it's friday, august 27th, 11 clack a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. here are your updates. a 17th con sect tif month of declines, the core consumer price index stood at 99 against referenced value of 100 for 2005. the drop in the index reflects

low prices of gasoline and food. the ministry says price declines could gain pace as import prices can go down due to stronger yen currency. excuse me. japan's unemployment rate dropped for the first time. it improved from june. the number of people without jobs is slightly above three million. that's down 288,000 from a year ago. looking now at those with job, the numbers stood at just over 62 million, up 10,000 from a year earlier. most of the new jobs were seen in health care, hotel, and dining industries. separately, a report from the labor ministry, shows job availability in july improved for a third straight month. the ministry states that 53

positions were available for every 100 jobs. toyota will have a recall due to a problem with the engine. this covers cars in the u.s. and canada. the piece may crack causing shift gearing problems or the engine could stall. three accidents and one minor injury has been reported in the u.s. the highway traffic safety administration says that they will look into the matter as drivers have complained about stalling engines. the car maker has recalled corollas because of a problem with the acceleration.

the nikkei ended at 8,829.10, down 0.87%. investors took their cue from weakness in the u.s. stock market where the dow jones fell below 10,000 for the first time in about a month and a half. the yen continues to stay strong against the dollar and this continues export-related issues. two currencies on the tokyo foreign exchange, the dollar is losing ground. the green beck is trading at 84.39-4 approxima 84.39-43. this dampened market sentiment. market players are now focusing on what fed chairman ben bernanke will say in a speech later in the day. and here's a look at the latest long-term interest rates. this is a yield on the benchmark

japanese government bond. in asian markets, hong kong opens lower. currently down 0.1%. now back to the u.s. currency. a survey has found that more than 288,000 nonpermanent workers in japan lost jobs or will lose them in the two years from october 2008 until next month. the ministry conducted the survey on august 18th. survey on august 18th. it targeted non-permanent it ta workers whose contracts were terminated or expired without renewal since october 2008, when

the employment situation began rapidly deteriorating. the jobless total of over 288,000 marks an increase of about 3,100 from july. about 150,000 of these workers were dispatched by temporary staff agencies and almost 70,000 were seasonal workers. short term contract workers accounted for about 22,000. the ministry also tracked down 137,000 of the laid off workers and found that only about 65% of them found new jobs. japan and china will discuss issues, such as the import and export of rare earth met the valuable materials are used in the motors of electric tals. vehicles and other high-tech products. a japanese ministerial team including trade minister masayuki naoshima will visit beijing saturday to take part in high-level talks. the the japanese government is hoping that china will ease controls on its rare earth metal

products or rare earth metal exports. last month, the chinese government announced a policy of stricter controls. antidepressants will be sent down to the miners that are stuck underground because of an explosion. they have been trapped since an access panel collapsed three weeks ago. all 33 were confirmed alive and staying in a makeshift underground shelter on sunday. but the health ministry says that three or four miners show feelings of depression. they are sending medicine along with water and liquid food via a shaft to the miners. they have also sent a crucifix as some men say they want to

pray. the democratic party of japan leadership election is becoming a face-off between party heavyweight ichiro ozawa and the current party president and prime minister naoto kan. supporters for both candidates are working hard to reach out to as many undecided dpj lawmakers as possible. on thursday, ozawa announced his decision to run in the party's presidential election next month. the winner of the leadership race will automatically become the next prime minister of japan. kan spoke to his aides on thursday night and said that he wants to carry out a fair election that will satisfy the

japanese people. he also said he's facing a historical mission because the election will be a test for the dpj. about 20 dpj members close to kan gathered at a tokyo hotel and called undecided lawmakers by phone to garner support for the prime minister. meanwhile, ozawa held meetings with former prime ministers yukio hatoyama and tsutomo hata, along with other senior party members to secure their support. lawmakers close to ozawa also tried to drum up support for their candidate. the dpj election will be officially announced on kim jong-il will likely confirm on thursday that the special train had crossed the border at the north korean

