welcome to nhk world "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. u.s. investigators probe the deadly plane crash in san francisco as south korean authorities reveal the co-pilot had limited experience with the type of plane he was landing. >> utilities in japan have asked nuclear regulators to approve the restart of reactors around the country.

now that new safety standards are in effect. >> and tweets, status updates, e-mails, japanese politicians use the internet to sell their election platforms for the first time after lawmakers changed campaigning rules. south korea's transport ministry has released more details on the last seconds of asiana airlines flight 214. the plane crashed on saturday at san francisco international airport killing two people and injuring more than 180 others. ministry officials say the co-pilot in charge of landing had little experience with the boeing 777 aircraft and was making his first landing at the airport. the plane was en route from seoul. it hit the ground and burst into flames. about 300 people were onboard. chinese officials confirm the

two passengers who died were 16-year-old girls from china's eastern province of zhejiang. the safety agency released new video showing collapsed seats and a gaping hole in the fuselage with sunlight streaming in. the images show the charred ceiling as well as airplane parts such as the tail and wheels scattered over a wide area. one of the survivors said the crash sparked panic inside the plane. >> the tail touched the ground directly. >> did people scream? >> everybody screamed. >> officials of south korea's transport ministry say the co-pilot had just 43 hours' experience aboard the 777. >> translator: the co-pilot was at the controls as part of a training program to familiarize him with the aircraft. >> they say it was his first time trying to land in san francisco in that type of aircraft and that a pilot with more experience was assisting him. south korea's asiana airlines

officials have defended the practice of co-pilots taking controls in training flights saying such flights are common and conducted based on law. >> reporter: our company has simulators for each aircraft. which has given our pilots sufficient training. so i think there is no problem. >> they added that all responsibilities lie with the pilot who serves as the instructor. they said the airline is waiting for the u.s. national transportation safety board and south korean investigators to determine the cause of the crash. the team with the ntsb is looking into another weekend plane crash, this time at a airport in the state of alaska. all ten people aboard died. the accident happened on sunday in the town of solodotna. local media report the float plane crashed during takeoff and caught fire. an air taxi company offered the aircraft.

police have been working to identify the victims. emergency crews in canada are searching for 40 people believed to be missing after a runaway freight train exploded in the heart of a small town. the accident in the province of quebec killed at least five people. the 72-car train was carrying crude oil. it somehow managed to roll away from a station in the early hours of saturday. it went barreling downhill. then it derailed and exploded in in the center of lac-megantic leveling buildings. local officials say the locomotive engineer stopped the train and tied it down about ten kilometers from the accident site. they say he then went to a nearby hotel. canada's cbc news is quoting a police spokesperson as saying there will be other deaths.

supporters of ousted egyptian president mohamed morsi is keeping up their fight to bring the leader back to power and they're paying the price. they faced off against the army in cairo. more than 40 people died. state-run television reports the violence erupted near presidential guard barracks in the egyptian capital. 42 people were reportedly killed and more than 300 injured. this is the largest number of deaths in a single day since the military deposed morsi last wednesday. there are conflicting reports over how the violence started. a spokesperson for morsi's power base, the muslim brotherhood says, soldiers fired at demonstrators who were holding a sit-in. military officials say protesters tried to storm the barracks and troops defended it. members of the brotherhood's political wing the freedom and justice party are calling for continued resistance against the military. they say the victims did not die in vain. they're demanding other nations intervene and stop what they call massacres by the military.

