at conditions in east arab a we are seeing a lot of clouds coming in over japan today. it is across a lot of the country going to be looking on overcast side. that is going to be followed by a little rainfall, too. you can see it starting to gather for us in open waters. the okinawa area in the southern islands will be looking at showers. then it starts to move northward moving into the coast liep of the pacific side of japan as well as into southern areas. elsewhere, we're looking at showers starting to bloom in central sections of china. that looks more widespread as we head through today. it will also move into the korean peninsula as well. things are going to be looking a little wetter as we head through the rest of monday. for southeast asia, showers are widespread across the philippines today.

looking at scattered spots on the west side for vietnam. as for temperatures monday, 14 is the high in tokyo. up to 16 in seoul. slightly on the mild side. in the single digits for beijing. and in the americas, looking wet for the eastern third of the u.s. and canada today. we have a long frontal system, a couple of lows with it. that's where we will see some of the heaviest rain, especially in this section of the deep south and lower midwest. there's a chance of flash flooding with heavy rainfall. isolated areas looking at hefty downpours. for eastern canada, rain quickly moves from quebec into canadian mer i times. western section, largely dry for the pacific northwest.

showers and snow moving through the mountains tonight, but that is on the way out. it will dry out for the time being. british columbia will see a new round of showers coming in from the coastline. highs monday look like this. 8 in seattle, 7 in vancouver. 14 degrees in denver, and 14 in oklahoma city, getting into the teens for houston as well. we are looking at gusty conditions for the northern half of europe. already been hearing about strong gusts reported in the past 24 hours. that trend will stay with us again tonight, as well as precipitation. showers moving from baltic states, finland to western russia. on the wet side for norway again and british isles, a lot more showers headed your way as we head into monday. as for the western mediterranean, scattered showers for the islands. so you want to watch for a kuchl

of thundershowers. 9 degrees is the high expected monday, expecting 10 in berlin. 4 for stockholm, and the same in moscow. all right. that's a look at the weather conditions for now. next is the three day outlook.

our lead story, candidates from independent party won elections sunday for mayor and prefecture governor of osaka. that's the second largest business center. winning candidates ran on a platform of creating a metropolis with an administrative structure similar

to tokyo. the former governor won, he took over as governor in 2008. he took bold steps to cut prefecture government spending. he formed a new party, osaka restoration association. then resigned as governor mid term. he said he needed the power of the mayor's post to realize his plan. hashimoto says his reforms willie limb nate overlapping services from prefecture and municipal governments.will eliminate overlapping services from prefecture and municipal governments. hashimoto says his party will consider fielding candidates in the next lower house election if the central government and major political parties do not support his reforms. his party colleague hideki matsui won election for

governor. he will work through to push through hashimoto's reforms. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. tokyo. do stay with us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com