securing the skies. japanese defense officials say the number of fighter jet scrambles spiked during a recent flare-up of its territorial dispute with china. welcome to nhk world "newsline." self-defense force pilots have been taking to the air more than ever to tell foreign jets to respect the rules of the sky. a new defense ministry report says they've been handing out an increasing number of warnings to chinese aircraft. the rise in fighter jet scrambles coincides with the

flare-up in a dispute over islands of the east china sea that japan controls but that taiwan and china claim. nhk world's takafumi terui has the details. >> reporter: the ministry's quarterly report tracks the movement of air force intercepter jets. it says the aircraft took to the skies 209 times between april and september to warn foreign aircraft of possible air space violations. the asdf warned chinese aircraft 69 times. 80% of those warnings happened between july and september. this coincides with the japanese government's nationalization of the senkaku islands, which angered people in china. defense ministry spokesperson say chinese jets usually cross the air defense identification

zone and would approach an area 200 kilometers north of the islands before heading back. ministry officials are trying to figure out why. >> translator: we have monitored chinese naval forces in recent years and have observed an expansion of their activities. we must keep on collecting information on aircraft and vessels in the region. we must also carry out our mission precisely. >> reporter: in march of last year, two chinese navy ya-type aircraft flew within 60 kilometers of the senkakus. they came close but didn't enter japanese air space. a month later, an aircraft belonging to china's state oceanic administration came within 90 meters of a maritime

self-defense force escort vessel. administration authorities recently dispatched patrol vessels to the waters around the islands. japanese officials launched a protest with their counterparts in beijing, saying the act was dangerous. then this week, seven chinese navy warships did something they've never done before. they passed through japan's contiguous zone just outside the territorial waters of okinawa. the flotilla traveled just south of the senkaku islands. the number of asdf jets scrambled against chinese aircraft has risen rapidly over the last several years. it happened 31 times in the fiscal year 2008 and 156 times in 2011. that's a five-fold increase. a retired asdf commander points

out the chinese military will increase this kind of action as it modernizes its hardware. >> translator: the chinese military's aim, i think, is to collect information and carry out their mission safely so they can judge where they will work and what they will do. we have to strictly maintain the japan/u.s. alliance. this will be a strong message for the chinese military. >> reporter: japanese government officials insist their relations with china are important. they've been calling on their neighbor to act calmly. the officials say they hope to settle the territorial dispute peacefully based on international law. takafumi terui, nhk world, tokyo. a senior american official

has similar advice for chinese leaders. u.s. deputy secretary of state william burns wants them to resolve the senkaku dispute diplomatically rather than by making the threats or using force. burns met in beijing with chinese foreign minister yang jiechi. he reportedly told yang the united states will not take sides on the issue, something american officials have said repeatedly in recent weeks. china's state-run xinhua news agency reports yang reiterated his country's stance on the dispute. chinese maintain the uninhabited islands are part of their territory. analysts see this latest comment as a message to the u.s. to stay out of the matter. dozens of politicians in japan have done something their neighbors in south korea and china feel opens an old wound. two cabinet ministers and nearly 70 other lawmakers visited the yasukuni shrine. the site honors japan's war dead, including major war criminals. the lawmakers are mainly from the ruling democratic party and

the main opposition liberal democratic party. transport minister yuch row hata and yukio shimoji were among them. >> i signed as mikio shimoji from the new people's party. i don't think visiting the shrine will be a diplomatic issue. >> this visit is private. since it is private i hope it won't have any political impact. >> china and south korea regard the yasukuni shrine as a symbol of china's imperial and military past. their representatives are making it clear the visit upset them, especially because the cabinet ministers went along. >> their visit is an irresponsible act that ignores the national sentiments of people in neighboring countries that suffered from japanese

impeerii imperialism in the past. >> translator: we urge japan to take a hard look at history and reflect on it. the country should strictly keep its historical issues and face the international community in a responsible manner. >> japan's chief cabinet secretary osamu fujimura outlined the government's position. he says it doesn't interfere with cabinet members who go to the yasukuni shrine in a private capacity. that's considered a matter of personal freedom of religion. members of this group of lawmakers go to the yasukuni shrine three times a year during the spring and autumn festivals and on august 15th, the anniversary of the end of world war ii. german chancellor angela merkel says she sees a measure