at least 12 people have died and more than 20 were injured when a hotel collapsed in southern india. aging buildings and shotty construction have been linked to a rising number of structural failures in india. there's concern that safety is being compromised amid the country's expanding economy and growing population. the three-story hotel collapsed on monday. the cause has not been confirmed, but the building was reportedly more than 80 years old. hotel employees and people eating at a restaurant were among the victims. in april an eight-story building being constructed without a permit near mumbai failed killing at least 70. and there was another deadly collapse in the city just last month. many indian buildings do not conform to safety regulations. owners sometimes illegally construct extra floors or

structurals without approval. executives at some of japan's utility companies are working to get their nuclear plants back to generating power. they filed applications to restart reactors. the units must pass stricter safety checks put in place in response to the 2011 accident in fukushima. power cha eer companies are see restart ten reactors. they're located throughout japan on the northern island of hokkaido to sendai. power company executives submitted their applications to the nuclear regulation authority on monday, the day the new safety requirements took effect. 80 experts with the watchdog will determine whether the utilities have taken all necessary measures to make sure plants wi

plants can withstand. it will take six months to process each applications. currently two are online. the regulatory agency says the stricter safety rules are based on lessons learned from the disaster at fukushima daiichi two years ago. does that mean that nuclear safety is guaranteed? our reporter has more. >> reporter: new requirements requires operators to implement a number of measures, protecting for the highest tsunami waves, setting up breakwaters and take other precautions to prevent sea water from entering a facility. the new requirements also oblige operators to upgrade their backup power systems. a loss of power after the tsunami hit in 2011 triggered

the triple meltdown at the fukushima daiichi. in addition, operators have to build alternative control rooms to serve as backups in the case of accidents. and they have to install filtered vents to remove radioactive substances when to engineers release pressure from reactor containment vessels to prevent explosions. translator: we aim to make requirements that are the most stringent when compared to international standards. >> reporter: the question now is whether the measures call for the guidelines will be fully implemented. the nuclear regulatory authority is being put to the test. 18 authority members will look over the applications. their expertise is crucial. and what's most important is

whether the utilities will address the process seriously. the fukushima daiichi disaster revealed the lack of transparency on the part of the operator tokyo electric power company. tepco is now seeking to restart another plant, this time on the sea of japan's coast, facing stiff opposition from the community. the niigata governor is expressing his displeasure. >> translator: why didn't you consult with us before you made the decision? >> reporter: tepco now says it has given up its original plan to fight restart application on monday. instead it will try to gain local approval first. but restarting the nuclear plants is essential if they are

to stay in business. no matter what they argue, though, safety must come first before anything else. the utilities must move away from their history of secrecy. they must transform themselves to be more transparent and accountable. nhk world, tokyo. japanese prime minister shinzo abe has spent his first six months in office working to revitalize the economy. voters will soon have a chance to judge him on the results. they cast ballots in an upper house election later this month. opposition parties hold a majority of seats in the chamber. abe and his liberal democratic party aim to wrestle back control. in the days leading up to when japan decides we'll be looking

at some of the key campaign issues and hearing from voters about what matters to them. now, before we get to the first story in our series, let's take a quick look at how japan's diet and electoral system work. the diet has two chambers, the upper house and lower house. the 242 lawmakers in the upper house are expected to compliment the voices of their colleagues in the lower house. they discuss bills usually sent from the lower chamber. and they can make the bills law or vote them down. upper house members have a six-year term. half of the seats in the chamber are 121 are contested every three years. the staggered system is designed to ensure continuity and avoid a political vacuum in the diet when the lower house is dissolved. each of japan's 47 prefectures represents one electoral district. they have one to five seats, dependsing on their population. voters cast ballots for individual candidates to fill 73 spots.

48 other seats where allotted through a system of proportional representation. voters can either pick the name of the candidate on a party's list or just write down a party's name. the party's win seats relative to the combined total of votes. candidates are assigned seats based on the proportion of balance they get. lawmakers introduced this system in year 2000 saying it better reflects the will of voters. candidates from these nine parties are running in the upper house election. these groups qualified for political party status. they include long-established parties and others that were recently founded. several groups that failed to meet the standards are still fielding candidates. in all 433 candidates including independents are running in this election. more than 100 million people are eligible to vote. our latest nhk poll paints a picture of what they'll be thinking about when they cast their ballots.