border and entered southeastern china. several sources said that a delegation from the north has arrived in a province. north korea's late leader, the father of kim jong-il reportedly attended a junior high in the city in the late 1920s. tight security has been put in place at a first-class hotel, raising the likelihood that the delegation is staying there overnight. kim last visited in may. it's speculated that this trip kim will talk about his successor. his third son is deemed his most likely replacement. however, it has not been confirmed if the young man came along on this trip. south korea's red cross says that it is ready to provide aid

to north korea. last week north korea was hit by heavy floods along the amnok river which forms the border with china. the northwestern city of shinuiju was completely inundated with floodwaters. the extent of the flood damage has not yet been confirmed. however, north korea's state-run television says more than 5,000 people were rescued by troops under orders from leader kim jong-il. on thursday south korea's red cross sent a message to the north stating that it is ready to send food, medical supplies, and other necessities as humanitarian aid. the organization says it will determine the size of the aid shipment after receiving a reply from the north. however, it will exclude shipments of rice out of concern that they may not reach the people most in need. south korea has suspended exchange and cooperation with

the north except for humanitarian support since the sinking of a gunship allegedly by a north korean torpedo attack in march. in japan, competition of 3-d is heating up. blu-ray is compatible with 3-d televisions. sony said that they will make blu-ray disk software and then release movies and concerts filmed by it is group companies in 3-d. recent data suggests that the market is slowing down and they

are focusing on what the u.n. central bank district will do next. a former bank of japan policy board member is here. >> will the federal reserve bank appears to move towards quantitate tif easing, what is your assessment of this and what impact will this have on the economy of the united states? >> i think the u.s. fed has already shifted their policy from credit easing quantitate tif easing because in the past the fed has insisted that the size of the fed balance sheet was just the result of acquiring a securities from traveled markets and the size of the balance sheet itself didn't mean much. but i think earlier this month

the fed made public that the size of fed balance sheet, that's a matter that is important and on top of it the composition of the balance sheet does matter. and i think that they decided to accumulate longer securities inclined that they try to keep lower interest rates lower. i think in this respect the u.s. policy may be more effective as compared to quantitate tif in the case of japan. >> what kind of experience was this for japan? >> yes. i think it was effective to stabilize markets. but not necessarily affected to stimulate the economy.

this was, i think, a basic experience, a basic understanding of quantitate tif easing in the case of japan. i think fed officials themselves don't really think that quantitate tif easing as such is effective to stimulate the economy. i think they may -- i think that kwan state tif easing by longer term securities to push down the interest rate may contribute to stimulate the economy eventually. and in this respect i think the quantitate tif easing may be a b more effective. >> earlier in the week the japanese government may

intervene to weaken the yen. he believes japan will need to do it on its own. >> from the point of view of the united states, they have been trying to increase exports eight weakening of the dollar would be quite beneficial for the united states to increase exports. so, again, and it's not as strong as people may think. so from the point of view from the americans, there will be more room for the japanese to accept the stronger yen and that the current imbalance is still i

don't think and support the japanese authorities to intervene the market to reverse. and next is a recap of the latest market figures. that's all for now in biz news. back to catherine.

a japanese government task force is trying to locate the burial sites of fallen soldiers on the pacific island of ioto also known as iwo jima. starting in september it will carry out a full scale search. during fierce battles with u.s. forces in the final stages of world war ii, more than 20,000 japanese were killed on iwo jima island, 1,200 kilometers south of tokyo. for over six decades more than 13,000 soldiers have remained missing. the task force led by an adviser to the prime minister will conclude a nine-day trial search based on documents discovered at the u.s. national archives and the u.s. department of defense on friday. the group has been searching for three key locations believed to

be the mass burial sites of japanese soldiers. the task force will then review its results and decide how to organize a full-scale investigation. the group is considering calling for volunteer assistance from young people and non-profit organizations. it's also planning to post information documenting the identified soldiers on its website. flooding in pakistan continues to spread into the southern provinces causing death, destruction and forcing more evacuations. pakistan's national disaster management authority said water levels of the indus river remain high and parts of an embankment along the river have been breached. on thursday, the pakistani government ordered roughly 200,000 people to evacuate three towns in sindh province. the death toll from the flooding has reached 1,600. more than 17 million people or 10% of all pakistanis have been affected. weather officials say more rainfall is expected in southern pakistan, leading to concerns of more flooding. the first two japanese helicopters arrived on wednesday at an airport in the central

pakistani city of multan where the self-defense force unit plans to base its operations. many roads in pakistan have been disrupted by the flooding, making aerial transportation of supplies essential. scuba divers love the water off the island of a unique fish. it's called the asian sheep's head and here we follow one who finds time to mate while scaring off rivals. here's more. >> reporter: we are 15 meters under the sea and this is his territory. he's estimated to be more than 30 years old, more than a meter long and has a distinctive fish.