of success in the eurozone's efforts to get through the debt crisis, but she is urging the european union to exercise its powers to intervene in the processes for drawing up national budgets. >> translator: european nations have implemented far more reforms over the past three years than in any prior period. the reforms have begun to expose the contours of a stable currency union. >> merkel also said that the eu should create strong powers for a monetary commissioner. that person would have the authority to intervene in national budgets that threaten the stability of the euro. the german chancellor added that she expects her country's proposal for a powerful monetary commissioner will be on the table at the eu summit. that begins on thursday. economists are wondering whether it might be time to retool the world's factory. the people at china's national bureau of statistics say growth is slowing. the rate hit its lowest level

since early 2009. gross domestic product grew 7.4% in the july-to-september quarter over the same period last year. the rate slowed for a seventh straight quarter. some analysts point to the debt crisis in europe for dragging down exports. others argue consumers are worried about what they see up ahead. in march, china lowered its growth target from 8% to 7.5% to deal with a widening wealth gap. >> translator: we'll attach more importance to stable growth and keep implementing current policies. we'll adjust industries that are already growing and promote their development. we'll strengthen the foundations of sustainable, healthy growth. >> the central bank has been trying to prop up the economy by cutting the key interest rate. central bankers did that in june, then again in july. many in and outside the country wonder whether chinese leaders

will take additional measures. earlier, ron madison spoke with steve wong, an ajupgt associate professor at the university of hong kong. ron asked him about his views on china's economic growth figure. >> i think there are a number of factors that affect the growth number. but despite the relative weakness of this number, the third quarter gdp, i think overall four-year growth should still be slightly higher than the official target of 7.5%. in fact, i think the slowdown is mainly due to the lower investment capital formation. however, in the third quarter, the investment infrastructure has already rebounded significantly. i expect in the fourth quarter investment in others, for example, real estate, will also pick up slightly as well. >> okay. you know, if we look back to the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, we saw the chinese government implementing a very huge stimulus package. some experts say that that package actually caused problems

like higher property prices. how and when really should the government take measures without causing these kind of problems? >> yes. it is difficult. the chinese government is trying to balance the need for reform and stabilizing the economic growth. i'd expect it will continue to carry out reforms such as liberalizing the interest rates, widening the upper and lower bands of deposit rates respectively. but stabilizing economic growth, it will continue to encourage infrastructure on the fiscal side, and on the monetary side, it would continue to carry out the credit operations and lower the required reserve ratio again, et cetera. because of the lower inflation, it gives the government a bit more leeway on the monetary operations. and you see the rebound in recent figures showing liquidity is relatively sufficient in the system. but stepping back, you can look at the overall picture. the reform would cause slower economic growth, but it would give higher and better quality

growth in the future on a longer-term basis. so i don't think the government will err on the same mistake you mentioned in 2008. they are very cautious, which explains the reluctance of launching massive programs again to boost economic growth. the government is willing to sacrifice short-term gain for longer-term economic health, which is why they lower the growth target from 8% to 7.5%, which i think is more realistic. >> stephen wong, an adjunct associate professor at the university of hong kong. another important figure was released in china. home prices rose in almost half of the major cities in september. strong demand was driven by low mortgage rates. the chinese government's monetary easing policies are help push down borrowing costs. the national bureau of statistics released the results of its monthly survey of new home prices sold across 70 cities. guangzhuo in the south showed

the biggest gains with 0.4% since august. this is followed by a 0.3% rise in the inland city of xian. overall home prices in 31 of the 70 cities surveys rose compared to the previous month while prices in 24 cities fell. the japanese government's tax commission will start discussing how to soften the impact of a higher consumption tax. that's ahead of its planned increase in two stages. the commission will hold this year's first general meeting on friday. it will listen to tax amendment requests from government ministries and agencies. the consumption tax will go up from the current 5%. it will be 8% in 2014 and 10% in 2015. the focus will be on measures to ease the burden on people who buy big-ticket items when the higher consumption tax goes into effect from april 2014. those items include homes and autos. consumers who conclude contracts to buy homes in the tax year

through march 2014 may end up paying an 8% consumption tax. this will depend on when ownership is transferred to the buyer. the discussions are expected to include an extension and improvement of the current tax breaks for people taking out home mortgages. here are the latest market figures. a former high school teacher in japan is trying to educate people about something they won't find out about in their history books.

