preparing for the unexpected. japan's nuclear watchdog pushes municipalities around nuclear power plants to increase safety measures. the japanese government has tripled the size of emergency zones around nuclear plants. the zones now extend to 30 kilometers. more than 130 japanese municipalities are now required to expand their preparations for nuclear accidents. the nuclear safety commission

decided to expand the zones in november. the government had issued evacuation orders to those in a 30-kilometer zone around the damaged fukushima daiichi plant. so government safety advisers expanded the safety zone to match that. these local governments must now boost disaster prepared neness setting evacuation routes and securing shelters. the government also almost tripled the funding for nuclear disaster preparedness to more than $100 million in a budget planned for the next fiscal year. municipalities within the expanded emergency zone will need further financial help. the disaster contaminated topsoil across a wide area. now two levels of government are fighting over where to store it. the central government wants to build a facility in futaba county in fukushima prefecture inside the no-entry zone around the plant. but the mayor of futaba says

residents don't want it in their town. >> translator: we have been forced to evacuate en masse because of radiation. i cannot allow the construction of a facility that would continue to keep us from returning to our homes. >> the central government requested late last month to build the temporary storage facility in futaba county. the county has eight municipalities. authorities in some of them say they have no choice but to accept the proposal. they've asked fukushima prefecture to play a leading role in coordinating the plan. >> translator: there are various opinions within the district. i have to listen to each of them before i respond to the central government. >> a senior official from the environment ministry says the conflicting views will be taken into account, but the official says they need to build the facility without any more

delays. tokyo stocks rallied on the first trading day of the year. let's find out if the momentum is still there. for that ai uchida joins us from the business team. ai, good morning. >> good morning, catherine. well, as for wall street, the dow jones industrial average did continue its winning streak for a second trading day. its winning streak so far this year, gaining for a second trading day in a rope. so let's see how stocks here are trading. for that we do go to ramin mellegard who's at the tokyo stock exchange. looks like auto sales figures in the u.s. helped boost sentiment over there. how's that playing into tokyo trading? >> yeah, very interesting point there. good morning to you, ai. the u.s. numbers for awl auguto there showing positive gains for the big three, ford, chrysler, and general motors. somewhat negative picture for japan's automakers after being severely hampered by the march 11th disaster last year and also the flooding in thailand, which affected the sales numbers for honda and toyota. but before i get to that let's have a look at the opening levels here for the nikkei and the topix.

ugh see both there a little lower in the first few minutes of trading thursday morning. we're going to keep track of japanese automakers of course after those u.s. sales numbers. we did see a drop in sales for honda, around 19% in december. it was the most severely hit by the flooding in thailand. had to shut down some factories there. also, toyota showed some gains of just almost 1% in december. it was down 6.7% on the year. a lot of its models saw declines in sales including its luxury model, the lexus. and nissan, however, did manage to outmaneuver its rivals. we did see there gains of around 15% on the year. still, with a strong yen and the natural disasters of last year japan's auto industry is really trying to gain back market share from the likes of the u.s. big three. also south korean firms and some of the german automakers as well. so still quite a ways to go there. ai? >> and ramin, while switching gears to currencies, we are yet again seeing a stronger yen, especially against the euro. tell us about that. >> yeah, definitely.

let's have a look at the currency levels this thursday morning. trading in tokyo time there. you can see there the key one to focus on, euro/yen. look at that. 99.18-23. the euro really remains a focus for global markets, ai, as it has lost ground against the dollar and the yen. in the coming days the bond auctions in the euro zone countries is going to be another major focus. today, for instance, france is going to be coming out with new bonds. next week spain and italy are going to be coming out with new bonds. and also the euro zone financial stability facility, which is essentially the euro zone rescue fund, of which japan purchases a lot of bonds, they will also be coming out with 3 billion euros' worth of three-year bonds later this week as well. so a lot of focus there on euro zone economies, the euro, and also let's not forget quickly before i go commodity markets, oil prices rising on tensions in the persian gulf as the eu actually moves toward banning crude oil imports from iran.