nhk world has the details. >> the nhk polt suggests prime minister abe remains popular with voters. we spoke to 3,088 people over the weekend. 57% said they support his administration. in the 2010 upper house election, then-prime minister kan's approval rating was 48%. respondents to our poll are clearly in favor of abe's party, the liberal democrats. 43% say they back the ldp. compare that to the 8% for the opposition democratic party. abe's economic policies have helped win him this support. he's focused on fixing japan's fiscal woes since taking office at the end of december. his three-pronged approach promotes monetary easing, stimulus spending and a growth strategy to spark private investment.

our poll suggests 65% of respondents agree with his plans. and 80% say they consider economic policies one of the major issues in this election. voters give post-disaster reconstruction slightly more weight. many people want the government to speed up the pace of the work in the northeast. the third most important issue with voters is social security policies. pensions, health care and nursing care for the elderly. it's interesting to note how respondents view one of prime minister abe's main priorities, changing the constitution. he wants japan to have a military and the power to defend its allies if they come under attack. on a list of eight issues though, revising the constitution comes last. abe argues his party needs to win this election to ensure a stable future for japan. the liberal democrats and their

partner new komeito control the lower house, but the opposition controls the upper house. with the diet divided, it takes more time for abe to pass legislation. and the divided diet makes it tough for him to change the constitution. he needs two-thirds support in both chambers. voters may not be interested in abe's long-standing goal but their sport for his plan for the economy may give him the result he needs. we'll find out the decision on july 21st. >> japanese voters, especially young people, noticed a change in this election on how candidates are delivering their pledges. in previous elections the law strictly prohibited campaigns online. lawmakers finally dropped the restrictions. nhk world's tomoku kamata

explains. >> reporter: trying to get young people interested in something a fair number of them consider boring. the 27-year-old leads a nonprofit group that calls on youth to participate in politics. last month he organized a meeting at a university in tokyo to talk about the upper house election and the changes that allow political parties to campaign online. >> translator: i want to ask candidates online what they think about the policies young people are concerned about. >> reporter: he argues young people read fewer newspapers and don't watch a lot of tv, making it harder for political parties to reach them. he says less information has led to less interest in politics. it may seem hard to believe that in this age of smartphones, tablet computers and laptops, politicians in japan are only now tapping the potential of the internet during this election

campaign. low voter turnout among young people prompted the change. 36% of people in their 20s cast ballots in the last upper house election. participation among those in their 60s was more than double that. the previous law only promoted old-style campaigning, telephone calls to homes, speeches and handshakes on street corners. politicians in the u.s., britain, france and germany started online campaigning in the 1990s. south korea lifted a ban on social networking during elections last january. japanese lawmakers decided to get with the times and change the law in april. they say the amendment will

allow parties to use websites, social media and e-mail. they hope they'll be able to encourage more people to head to the polls. the change affects voters too. they will no longer be prohibited from using social media and blogs to send out election information during the official campaign. this law expert says the interactive nature of online campaigning could make young people less indifferent to voting. >> translator: young vehicle code voters will see their voices actually delivered to lawmakers. and at times changing policy. that will make them think more about politics. online campaigning can make our democracy even more sophisticated. >> reporter: professor endo suggests the impact won't be seen right away though. some candidates say the 17-day

campaign period is too short for them to attract new voters. so they're reluctant to get online. but japanese youth are optimistic this change is for the better. they'll be watching to see how the political parties sell their messages online and whether they pay better attention to the issues young people care about. tomoko kamata, nhk world, tokyo. >> we'll be looking at a number of stories and issues ahead of the upper house election. our coverage continues on tuesday. we'll show you how the government's plan to join the transpacific partnership trade talks has divided people in japan. prime minister shinzo abe has worked to reshape japan's economy and get back to growth. now, he's setting his sights on amending the constitution. but his party must make a strong showing in this month's upper

house election so it can push its policy forward. less than a year after putting abe in power, japanese voters have a chance to judge him on his record. don't miss our special coverage leading up to the july 21st election right here on "newsline." japanese workers are becoming more pessimistic about the economy according to the latest government survey. the cabinet office released the results of the nationwide poll on monday. officials asked more than 2,000 workers about their view of economic conditions compared to three months ago. the confidence index for june stood at 53, down 2.7 points from may. that's down for the third straight month. some respondents noted strong sales of luxury items such as jewelry, but a large number say they're concerned about rising prices for raw materials due to the weaker yen. many were also worried about the recent wild fluctuations in stock markets. some said companies won't invest

