the spraying on reactor number one is possible or not. really h relatively speaking, as a whole, radiation measurement has not been serious, serious enough as to have health affects. although some readings are high, but these values are not the ones that's poses a direct human threat today, but this all depends on other conditions, environmental, monitoring conditions.

monitoring will continue to conduct detailed analysis. thank you very much. this is about the cooling of the nuclear power plants. in the morning, the work is done to supply power in to the power plant and water spraying operation will be resumed in the afternoon. how did you decide on this work? translator: ideally these two works should belong in parallel but sometimes we have to prioritize more important work. this all depends on the situation on the ground, depends on the expert opinions. the power is now coming near the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. we need to assist with how much

work we can continue in order to supply nuclear power in to the nuclear power plant from outside. and water spraying on number 3 reactor, this should also continue constantly. translator: according to the report today, the u.s. government offers technical assistance, but the japanese declined that offer. this is an important point, so i'd like clarify what happened. on the part of the government, and cabinet, we don't recognize that such a fact has happened. as for the offer from the u.s. government, we'd like to receive more support from the u.s. government on what can be provided from the u.s. government and what is needed in

the disaster areas being coordinated and discussed. and at least, on our part, from the cabinet, we have never said that we don't need such support. we are requesting for specific support to the u.s. government, and they are responding, as well. translator: this is a followup question. secretary of state hillary clinton said that coolants are in shortage. was there any specific offers for specific support and are you going to need such assistance as well? translator: in the meantime, what has been discussed we don't grasp the details of the

discussions. as for the cooling, we are going to use water in principle. we need to secure water and procure water and efforts raised to that extent and there's sea water nearby. i don't know such a report and we don't know the details of what you have said, but we'd like to check. regarding the fire engines, they are being provided by the u.s. military. between the two countries, there may be some difference the information available. that maybe a possibility. >> i'm from tbs.

as to the fire engines from the tokyo fire department, why not do number 3 and 4 reactor, number one reactor on the plant side -- there isn't huge space available around the plant. so the workers to be involved we have to ensure their safety so that they can take part in a very difficult mission. if there's congestion, it might cause trouble, so we have to secure enough space for their operation to ensure success. on number 3 and number 4 reactors adjacent to each other, we received such a report from the site. so that we can make a judgment based on their report.

translator:. earlier you said at the beginning there are some big numbers observed at part of the plant. what are the specific figures? translator: at one place 100 microsieverts level value is continuously monitored. but it did not cause immediate risk to human health. and what circumstance is such a value was observed must be monitored? normally it was a single digit microsievert level. it also depends on the direction of the wind. we'd like to enhance the monitoring of the surrounding

areas for further analysis. we'd like to make sure that there's no more residents remaining in the surrounding areas. we are receiving the advice and opinions from the experts. so i shouldn't say anything definitive in my capacity, but regarding the weather conditions, such as rain and snow, and also the direction of the wind, there can be an impact. translator: when you say surrounding, do you mean the areas 20 to 30 kilometers away? translator: within a 30 kilometer radius. and the water of the 30 kilometer radius. translator: i have a question on reconstruction

efforts. the deputy chief cabinet secretary and mr. matsumoto, disaster management minister, what are their divisional role. translator: we have to give priority to the quake survivors assistance. we have to rebuild and reconstruct the areas, but first of all we have to give priority to rescue people in the disaster-hit areas taking shelter. mr. matsumoto is now the head of the team for disaster management. in principle, mr. matsumoto is heading the team and his direction we'd like to promote support and assistance to the quake survivors. he was designated as a special minister in charge, and he has

the authority, but at the same time, the cabinet office and the offices there are to support matsumoto. translator: related to the assistance of the quake survivors -- >> you have been listening to chief cabinet secretary yukio edano's press briefing concerning the nuclear power plant in fukushima daiichi. from yesterday, he said from air and ground, water has been emitted, poured in to the storage pool. amount is not confirmed yet, but he is -- he said that the water was emitted in to the storage pool an this water spray -- and the water spraying operation will resume today, both from air and the ground and work repairs

concerning to bring power from outside continues so that they could use both cooling system, using electricity and also spraying operation. concerning the radiation amount, they have measured some amount but it is not serious and it will not affect human health. some readings have been higher, but it is not health hazardous. and the monitoring is continuing. and power recovery work, he mentioned it is continuing and he will assess how much power is available from outside to use cooling work from the power system. and concerning some confusion in media report about offering technical assistance from u.s. and also about the lack of

coolant. yukio edano mentioned there are confusions and concerning the coolants, the power plants are cooled down by sea water and so there is no lack of coolant for the moment. those were the press briefing of chief cabinet secretary yukio edano. as he mentioned, preparations are underway to continue cooling down those storage pool rods. and the operations will be carried out from there and the ground. about 30 tokyo firefighters have arrived south of the plant. 139 firefighters are preparing to start spraying water this to the number three reactor building as early as friday afternoon. one of the engines has a 22 meter high water discharging tower used to put out flames in high places for sites that are difficult to access and among the 30 vehicles is a special truck usually used for plane