the u.s. military tested nuclear bombs on six occasions in 1954 in and around bikini atoll. the first hydrogen bomb alone is said to have been a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed hiroshima. one fisherman died after exposure to radiation. that's the part the history books cover. the lesser-known story is that hundreds of other boats and their crews were affected by the radiation. nhk world's chie yamaguchi met a former high school teacher who is trying to get the word out. >> reporter: this teacher has dedicated the last three years of his life to righting a past wrong. he's researched, written, and spoken about what happened almost 60 years ago in the pacific ocean.

>> translator: young crew members who were around the same age as my students or a little older suffered and became victims. i strongly felt that this was unforgivable. >> reporter: decades after the tests, yamashita started interviewing fishermen with his students. they spoke to more than 300 people. a book yamashita published in september documents the health problems crew members suffered. >> translator: they lost hair, their gums bled, and they lost teeth. the first time i interviewed them with my students, i thought it wasn't normal. >> reporter: yamashita and his group researched official u.s. documents. they discovered the series of tests spread the radiation across the globe. they also learned nearly 1,000

japanese boats had to dump their catch because it was contaminated by radiation. an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fishermen worked on those boats. u.s. officials struck a deal with the japanese ten months after the first hydrogen bomb test. they paid $2 million in compensation. but that only covered about a third of what the fishing industry lost, including the catches they threw away. most crew members received nothing. last month yamashita and his students visited a former crew member, 83-year-old takahashi yamanaka. his ship was north of bikini atoll when the testing began. yamanaka learned about the first test a couple of weeks after it happened. he mentioned it in his diary.

>> translator: we heard that people in the area have been exposed to radiation. america did such a terrible thing. >> the crew continued fishing, unaware of the dangers. they navigated just outside the testing zone soon after the second explosion. >> translator: i never imagined the nuclear blast would happen in a place like bikini atoll and i never thought the radiation would spread so far. >> reporter: when yamanaka's boat returned to japan, government inspectors checked the crew's clothes and gloves. radiation levels were 10 to 40 times higher than normal. a year later, in 1955, yamanaka developed tuberculosis. some crew members died of cancer in their 40s and 50s. they had no medical support, not even health checkups.

yamashita wants the government to investigate the fishermen's radiation exposure and start providing compensation where necessary. >> translator: this matter isn't over. the victims are left without any support. this contravention of human rights should never be erased from japan's modern history. >> reporter: yamashita says he will keep working to tell people how japanese fishing crews became unwitting participants of american hydrogen bomb experiments. chie yamagishi, nhk world. >> the u.s. and japanese governments have not recognized any of these fishermen as people exposed to radiation. so the fishermen cannot receive any medical support, unlike survivors of hiroshima and nagasaki.

people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster. but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses, entire communities. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead," every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time here on "newsline." scientists have installed an innovative new radar system along the coast of wakayama prefecture in western japan. it's designed to observe tsunami at an early stage. a research group led by japan's land ministry and kansai university developed the radar based on aircraft control tower technology. the system is installed 60 kilometers off the coast of mihama town. it can study the height and speed of tsunami up to 40 meters off the coast. a tsunami up to 18 meters tall are forecast to hit the town in the event of a large earthquake in the nan kay kai trough off

japan's pacific coast. university professor takahashi says any observations made using the radar will eventually yield more accurate tsunami predictions. >> translator: one of the goals of this project is to convey the true scale of a tsunami through gathering more reliable initial data. >> experts say overly optimistic expectations of a smaller tsunami before the march 11th earthquake last year left many areas unprepared for the larger waves that actually did hit. meanwhile, several japanese companies are taking steps to avoid damage from that predicted nankai trough quake. one of those is a major precision equipment maker that plans to relocate from the pacific coast to the other side of the country. tokyo's nikki sew company makes medical equipment and aircraft parts at its factory in the central prefecture right on the threatened coastline.