more money without economic stability. meanwhile outlook index stood at 53.6, down 2.f e 6 points from the previous month. analysts have downgraded their economic assessment. they previously said the economy is recovering, but now say the pace of recovery is becoming rather moderate. here are the latest market figures. a storm in tokyo this afternoon. rachel ferguson from the weather team is here with the details on

that. rachel. >> thank you, yes. we're going to show you first video out of tokyo eer on about 5:00 today. pretty dramatic picture showing you lightning there. the sky tree in the background. we've been seeing some of these very quick storms come on very abruptly. when it's very hot like this you can see the sharp showers coming down as well. the rain really pelting and the winds kicking up as well. probably going to have about a week of this. it's going to stay very hot across much of kantar region all the way down the south. in fact, we've got heat warnings here on monday. we did have today. and it looks like temperatures are going to remain in the mid to upper 30s for much of the week. there's going to be some more persistent rain across parts of tohoku and the korean peninsula there towards the north. this could amount to 50 to 100

millimeters in the space of 24 hours, up to about 150 in some places. there will be the concern for flooding here as well. down towards the south we'll find more heavy rain. right now there is a tropical storm recently upgrade today a severe tropical storm. it's expected to move towards the east here. just now is passing the northern mare yan na islands and heading towards the southern okinawa islands. by the middle of the week this could be a strong typhoon. so we're expecting these figures here to go up 90-kilometer-an-hour wind speeds at the moment. gusts increased to 126 now. this will definitely be a storm to watch. rough seas of course as well as destructive winds and the heavy rain. all right, bringing you your temperatures now across eastern asia. dry and hot in chongqing, shanghai, taipei as well as in tokyo on tuesday. cooler and stormy towards the north. and then we have those mid to low 30s across the south and

thunderstorms here scattered around as well. more thunderstorms -- more tropical storms to talk about here. one is heading in towards the eastern caribbean. it's called chantal. this is a tropical storm that at the moment is looking towards st. lucia as well as barbados. and we have tropical storm warnings there for these islands. it's not expected to become a hurricane. it's expected to maintain status as it heads across the caribbean. and then head over to erick, also a tropical storm. it's expected to move parallel with the baja, california, peninsula. not making landfall but coming quite close. rip currents as well as heavy rain are going to be concerns. and we have a tropical storm warning here already for the southern tip of the peninsula. hopefully this one will go on the predicted track and head away from mexico and just another one to keep an eye on right now. more severe storms for the u.s. though. up towards the north, montana in

towards the northern plains here, you're going to be dealing with some severe storms, could even see some tornadoes, strong winds in that. and some heavy rain really targeting south dakota. as we head in towards the east, you can see a couple of systems, one towards the north, another one in the south bringing some heavy rain. could even bring some flooding issues here. getting some monsoonal rain coming into the four corners, which usually is a good thing when it's been so dry and so hot. but on this parched land and even scorched land in some places, when that rain hits, even if it's just, you know, a little bit, it can result in flash flooding. so that will also be something to look out for. here are your temperatures and leave you also with your extended forecast.

a survey shows the number of people studying the japanese language outside of japan has grown by 9% in three years. china tops the list with more than one million students. a survey by the japan foundation says japanese learners is approaching the 4 million mark, that's an increase of 27% from three years ago. the diplomatic chill between tokyo and beijing hasn't stopped the surge in china as more japanese companies forge economic ties there. the survey found south korea has slid to third place after leading previous polls. the trend reflects the south

koreans' rising interest in china. that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. from all of us here at nhk world, thanks for joining us.

iwaki city in fukushima prefecture was devastated by the great east japan earthquake. marie mutsuki mockett, a japanese american author, is visiting the area. >> there are people surfing. that's just like my home in california. such a beautiful day.