welcome to "newsline." japanese government officials are playing catch up on the discussions to form a major international trading block. they're preparing to join negotiations for the trans-pacific partnership. prime minister abe formally announced that japan will join the tpp negotiations. dell gats for the talks in crucial areas will include

private sector officials. japan's bit to join the negotiations needs approval from the u.s. and ten other nations that are already taking part in the talks. the government will accelerate consultations with those participants. japanese leaders plan to make the country's agriculture and fishing sectors more competitive. the they're responding to concerns the tpp would bray cheaper imports and undermine those industries. south korean officials say north korean stroops have fired short range missiles into the sea of japan. they say they've test fired several missiles into international waters. analysts think they were an upgraded model of a soviet model. they think it was a test and not a provocation. they conducted live artillery

drals. south korean officials are monitoring the area in case they launch more missiles. defense ministry officials in tokyo are trying to figure out why the russian military launched the jets. the defense officials say radar picked up a pair of lush yan bombers flying south over the sea ever japan on friday morning off the island of cue shoe. after that they noted the bombers headed north over the pacific. the aircraft did not enter japanese airspace. the die fence officials say two russian bombers of the same type flew around gentleman fan in september 2011 without violating the country's airspace.

the japan coast guard crews are offering insight into how they protect the nation's territorial wat earns from intrusions by chinese government ships. they've released an onboard video showing their patrols around the senkaku islands. coast guard crew members shot the video in late december and early january. the pictures show the warning off a chinese surveillance ship. the chinese got within 3 kilometers. they were close enough to issue warnings but far enough away to avoid a collision. a former japanese captain says they showed defy anse by flying their national flag. >> translator: it's unusual for

a ship to fly a national flag at the top of its mags. this reflects the will of the government or the captain the ship left japanese waters after six hours, still japan coast guard krufs have had to stay on alert. the chinese continually sail near the island and go into japanese waters. japanese government officials say debris from the tsunami is about to pileup on north american coastlines. the officials used a computer simulation to figure out houb quickly the wreck and is moving across the pacific. they think more than 100,000 tons will reach the north american coast line by june and more than 200,000 tons by october. officials think that tsunami swept 1 and a half million tons

of debris into the ocean. some of it has washed-up in coast lines in north america and hawaii. japanese officials have given money to help deal with it. they say they'll hand over the results of their computer simulation to help communities deal with more. transport officials in thailand are planning to build a high speed rail network across their country. they a japanese contractors are hoping to win the contract. officials from a railway company

are showing models and pictures of their bullet trains and a replica. >> translator: i hope we can raise thailand's railways to interthe national standards by learning about japanese system. >> thai officials plan to build high speed rail links between the capital city and other cities. the japanese are competing with companies in china, germany and south korea. sri lanka's slowly recovering after a 26 yearlong civil wash. but they say a lot of work still needs to be done and they're calling on japan for help. >> after 2009, there were no

incidents at all. no killings. no bombs. no attacks reported. people are safe. they're at peace. he was in tokyo last week meeting with government and business leaders. he is looking for support and investment from japan to build his it country's economy. he says more jobs must be created for people settling in former strongholds in the north and east. he deny the allegations that government forces committed serious abuses at the end of the war. >> they have just issued a

report, a one-sided biased report. >> he says his government the is investigating the allegations. the here's a three day forecast.

the that concludes this edition of "newsline." thank you for joining us.