rp welcome to news line, it's monday, june 3rd. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. japanese leaders look toward africa and see endless opportunities. they want a piece of the economic growth there. they're wrapping up three days of discussions at the tokyo international conference on african development. they and leaders from across the continent are promising to create a better climate for investment.

delegates from japan and around 50 african nations are attending the meetings in yokohama. japanese prime minister shinzo abe has announced a plan to invest $1 billion to increase food production, improve education and train security personnel. the delegates are set to adopt the yokohama declaration on this final day. conference. they're expected to commit to improving legal systems and upgrading infrastructure. they want to promote the use of advanced agricultural technology. they're expected to set a target of 6% growth for the agricultural sector. and they want to double rice production within the next five years. people in africa face some of the world's toughest environmental challenges. rising sea levels threaten those along the coast of west africa, an area stretching 4,000 kilometers. senegal leaders are trying to

keep the water from eroding their shores. nhk has more from da car. >> reporter: this is what is left of the area. in this area, the waves were so strong that the villagers didn't have any other choice than leaving their house. it used to be a fishing village, home to 700 people. three years ago, waves started hitting the village. there were the highest any one had ever experienced. the rising sea level is disrupting the lives of coastal people. this man used to be a fisherman. he lives just 10 kilometers from a village. it's now under water. one night four years ago, strong winds sent high waves crashing

into his home. most of the walls and foundation gave way. but the family managed to escape. >> translator: the water came this far. and everything was washed away. my family was very scared. >> reporter: now the 20 people in his family rent a room about 30 meters square near their old home. they can't afford to move to a safer area. this man is a professor at a local university. he researched the rising sea levels. he believes global warming is one reason the waves are so high. according to research, global warming cause ice to melt in the arctic and ant ar particular.

ocean waters move to the ocoast of africa. the water molecules, expand, increasing the volume of the sea. >> translator: the international community should focus more on improves the environment in this region. >> reporter: senegal's government is trying to reclaim the lost beaches. the resort area attracted many tourists from europe. but the beach has completely vanished. and a number of visitors has fallen markedly. some hotels have laid off nearly half of their employees. the government briefs that restoring this popular beach will bring back the tourists and

revitalize the economy. this man heads a project to install a break water to restore the beach. this plan shows the layout. if the break water is set up well, it will curb the loss of sand. and he learned about this technology from the japan international cooperation agency. he expects the beach to be restored about five years after the break water is completed. >> translator: in order to make this a success, i want to continue my research in cooperation with various research institutions. >> reporter: rising water narrows the coast of west africa every day. local people are doing what they can to save their shore line.

many pin their hopes on support from other countries. nhk world. judges in egypt have set up another standoff with the nation's islamist government. the supreme constitutional court ruled the upper house of parliament was elected illegally, but it let lawmakers stay on for now. egyptians voted last year. they ruled the panel that drew up the new constitution was illegal too. last year the same court ruled on similar grounds that the lower house was illegal. that chamber was dissolved. the rulings show president morsi is not fulfilling his promises of greater democratic freedoms. they're calling for a complete overhaul of the electoral process. syrian fighters have taken their fight into lebanon with attacks on hezbollah.

it appears to be in retaliation for the group having sent fighters into syria to support president assad. syrian troops have increased their presence in damascus. that prompted antigovernment fighters to reposition their forces from the northern city from aleppo to areas near the border. in a telephone interview with nhk on sunday, the rebels said they have crossed into lebanon and are conducting fierce attacks against hezbollah fighters. reports say battles between the two sides have resulted in some casualties in the eastern leb ease town. united states and russia are trying to hold an international conference to seek a solution to the crises. the rebels say they will participate in the conference if a cease-fire is agreed. a senior chinese military official sees a calming of tensions on the korean peninsula. this follows provocative actions

by north korea. lieutenant general is the deputy chief of the general staff of the people's liberation army. he spoke at an asia security conference in singapore. >> translator: the chinese military understands that north korea's leadership is stable at present and shows no sign of collapsing. >> he also said now is a good time for concerned countries to take advantage of this situation. the general stressed the need to boost cooperation for regional stability. japan and france have agreed to consider starting joint development of defense equipment. france would be japan's third partner for joint development after the united states and britain. japanese defense minister and his frefrps counterpart met on the sidelines of the asia security conference in