so another sector of the market to look out for. but the nikkei and the topix just marginally lower in the first few minutes of trading. back to you. >> ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. the accident at fukushima daiichi forced the japanese to rethink their relationship with power generation. many were already leery about nuclear energy and shutting down reactors put even more pressure on a country struggling for electricity. now leaders are trying to find new sources. we went to tetsunari ida for answers. the former nuclear engineer is a leading advocate of renewable energy and part of a government panel reviewing energy policy. >> mr. ida, japan has the world's third largest number of nuclear reactors with 54. and in fact, up until march of 2011 nuclear energy took a share of 29% of all energy in japan. today, of course, most of those

nuclear reactors are not in operation. nor are there plans to make new ones. so what is in the future for nuclear energy? >> yeah, in the short run the nuclear -- all the nuclear power will shut down until this spring. and sooner or later -- most of the nuclear power is so aged. so at the longest, in the 40 years time all the nuclear will be shut down in japan. so we need alternative. alternative power source. >> aren't the arguments against renewable energy that it's expensive and that it's unstable? >> compared to fossil fuel and nuclear energy, most of renewable energy is cheaper. the fossil fuel, especially the oil, has much expense like wind. nuclear has a huge liability

cost. and also the waste disposal cost has almost unlimited. so compared to the uncertainty of the cost, renewable energy much, much cheaper. and also the unstable of the nuclear is not actually the center of issues because all the power mix can compensate the energy, the fluctuations. with gas and hydro. >> speaking of renewable energy, japan is planning its own full-fledged introduction of renewable energy in 2012. one is called the feed in tariff. wind, solar, other forms of green energy will be sold to power utilities, and it's going to be sold at a fixed price that the government fixed for a fixed period of time. >> yep. >> power utilities in return will be able to pass along those additional costs to their

customers. >> yep. >> so do you think renewable energy can become popular in japan? >> i expect renewable energy can be popular. for example, the germany case, they introduce ten years before the feed in tariff. at that time only the 6% of renewable energy of the power mix in germany. but within ten years 6% increase to 17% by 2010. and they are aiming 35% by 2020 and 80% 2050. so that it's great much successful in germany. then why we japanese cannot achieve the same succeed in germany. >> what kind of hopes can we hope for? what kind of effects can we hope for from renewable energy on japan's economy? >> yeah. the renewable energy promotions create the huge potential of

economic growth because we can eliminate the fossil fuel import. those costs can use renewable energy promotions. so it create a larger market in japan that stimulate japanese industry to create new technology or new business model to competitive in the global market. >> mr. iida, thank you so much for your insights today. >> thank you for inviting. >> i will be back in a few minutes with a report about the bigger asian economic picture for 2012. back to catherine. >> thanks very much, ai, look forward to that. the northeastern state of new hampshire is set to host the next u.s. primary to choose the republican party's candidate for the presidential election this fall. all eyes are on former massachusetts governor mitt romney following his victory at the iowa caucuses on tuesday.

iowa kicked off the republicans' contest to pick the challenger to president barack obama. romney defeated former senator rick santorum by just eight votes. romney has already arrived in new hampshire to prepare for the primary next tuesday. at a gathering in manchester the state's largest city romney appealed for support, saying the country needs a leader who can run the economy. >> and it's time for barack obama to go home and for someone who understands this economy to lead this country. he went out and said he was going to borrow $787 billion from your generation to pay back and he was going to do that to hold unemployment below 8%. not been below 8% since. >> the moderate also accepted the endorsement of senator john mccain, the republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election. romney enjoys a strong lead in new hampshire polls. it remains to be seen how much support his conservative opponents, including santorum and former house speaker newt gingrich, can win there.

the top u.s. diplomat for asia has met with chinese officials to discuss the situation in north korea. assistant secretary of state kurt campbell is the highest level u.s. official to visit the region since the death of north korean leader kim jong-il. campbell met separately with china's vice foreign ministers zhang zhijun and cui tiankai in beijing on wednesday. campbell spoke with reporters after the meetings. >> on north korea, i think the united states and china share strong determination to maintain peace and stability. >> campbell told the ministers that the u.s. wants to continue to exchange views with china about north korea. another u.s. official said that china wants to monitor the progress of the new north korean leader, kim jong un. nhk's correspondent in beijing says that china is exercising caution to avoid provoking north korea.