the japanese government estimated in august that more than 300,000 people could be killed if a massive nankai quake and tsunami were to hit the area. that's the reason nikiso has decided to move their plant over 300 kilometers to the east, to kazaa wa prefecture. facing the sea of japan. the company's ceo on thursday briefed both the governor and the mayor on his relocation plan. >> translator: kanazawa seldom has earthquake, and the city is blessed with a good social infrastructure and human resources. >> kai added that it would be difficult for the factory to keep producing vital medical equipment in the event of a major disaster along the pacific coast if it remained in shizuoka. there's a storm in the south of japan. for more, here's mai shoji? the storm is moving south of

the pacific side of japan, weakening as it moves away from landmasses, which is great news. but it looks like it's going to be targeting the iso islands with very heavy rain and also damaging winds. also the winds are still packing up to 126 kilometers per hour. that's the gusts, actually, and that will be picking up the wake along the coastal regions about 6 to 9 meters high. that will be here in the pacific coastal regions as well. and with the rainfall that has been accumulating for quite a few days now, especially in the southern kyushu region where 300 milliliters of rainfall has been accumulating in the past 24 hours on top of what we've already seen, which is about 300 in the previous day, so the ground is very loose and you really don't want any more rain here in shoe coe cue. also in chiba, we found 48 milliliters just if an hour that fell over the area. finally, this system is moving

towards the east over water. tokyo actually will see the peak of the heavy rain and some severe thunderstorms overnight tonight. but tomorrow will be a different day. high pressure will be building in from china and from korean peninsula, and we'll see some sunny spells. that's except for hokkaido, though. we have a wintry pattern over the region, and that could bring us some gusty conditions. and the precipitation in higher elevations could turn to snow. tokyo, you're looking at 20 degrees, just in twebetween, an the tropics staging in the 30s, so very summer-like, but at ulaanbaatar, just at 2 degrees for the high. moving over to the americas now, we have numerous injuries across mississippi and arkansas where tornadoes have touched down yesterday on wednesday, especially in the evening hours. this strong cold front that ignited those tornadoes are going to be moving and creeping into the mid-atlantic region, also will be targeting the western new england region as

well. the battle zone will be just around here. it's going to be a severe event, heavy rain, damaging gusts, large hail and even tornadoes still not out of the question. and outside of this severe zone, frequent lightning will be the primary threat. in behind that system, the rain and the winds will finally be tapering off across the great lakes region, but the winds will still be as much as 80 kilometers per hour, especially the gusts could be as much as 90 kilometers per hour, and that will be finally tapering off in the knot. but in the southern plains regions, due to the low humidity, those combined could bring us some very critical fire weather. out across much of the western portions, still things are pretty hot. 29 degrees in los angeles, but on the other side of the jet stream looking at denver at 18 degrees. that's going to be much warmer into your saturday, about 23. bismarck we're looking at 9 but finally into the double digits on your saturday. here in europe, we are going to

be finding on andoff showers across the north and in the iberian peninsula, we still have to talk act the ongoing showers. already the ground is very loose from the previous rainfall, but, yes, another round of very heavy rain could target the region with frequent lightning and hail as well as damaging gusts not being ruled out. across the central portions and locations, you can see that clear skies will be up and about and also the temperatures not bad at all, berlin at 21 degrees, rome at 27. here's your extended forecast.

the french queen marie antoinette is known for her life of luxury. now a pair of her slippers has sold for more than $80,000. about 80 of the queen's personal items were put up for auction in paris. the event was held on anniversary of her execution in 1793. the pair of silk shoes fetched over 62000 euros. the bid was about six times the projected price. the fragment of a silk dress she owned before her arrest also went on the block. it sold for more than 6,000 euros, or about $8,000. marie antoinette was married to king louis xvi. she was convicted of treason during the french revolution and

executed by guillotine. we'll be back with more updates in 30 minutes. i'm gene otani in tokyo. .