singapore. they said they are interested in japanese technologies and hope to begin discussions on joint development. the matter should be agreed by top leaders. he said the japanese side wants to start with working level talks. japan relaxed their ban on exports in 2011. this led the way to develop defense equipment with foreign partners. china has a diverse food culture that has long included edible insects. the benefits of eating innocents are now being endorsed by the food and agriculture organization. a recent report suggests that edible insects could be a way of tackling food shortages as the global population increases. nhk has more from china. >> reporter: this is the capital

of one province in southwest china. this area is home to a number of minority ethnic groups. this restaurant serves the traditional food of the local minorities. some of the most popular specialties here are the insect dishes. >> translator: they smell and taste nice. >> translator: eating insects makes men stronger and women prettier. >> reporter: these are deep fried bugs. i'm going to try these. they're krispy, salty, they taste just like regular snacks. in this region, insects have hong been part of people's diet.

usually the insects are quickly deep fried in a wok over high heat. this drives out brackish tastes and gives them extra flavor. the. >> translator: the most important thing for deep frying innocents is oil temperature and the strength of the flame. if the flame is too high they lose their flavor. if it's too low, they lose their aroma. >> reporter: this is situated high above sea level and has a child climate that seem does suit many kinds of innocents. this is where the locusts are raised. this one is about 10 days old. it will grow to its full-size in just 35 days. the farm is run by this woman. shy first began raising locusts

seven years ago. she feeds them with grass that grows wild around the farm. because no chemicals are needed, locacust farming is eco friendl as well as low cost. when they are fully grown, they're packed in cages for shipment. it's not hard work. that's another benefit of locust farming. >> translator: for insect farming, you doesn't need large capital investment. you don't even need to work so hard. but nonetheless, it can still bring you high benefits. >> reporter: locust tafarming i catching on in the area. she has partnered up with many

others. they can get a higher price. last year, the total came to $245,000. besides locusts, she has ten other kinds of bugs. the report says they're highly new trishs and can be eaten instead of live stock. >> translator: as the u.n. report becomes known, i hope to expand my business. i want more people around the world to eat innocensects. >> reporter: scientists see edible insects as a growing

business. nhk world, china. more than 25,000 people took to the streets of tokyo on sunday to oppose moves to restart nuclear power stations. plant operators are preparing to ally to restart their reactors when the government introduces new safety guidelines in july. only one of japan's nuclear plants is currently on line.

nobel prize winning author says restarting nuclear plants is a betrayal of the people affected by the 2011 fukushima daiichi nuclear accident. this woman used to run a farm near the plant. she says she regrets believing the lie that nuclear plants are safe. >> translator: prime minister abe said the government plans to export technologies for nuclear power-generation. japan should not take the wrong path by focusing too much on economic benefits. >> the participants marched near the diet and the head office of tokyo electric power company, the operator of the fukushima plant. a growing nun of japanese companies see staff diversity as potential. they are setting quantitative

targets to increase the number of female managers in japan. this company plans to double its number of female managers. that will raise the ratio to about 8%. >> translator: it's becoming increasingly difficult for a predominantly male group to meet the various demands of our customers. >> toshiba plans to increase the number of women in management positions from 3.7% to 5% over the next two years. in the auto industry, nissan motors says that over the next three years it will increase the ratio of its female managers from 6.7% to 10%. people in japan are often tapping away on smartphones, playing games. japanese developers of mobile games have captured the imagination of people across the

country. now they're looking to win over players around the world. >> reporter: with hand held devices, mobile games can be played any place, any time. as many games can be downloaded for free, they have many users. users pay for addition ally times needed in the game. but japan's gaming market is expected to slow down after recently reaching a peak of $4 billion. so game developers are trying to expand their business overseas. to compete globally, localization is the key to whether japanese titles will be accepted overseas. voltage is a software developer designing romance simulation game force women. the company has released more than 50 titles in japan. in one of its stories, a woman meets her prince charming while studying abroad. the romance develops into true love despite the social cass of

between them. romance is different than other cultures. so the staff asks people who grew up in other countries to check the games in minute detail. in this day they're talking about their sentence. >> in english it kind of sounds strange, right? why do you need to be protected by this man kind of thing? are you in an extremely dangerous situation? >> he has to protect me. sounds a little bit arrogant. >> reporter: they've also changed the appearance of the characters to appeal to north american women. the game research found that men found as good lucking by japanese women were seen as too skinny and too young. the developers altered the characters to their tastes,