pro-democracy activists in myanmar say the number of political prisoners released by the government so far falls short of what western countries had expected. the pro-democracy activists say at least 33 short-term prisoners have been freed, far fewer than the more than 1,000 prisoners the united states and european nations have set as a condition for lifting economic sanctions. the activists also say no major political prisoners serving long sentences have been granted amnesty. that includes those involved in activities against the former military-led government. last month u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton urged the current military-dominated myanmar government to release all political prisoners. on wednesday president thein sein called for national reconciliation in his independence day statement. he did not mention the release of political prisoners. german media have accused president christian wulff of

trying to suppress a story about a scandal involving a controversial loan that he made. the "bild" newspaper reported in december that wulff received a low-interest loan of about 500,000 euros, or about $650,000, from the wife of a businessman in 2008. although the loan at 4% interest was not illegal, it was about 1% below market rate. on monday "the bild" said the president called its editor and tried to stop publication of an article on the loan. the newspaper says wulff later apologized. wulff became the president with the strong endorsement of chancellor angela merkel. the scandal could be a major blow to merkel, who is trying to deal with the euro zone credit crisis and gain cooperation from opposition parties. time to check on some of the stories we've gathered from broadcasters around asia. we begin with this item sent by mkot thailand. the thai government has authorized $57 million to

restore about 3,000 buddhist temples damaged in the massive flooding last year. a senior government official said in bangkok on tuesday that the floods affected about 37,000 buddhist monks and novices. he added the majority of the funds will be used to restore a 400-hectare buddhist park near bangkok. measures will also be taken to prevent further flooding. the country's buddhist community is also donating funds to restore the damaged temples. a new identification card has been introduced in malaysia. the card uses the latest laser technologies and security features and is an updated version of the mycad originally issued in 2001. mycad is a compulsory identity document for all malaysians age 12 or older. the national registration department said on tuesday that the new card is durable and meets international standards. it's embedded with a chip and

has a ghost image of the card holder to prevent forgery. the new card is already available in some cities ahead of its general introduction from february 15th. people returning from their new year holidays have swamped bangkok's main bus terminal and caused congestion on the roads leading to it. about 250,000 travelers arrived in the capital by bus on tuesday, the last day of the holiday season. the rush from the north and .northeast provinces was expected to continue until wednesday morning. trains bound for bangkok have also been fully booked for the past few days. meanwhile, tourism this new year season has been sluggish due to the massive floods. hotels are reporting occupancy rates of only 70% compared to 90% last year.

2012 looks set to be a challenging year for the world economy as europe's debt problems drag on. emerging asian economies are particularly nervous. the members of asean plus japan, china and south korea last year established the asean plus three macroeconomic research office, otherwise known as mro. nhk was granted the first ever interview with mro's founding editor about 2012. yoshio arima filed this report. >> reporter: mro began its operations from its base in singapore. >> thank you. very nice to meet you. >> very nice to meet you. thank you. >> reporter: its first director is a former senior officer of the people's bank of china. he also held senior posts at the asian development bank and international monetary fund.

mro's roots can be traced back to the asian financial crisis of 1997. taking a lesson from that event, asean plus started mro to perform a surveillance function. it analyzes the financial climate and urges member countries to take remedial action if and when it detects signs of crisis. wei predicts europe's debt problems will cause growth in asia to slow in 2012. but he says the asean plus three region will remain an engine of the world economy, led by china and indonesia. >> we'll take time. market might be affected. and naturally this region also will be affected.

and i'm hoping the asean plus three countries as a group can continue to maintain their growth momentum. our estimate is we should be able to achieve above like 6 point -- sorry, 4.6 or 4.7%. >> worrying about recurrence of the crisis again in this region like asean currency crisis. don't you agree that or not? >> financial sector are really much, much stronger than they were in asian financial crisis. in terms of a reserve from many countries in this region, really have increased substantially. that's also become effective

