welcome to "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo with the latest at this hour. venezuelans are getting ready to choose their next leader. they'll vote in their presidential election on sunday. hugo chavez is hoping they'll give him a fourth term. he's facing his biggest ever electoral challenge. chavez has been in power for 14 years. he's known for his anti-u.s. rhetoric. his main challenger is a former state governor enrique capriles.

>> chavez is popular with low-income voters who make up most of the population. still more and more citizens are unhappy with his economic policies because they've caused high inflation. analysts say is change of administration could affect allies such as russia and iran. they say it could also effect the challenge of the united states. japan's territorial dispute with china has created new risks for japanese insurers. chinese protesters smashed japanese owned stores and factories and insurers will have to pay out. managers say they can't issue new policies to cover that kind of damage. chinese people show their anger at the japan government's nationalization of the senkaku islands. they arrived last month and

destroyed japanese businesses. insurers say they'll have to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars. they say they're not issuing new policies for the time being because they can't tell how much more damage rioters might cause. they're letting people renew their insurance but don't know when they'll be able to take on new customers. the japanese government has decided to appoint chief secretary as its new ambassador to china. he previously worked for the foreign ministry. he served as depth chief of the american and african affairs bureau. he will replace the first person from the private sector to serve as japan's top envoy to china. a senior diplomat was nominated as the successor, but he died of a sudden illness last month. the government was quick to find a replacement for the post amid

diplomatic tensions. taiwan's representative is back on the job. called to protest the japanese government's nationalization of the senkaku islands. got back to diplomacy at a reception in tokyo. >> translator: the taiwanese should open a new phase of friendship with japan. based on the good foundations laid by our predecessors. >> about president's proposal to resolve the dispute over the senkaku islands by sharing nearby resources. he didn't touch pon japan's nationalization of the territory. he praised taiwanese people who helped survivors of the japanese earthquake and tsunami. he said he's proud they sent

$230 million in donations. people in tokyo are getting ready to host some of the biggest financial gatherings in the world. delegates to the annual conference of the international monetary fund and world bank will be gathering in the city on tuesday. some locals have opened an information center to make sure their stay goes smoothly. about 20,000 government representatives from around the world will attend meetings and other events throughout the week. local business people opened an information center in the district. staff will tell visitors about tourist destinations around the city. members of the japan national tourism organization are ready with maps and tablet devices to help people find restaurants and tourist sites.

>> translator: i hope many visitors will get a sense of what's great about japan, tokyo. i'd like them to visit again and spread the word. >> they will get free wi-fi service and measure buildings. they will also take walking tours to see the district and the imperial palace. employment figures in the united states show improvements in september as the presidential campaign heats up in the country the news could provide a boost to president barack obama. u.s. department officials say the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8% last month down 0.3 percentage points since august. the lowest since obama took office in 2009. they added 114,000 non-farm jobs. the non-farm sector is

considered particularly sensitive to economic trends. 44,000 jobs were added in the health care sector. manufacturing employment edged down shedding 16,000 jobs. for analysis we spoke to gene maki. >> the unemployment rate has been falling. it's fallen from a peak of about 10% to about 7.8%. we think that decline will continue. so we believe that a year from now at the end of 2013, the unemployment rate will be at 7.1%. so moderate job growth is enough in the u.s. to push the unemployment rate down and that's what we've been seeing and continue to see. that's what we expect as we look ahead. we think if the fourth quarter job growth continues, reasonable 160,000 per month. and we do expect that to lead to further declines in the unemployment rate in coming months. the september employment rate

will undoubtedly be seen as a positive factor for president obama's re-election. however, i'm skeptical that this one report is really going to make the difference in whether the president is re-elected or not. i don't think this radically changes people's views of where the economy is. so i think the -- this will not be the decisive factor in the election. japan's imperial family may be in for big changes. have to give up their titles when they marry commoners. government leaders are worried that the family could eventually become too small. so they're studying the pros and cons of letting imperial daughters keep their status when they tie the knot. government leaders asked experts to propose ways to stop the imperial family from slihrinkin. for those to start their own

branches of the family. they say they need to consider whether they would consider on the husbands and children. some others offer another approach. the suggest making imperial daughters leave the family but carry on performing official duties. more than 1/3 of the imperial family members are young, single women. the emperor's only grandson was the first male child in 41 years. the emperor is gravley concerned about the prospect of a shrinking family. government leaders plan to find out what ordinary citizens think. >> translator: we'll spend at two months gathering opinions. then finalize our plan. if we need to change the law, we'll start the necessary procedures. >> the leaders say any change in the law should apply only to the emperor's daughters and granddaughters. here's the three-day world

weather forecast. that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo.

thank you for watching.