making them look more like american comic book heroes. >> if our characters don't suit american tastes, they won't be inspired to read our stories. so we're willing to adjust the image if this makes for a believable romance partners. >> reporter: some are starting from scratch instead of adapting the games they sell in japan. dna develops one of the biggest sites. the site has more than 47 million subscribers. last year, it produced a vampire battle game. it became the number one selling android application in 33 countries and territories. >> translator: we focused on the player's active involvement. i think that made it a huge hit. >> reporter: clicking the red arrow guides users to treasure buried in various locations. games usually don't offer such a

choice of actions. if players follow the white arrow, they encounter enemies and a battle erupts. they want to get players actively involved in the story. these developers are trying out many ways to compete in the fierce mobile application march keflt an enormous amount of apps are upload the on a daily basis. creators are under a lot of pressure. >> translator: in a climate when many apps are free, first impressions are extremely important. if it's boring, it won't be played again. that's what we're facing today. so we update our games almost every day to keep our users happy. >> reporter: with applications available online to anyone in the world, the company that is the first to capture the imagination of mobile users will win the race for business

supremacy. all right. looks like some fun thaefrmt time now for a check on the weather with meteorologist sayaka mori. people in central europe are dealing with heavy rain and flooding. >> a system has been creating heavy rain for much of central europe and chilly temperatures. that caused serious floods in many arias. i want to show you this video first. heavy rain continued to cause flooding in eastern germany on sunday. a disaster warping was issued as the water continued to swell. at least four people have died or are missing in the flooding. landslides have occurred in austria. at least one person died. and in the czech republic, a state of danger was declared in prague. at least three people were reported missing.

soldiers are helping to build antiflood barriers. now i'm afraid monday brings another round of severe weather due to a stationary low pressure system. we still have the highest alert for rain posted for southern germany, austria and check republic. but as we go into the workweek, conditions will improve. drier conditions and a warm temperatures are expected into the next three days. but why, eastern europe -- as rain comes in from the south, conditions will ease. dry weather for much of the western couldn't nent and the british isles. very hot in lisbon at 30 degrees for you on monday. in asia, then a seasonal rain band is affecting you.

taiwan, you were hit by a big earthquake yesterday. now the system will continue to whoever over the same area. now towards the north, lingering storms for northeastern china. that's going to be affecting the northern parts of the korean peninsula. and ma the average this time of year is only 26 degrees. over 30 degrees over the next three days in beijing. and tokyo coming in at 24 degrees with sunshine. in the u.s. and canada, after causing deadly tornados once again in oklahoma, the severe we weather is affecting eastern coast. we have a potential for tornados in some places including new

brunswick in eastern canada. the system will continue to move towards the east at a slow pace. conditions will start to improve, but the coastal areas will continue to see wet and windy conditions into your monday. and a new system will form over northern parts of the rockies and southern alberta. the system is expected to intensify and reach the plains once again. so oklahoma city may be hit once again on your monday. temperatures will be dangerous hot in phoenix, 41 degrees. and 27 in oklahoma city. and much warmer than average in denver at 32 degrees on your monday. here's your extended forecast.

we'd like to remind you of our top stories this hour. japanese leaders are wrapping up three days of discussions at the tokyo international conference on african development. they and leaders from across the

couldn't nnt are promising to create a better climate for investment. delegates from japan and 50 african nations are attending the meetings in yokohama. japanese prime minister shinzo abe has announced a plan to invest $1 billion to increase food production, education and security. they're expected to commit to improving legal systems and upgrading infrastructure. they're expected to set a target of 6% growth for the agricultural sector. and they want to double rice production within the next five years. syrian rebels have taken their fight into lebanon with attacks on the shia organization hezbollah. it appears to be in retaliation for the group having sent fighters into syria to support

the government of bashar al-assad. syrian troops have increased their offensive in the city of damascus. that prompted antigovernment fighter does reposition from the northern city of aleppo to areas near the border. in a telephone interview with nhk on sunday, the rebels said they have crossed into lebanon and are involved in attacks against hezbollah. some casualties have occurred in an eastern town. russia and united states are trying to hold an international conference to seek an end to the crisis. the rebels say they will participate in the conference if a cease-fire is agreed. that is all for this edition of "newsline." do stay with us. we'll be back with more of your updates at the top of the hour.