buff buffer. and the last point i'd like to mention is asian countries are realizing the importance of cooperation and coordination. so i'm really hoping currencies will not come back to this region. but we must work very hard. >> wei pointed out a need to build a tougher system to prevent a global financial crisis where a problem in one country sparks trouble in another. a currency swap facility is already in place for asean-plus league countries. it can be used to tackle an event such as a plunge in the value of a member's currency. wei said the group is now considering setting up a new financing system that would allow them to take quick action before the financial problem spins out of control. >> we also need to consider to

establish some regional safety net in order to protect ourselves. we do not have a crisis prevention function. we are considering this and asean plus 3 members have already had a number of meetings in discussing this matter. basically, there is a consensus for asean plus 3 group, they believe they need to establish a crisis prevention function. in china we say if you are too proud of yourself you also will fail. i believe it's a similar meaning. don't be complacent on the achievement you have made so far. instead you need to look forward and make policies right in order to meet the new challenges. >> that was a report filed by

our reporter yoshio anima from singapore. and now time to get you the latest recap of market figures. ♪ and that is the latest in business news. >> thanks very much, ai. the first week of the year is bringing wintry conditions to some parts of japan. with more on that and the rest of the world weather picture, here's sayaka mori. hello.

welcome to your weather update. let's take a look at what's happening across east asia. in japan we are looking at a typical wintry weather pattern. what that means is very dry along the pacific side and very snowy along the western side. areas from hokkaido all the way down to the cheguk area we are still seeing heavy snow and an additional 50 centimeters are still possible in the northern areas and the rest of the areas will foresee about 20 to 30 centimeters by friday morning. and winds are going to be problematic as well. so that could certainly create high waves along the coast. it looks like the snow will likely continue along the northwestern flank for the next couple of days. meanwhile, a mix of rain and snow will gradually taper off along the southeastern corner of china. but taiwan will continue to stay wet throughout thursday. and down towards the philippines it's wet again and particularly wet along the east coast, up the central and southern portions of the country today.

temperaturewise, dipping down to the single digits in tokyo with 8 degrees and minus 1 in seoul. still cool with an average in shanghai of 4 degrees and 6 degrees in chongqing. now, heading over to the americas, many areas are still enjoying a nice dry spell thanks to these high pressure areas. lots of sunshine for you. but we do have a couple of low pressure systems. this one right here is bringing some light snow showers across eastern canada and parts of the 23450er7b states. but it's not on the severe side. across the west, this low-pressure system has been dumping heavy rain and mountain snow. an additional 45 centimeters of snow are still possible across the higher elevations. and winds are going to be a major issue as well. we have wind warnings in effect cross montana and southern alberta. temperatures are rebounding to a more seasonal level across the east. 5 degrees in new york and 7 degrees in washington, d.c. the rest of the areas will continue to see a new record

warmth on thursday as well. 27 in los angeles. 17 in denver. and 7 degrees in winnipeg, which is about 20 degrees higher than average. now, finally, let's go over to europe. messy weather again. a series of atlantic systems is continuously bringing very wet and windy conditions, particularly windy on thursday across southern germany as well as slovakia. gusts could hit 180 kilometers per hour. as for precipitation, a mix of rain and snow will be widespread through most of the european countries in the next 24 hours. particularly snowy in the alpine region. we're expecting an additional 80 centimeters of snow by friday. but you'll notice that the british isles will get dryer in the next 24 hours. temperatures are looking like this. still warmer than average in london with 10 or 12 degrees in paris and getting up to 16 degrees in lisbon. all right. i will leave you now with your

extended forecast. ♪ ♪ ♪ our lead story this hour,

the japanese government has tripled the size of emergency zones around nuclear plants. the zones now extend to 30 kilometers. more than 130 japanese municipalities are now required to expand their preparations for nuclear accidents. the nuclear safety commission decided to expand the zones in november. the government had issued evacuation orders to those in a 30-kilometer zone around the damaged fukushima daiichi plant. so government leaders revised their safety zones to match that. the expansion includes not only communities hosting nuclear power plants but also surrounding municipalities. these local governments must now boost disaster preparedness by setting evacuation routes and securing shelters. the government almost tripled the funding for nuclear disaster preparedness to more than $100 million in a budget planned for the next fiscal year. municipalities within the expanded emergency zone will need further financial help. and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in

tokyo. do join us again at the top of the next hour.