welcome to nhk world "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo. business sentiment for japan's major manufacturers worsened for the first time in 21 months. a strong yen and the end of government subsidies on ecofriendly cars are the main factors. the bank of japan released its quarterly tankan survaef short-term business confidence on wednesday, covering over 11,000 firms. the closely watched index for large makers stood at plus five points during the past three months. that's a three-point decline

from the previous survey. besides ending the ecocar subsidies, the government has also cut financial assistance for buyers of energy-efficient home appliances. this had led electronics makers to reduce their output. as a result indices for both electronics and autos were down by over ten points. looking ahead, large manufacturers are expecting a seven-point drop to minus 2 for the next quarter, which underscores their cautious outlook. the u.s. federal reserve has decided to keep its easy monetary policy. the decision was made at a federal open market committee meeting in washington on tuesday. this came as new data shows that unemployment is on the rise again. the fed said in a statement that the economic recovery is continuing, though not quickly enough to bring down unemployment. it also said inflation is somewhat low relative to levels that the committee judges to be consistent with its mandate to stabilize prices. the fed is said to continue expanding its holdings of securities as announced in

november. it says it intends to purchase $600 billion of longer-termed treasuries. at the same time the fed will maintain its target range of federal funds rate at 0 to 0.25%. its record monetary stimulus has triggered inflation concerns. skeptics have also questioned its effectiveness. kansas city fed president thomas hoenig voted against the decision, saying the continuing policy -- or saying continuing the policy, rather, amid the recovery may destabilize the economy. china says it will raise export duties on rare earth metals next year. the move could lead to further price increases. the ministry of finance made the announcement on tuesday but did not mention specific rates or products. the chinese government said earlier that it would cut rare earth exports by 40% this year to help conserve the environment and resources. it also said that additional reductions are likely next year. raising export duties from the current range of 15% to 25% would further reduce the outflow

of china's rare earth elements. china says it will appeal a ruling by the world trade organization over chinese tire exports to the u.s. a report by the wto was released on monday supporting the u.s. decision in september 2009 to impose extra duties on chinese tires to protect its domestic industry. china took the issue to the dispute panel saying the tariffs are in violation of wto rules. a senior official of the chinese ministry of commerce released a statement tuesday expressing china's disappointment for the decision. chinese foreign ministry spokesperson jiang yu says disputes should be solved through talks.

jiang's remark apparently suggests china does not want to deepen the bilateral rift ahead of president hu jintao's visit earlier next year. nissan and mitsubishi are considering joining hands to create more opportunities in the electric car market. a day after announcing their joint venture to develop mini cars. sources close to the two automakers say making core parts for electric vehicles is a possible area for joint development. production costs could be lowered by sharing motors and motor control units although both firms are set on producing their own high-performance batteries. the two firms are global leaders in developing electric cars and have begun consumer sales. here's the latest market figures. ♪

♪ ♪ north korea has at least one other uranium enrichment site in addition to the nyongbyon facility. that's according to remarks made by a senior u.s. state department official on tuesday. >> we're very conscious of the fact that in the recent revelations to american delegations what they saw did not come out of thin air. >> last month u.s. scientists visited north korea's nyongbyon facility. the government later admitted that they enriched unionium at the plant. a south korean newspaper quoted an intelligence official saying

the north has three to four uranium enrichment plants other than nyongbyon. a u.s. delegation led by deputy secretary of state james steinberg is heading for beijing to discuss north korea with chinese officials. nhk interviewed sung kim before his departure with the delegation on tuesday. he's the u.s. special envoy to the six-party talks on north korea's nuclear program. >> we're looking forward to having a productive discussion. >> china has been calling for an emergency meeting of the chief envoys to the six-party talks after last month's shelling of a south korean island by the north, but u.s. president barack obama is reluctant to respond to china's call, saying north korea should first take concrete steps toward denuclearization. he is also urging china to use its influence with the north as a long-time ally of the country. the talks in beijing are expected to be difficult as the u.s. and china remain far apart on north korean issues. china says north korea has

responded positively, meanwhile, to attending an emergency meeting of the chief envoys to the six-party talks. >> translator: china and north korea agreed that countries involved should stay calm and take a responsible attitude to avoid further escalating tensions. >> jiang referred to a meeting last week between chinese state councilor in charge of foreign policy dai bingguo and north korean leader kim jong-il. dai visited north korea to discuss mounting tension on the korean peninsula triggered by the north's attacks on south korea. north korea's secretive stance makes it extremely difficult to gather information about its real motivations. nhk world's shuhei ikihata traveled to china's border with the north to get a closer impression of everyday life on the other side. >> reporter: the chinese city of