the fish has defended this area for 20 years. some live off the waters off of sido island. you can observe it off the northeastern shore. the females, unlike males, don't have a bump on their head. they begin near the rock formation to mate. the male approach as female and starts a courtship. gracefully they swim like they are dancing. but something distracts the male. another fish has swam into his

territory. suddenly the male rushes to the corner of his domain. now a large male appears, scouting for females, unlike the smaller fish, this one doesn't leave. soon, he finds an intruder. by opening their jaws, the fish try to look bigger and in the fight for a mate, neither can afford to lose. our fish makes his final charge going jaw to jaw with his opponent. he succeeds in forcing his rival out of his territory.

once he's secured, he resumes the courtship. they resume the courtship dance. gradually the two give a spell, swimming in large circles, they rise slowly to the surface. the male shakes his body to ask the female to release her eggs. at last, the courtship reaches its climatic moment. the female discharges her eggs and the male his sperm. it's said that they mate this close to the surface so that the ocean current will spread the

eggs. the encounter has reached its conclusion. hideyuki, nhk world. hi there. welcome back to your world weather update. well, we have a tropical depression to the south of japan. doesn't look like it's going to be intensifying but it will be bringing some heavy showers to the okinawa islands and also southern kyushu in the next 24 hours, looking at rainfall to accumulate more than 100 millimeters. across mainland we could see some spreading showers in mountainous area and also one or two showers affecting the north as well but that should be about it.

across the koreas and eastern china, still contending with some heavy showers here, this very active low pressure system continues to move very, very slowly across the region and of course that will be threatening some of the already saturated areas, this area just between northeastern china and north korea so do watch out for that. southern china looking a whole lot better for your friday, the heavy rain easing but still quite unstable up in the atmosphere and also lots more showers to come across indo china, northern vietnam and laos as well as parts of thailand should watch out for flooding and landslides. let's take you over to india and pakistan. it's been about a month since the deadly flooding occurred in northern pakistan. looking very dry across much of the country, but down in the

southeastern corner, where river levels continue to rise, it's going to be quite unsettled for you. that's really not good news. it is going to be a quite serious situation here. towards india, lots of showers affecting central areas. we also got some light showers towards the north as well for this himalayan region in utah rockhand, and this area has been dealing with flooding since thursday as well, so it could be a problem in terms of further flooding here. temperature wise it's going to be hot again in tokyo, 34 degrees. 33 in shanghai. we've got 32 in hong kong with isolated showers. let's take a look at the americas, then lots of stormy activity in central areas. first of all been tracking this storm system, hurricane frank, just to the west of mexico. it's just going to continue to linger in the area.

it will come back down to tropical storm by the end of the week and veering to the north and then weakening down to tropical depression, so it doesn't look like it's going to be impacting land masses directly, but it will continue to, of course, feeding a lot of winds into the area, which means lots more rain to come in the coming days. the other storm systems, of course, going to be hurricane danielle and tropical storm earl over the atlantic. now, danielle is just going to continue to move northwest, and then turning towards the northeast by the weekend, so it looks like it's just going to be passing to the east of bermuda. bermuda could escape the worst of the storm. there will be rain over the weekend but of course we will have to keep a close eye on this because it could change its direction, so do stay updated with your local weather reports. tropical storm earl, on the other hand, is making its way westward, could become a hurricane. we don't have any warnings or watches in effect just now but of course we will have to keep an eye on this one, too.

here's your extended forecast. and that's all for "newsline" for this hour. i'm catherine kobayashi in

tokyo. we'll be back with more of your updates. stay with us.