changbai in the province of jili lies on the border with north korea. across the yalu river is the north korean town of hyesan. the stream here is so narrow, you can literally hear voices from the other side. in the winter, the river freezes and becomes a natural bridge for the countless north koreans hoping to cross into china. the shore is lined with old wooden houses and traffic is sparse. even on a normal weekday, the city seems to be cloaked in silence and most factories appear to be at a standstill. despite a temperature of minus 10 degrees celsius, many women are washing clothes by the river. the bridge linking hyesan and changbai is one of the trade routes between north korea and

china. a popular export to north korea is this electric torch which can last up to ten hours with a single charge. >> translator: we sell a lot of these torches because power failures are frequent in north korea. >> reporter: in the hope of meeting north korean traders, we decided to move closer to the customs office. despite this initial failure, we soon met a woman visiting relatives on the chinese side of the border.

>> translator: i don't want to talk about it. i am sure you know what happened. >> translator: it will be an honor to obey kim jong un's command. >> reporter: 8:00 in the morning, women in uniform are gathering on the other side of the river. in what looks like practice for a parade, they march around the block in four groups, one for each of hyesan's districts. we have just witnessed chants that include the name of kim jong-il's son, kim jong-un. they are probably part of

preparations ahead of his birthday on january 8. a sign that kim jong il's appointed successor is very present in the daily life of north koreans. shuhei ikehata, nhk world, in changbai on the border with north korea. the united states says it will step up its monitoring of china's moves to strengthen its military. >> the u.s. shares the concern of many in the region that this type of military build-up far exceeds china's defensive needs. >> assistant secretary of defense wallace gregson said tuesday in washington that the u.s. must stay involved in balancing military power in the region. he said the u.s. will keep a closer watch on china's growing efforts to develop missiles that target aircraft carriers, new submarines, and methods for launching cyberattacks. gregson also criticized china for not expression disappointment with north korea over its artillery attack on

south korea, saying china has failed to act responsibly as a major power. the u.s. and china are scheduled to resume bilateral defense exchanges in january to rebuild ties that were cut after the u.s. decision to sell arms to taiwan earlier this year. a senior official of the chinese communist party has fold a japanese opposition party leader that china will continue diplomatic efforts to stabilize the situation on the korean peninsula. the head of the communist party's international department wang jiarui met the leader of japan's new komeito party natsuo gam gucci in beijing on tuesday. yamaguchi spoke about north crease artillery attack and its ongoing uranium enrichment program. he said he strongly hopes china will keep trying to persuade the north to raelgz a nuclear-free korean peninsula. wang said that if tensions on the peninsula escalate it will affect china more than japan because it shares a border with north korea. he said china wants to resolve the problem through diplomatic

efforts including the six-party talks in order to protect china's 1.3 billion citizens. yamaguchi and wang also discussed september's collision between a chinese fishing trawler and japan coast guard ships in the east china sea. they agreed that the current state of relations is not good and that japan and china will work to improve ties through exchanges by political parties and private organizations. a new style of newscast is emerging from taiwan, filled with computer-generated animations and political satire. the web-based program is attracting a worldwide audience, but it's also inviting criticism that it's far from being journalism. robert jefferson explores the issue "one on one." >> reporter: today classified documents and videos are being leaked one after another, traveling instantly throughout the digitally connected world. there are increasingly concerns that it's becoming difficult to

distinguish what's journalism, the uncovering of news through actual reporting, and what's mere fiction. taiwan-based animation and its owner jimmy lai welcome that debate. ♪ uh-huh, uh-huh, usa number one ♪ ♪ china's in the house >> reporter: this is how next media animation reported on the ongoing u.s.-china currency dispute. the clip appears in their web-based newscast. ♪ from the mao to the deng to the jiang to the hu ♪ ♪ you think you can keep on telling us what to do ♪ >> reporter: when wikileaks began releasing u.s. diplomatic documents, next media dramatized the news in this fashion. its founder snatches secrets from the u.s. embassy. at the united nations the world's diplomats. more than 250 young creators produced the animation in their taipei studio.

animators have stockpiles of digital faces to match the newsmakers. they can also imitate their voices. and actors in motion sensor suits mimic their body movements. the team tries to create imaginary scenes with a touch of reality within three hours after getting the news. from taipei jimmy lai now joins us. mr. lai publishes the newspaper apple daily and others in hong kong and taiwan and launched next media animation. mr. lai, thank you for being with us today. >> thank you. >> what are you trying to bring to the world by starting next tv? >> on tv all you have is the last slice of the news because something -- only after something happen you have the news. so whatever happens you have the missing images. but with the quick response animations we can recreate missing images and turn tv news, which is just information, into

a new story. and that's -- you know, that's what we want to do. >> how do you draw the distinction between your fiction and the non-fiction of journalism, which uncovers the news with the help of whistle blowers such as wikileaks? >> well, we don't try to create fiction. what we try to do is to use the information we have to recreate it into images. it's not fiction. >> but, now you at next tv often put out a story without any of your own journalists having covered the incident themselves or without maybe confirming the facts themselves. >> you know, other news channels or news service give us the information. we don't just have one. we have a few news agents, you know, different kind of media that we gather the information and we get -- just use more than one media, you know, is

reporting the news. >> next tv's political often receives huge numbers of hits on youtube. the term "tabloid news" doesn't bother you at all? >> no. because it's obvious that, you know, we are becoming more popularized. a lot of tv channels are using us in the west, and you know, we have capacity, so our business is very well. for us we have to go through trial and error to adopt to what people actually comfortable seeing and people facing new media, they will have to get used to it. >> it seems that now next tv is trying to pick up more international news such as this clip from your channel. let's take a look. here a chine giant panda and japanese ninja are fighting over distedland.

next media atiks up internl >> yko nown forouina'sears toreedom at oraon

ha y f t pronecserod o a ect csu

meed hee i

ptyos thondee 0eoennic

west spreadingidespread in, thas watct fothfrziain as well moving across montana and in down towards the southeast, a touch milder, hence the ows osming down in the southeastern corner.t here. 4 degrees only in atlanta today. 1 in washington, d.c., and minus in new yorcity with me snow flurries. taking a look at europe,

finally, we expect to find more rainnd snow deloping in turkey today. across the country down towards the south. it's going to be pretty heavy showers for you over the next ws so flooding is going to be a concern in the area. elsewhere across the region for central and eastern europe, temperatures are going to be frigid again, hence lots of snow stn ssia. and that's, of course, going to be causing ls of trave headaches. let's now actually take a look at some footage coming out of germany that's dealing with lots of travel problems on the road. you can see the traffic eventually coming to a standstill.okn d germany was hardest hit on esday. making the driving conditions very dangerous and difficult, as you can see. and relief workers brought some hot drinks and blankets to some of the drivers that got stranded t er that doesn't look like a particularly pleasant weather to be driving in. out toward the west it's going to be much calmer for places li f the british isles under high pressure system.

some light snow flurries i paris and some light showers in london. but do enjoy that break in the frigid weather. we will find that temperatures will fall away dramatically by the end of the week. 5 degrees in london today. 3 in paris. and then we've got more ow forecast for berlin and vienna. all right. re yr teedoras now. ♪ ♪ ♪

once again, the headlines this ho, business sentim at japan's major manufacturers worsened for the first time in 21 months. a strong yen and the end of government subsidies on ecofriendly cars are the main factors. the bank of japan released its quarterly tankan survey of short-term business confidence on wednda cerg or 11,000 firms. the closely watched index for large makers stood at plus 5 points during the past three months. th'shr-pnt decline from the previous survey. besides ending the eco-car subsidies the government has also cut financialsstae for buyers of energy-efficient home appliances. this has led electronics maker to reduce their output. as a result the indices for both electronics andut we dn by over ten points. looking ahead, large manufacturers are expecting a seven-point drop to minus 2 for the next quarter, wch underscores their cautious outlook. the u.s. federal reserve has decided to keep its easy monetary policy. the decision was reached at a

federal open market committee meeting in washington on tuesday. this came as new data shows that unemployment is on the rise ai thfesa in a statement that "the economic recovery is continuing, though not quickly enough to bring down unemployment." itlssanfti i somewhat low relative to levels that the committee judges to be consistent with its mandate to stabilize prices. the fed is seto ctie expanding its holdings of securities as announced in november. it said it intends to purchase $600 billion of longer-term treasuries. at the same time theedil maintain its target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 0.25%. its record monetary stilu h triggered inflation concerns. skeptics have also questioned its effectiveness. kansas city fed president thomas hoenig voted against the decisaying continuing the policy amid the recovery may destabilize the economy. that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm gene otani intokyo. we'll be back in half an hour with the latest news and weather.