disasters that can discharge 5 tons of water a minute. and meanwhile, japan's self defense forces say the helicopters and fire trucks are getting ready to resume work. they can spray up to 11 tons of water and 80 meters in a few minutes. the defense ministry official says it is starting to start the ground spraying operation on friday afternoon. and now we have analysis of the latest situation at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. translator: we are now joined by our correspondent. the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant tepco is preparing to restore power source from outside. which was explained at the news conference. at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, the biggest trouble

was that the tower collapsed an the power distribution panel and the facilities were submerged in water due to tsunami and they were broken. so attempts to cool down the nuclear fuel was no longer available. so that's the biggest trouble causing these issues. so tepco is trying to bring new cable from the tohoku electric power company's power transmission lines and they are going to replace the power transmission panels and at number one and number two reactors, they are going to restore and install necessary facilities by the end of the day. these are the fire engines on

stand by to go to the plant. these fire engines seem to belong to the tokyo fire department. they are going to discharge water at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. as far as we can see on the screen, there are about ten fire engines standing by here. they are going to discuss safety measures with tepco to start discharging water in the afternoon. in response to the request from the government, the disaster response team, headquarters, tokyo fire department dispatched emergency units to the fukushima prefecture and after 8 a.m. today they arrived in the

station in iwate city. the fire engines will take part and some of them are equipped with water discharging tower and some can discharge water five tons per minute. a total of 30 engines will take part. safety measures will be discussed with tepco, so that the water discharging activities can start in the afternoon. and these are the fire engines from the tokyo pd fire department arriving in fukushima iwate city and they are preparing to discharge water this afternoon. they are going to the site to discharge water this afternoon. yes. at fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant they are going to take part in the important mission to cool down the reactors. there are two possible ways. one, is to use an external power

source. so that motor and pumps can be restored, as well as the cooling function. secondly, water cannons and fire engines and self defense forces are standing by. with the support of these two organizations, water is going to be discharged on to the spent fuel pool at the number three reactor to recover the water level and nuclear fuel is probably exposed so water is going to be sprayed to recover the water level to prevent the further disbergs of radioactive material. in the middle of the screen, you

can find the long white metal equipment on top of the fire g engens. these are the water discharging towers, which are 22 meter high. water can be discharged to a high place. is that going to be necessary? >> we don't know the details of how to discharge water by the tokyo fire department, but they brought these fire engines, equiped with this water discharging tower and the fuel pool at the number three reaker is at a high place. so if water is discharged from the ground, to reach that level, could be very difficult. so yesterday, tokyo metropolitan police department police unit

couldn't reach far enough and they failed in discharging water on to the pool. but now these fire engines, equiped with these water discharging towers are standing by. so there's a higher possibility of a success in spraying water on to the pool. >> all right. and nearly 10,000 people in fukushima prefecture have evacuated their homes to other prefectures to avoid possible radiation from the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. the meteorological agency says winds in the area around the fukushima plant are blowing to the southeast, toward the sea. the agency forecast that the wind lgs turn -- winds will turn northeast ward toward the sea on friday afternoon. so far, 9,965 people in fukushima have evacuated to other prefectures. more than 3,200 people have moved to that ga fatah prefecture and 2,000 have fled

to yamagata and 1500 to tochigi. some are providing fukushima evacuees with screening tests and health counseling services. member of the group of seven industrialized nations are responding to the massive quake in japan. ross has the details. >> reporter: that's right. in the quake of the massive earthquake and tsunami, the group of seven finance chiefs agreed on coordinated intervention in the currency markets. japan's monetary authorities took immediate steps to stem the yen's surge. the japanese authorities began to sell the yen for the dollar at 9:00 a.m. local time on friday. in an emergency conference call earlier in the morning, other g-7 members agreed to make similar efforts through their currency markets as the yen's rapid rise could have a negative impact on the world economy. in a joint statement released after the call, g-7 nations said they would respond to japan's request and make coordinated

interjengs vengsss to stabilize the -- interventions to stabilize the markets. actions by the monetary authorities in the currency markets are having an impact. let's cross over to emily wang to check on thelatest. emily? >> reporter: ross, well, the morning sex ended-the morning session just ended 20 minutes

ago. they are responding to an intervention by g-7 members. with that the nikkei recovered to the 9,000 level this morning on expectations that the agreement could stop a further appreciation in the yen. the nikkei is now just closed the morning session at 9120. it is up 1.7%. and that's the equivalent of 158 points. topix closed 821, up 11 points and that's 1.3%. over in the foreign exchange market, dollar yen is currently trading at the mid 81 yen level. before the mark opened the yen was changing hands at the low 79 level and then rose two yen within the first half hour of trading. keep in mind, the yen had just hit the historic high of 76.25 on thursday morning. so, for now, we are seeing the affects of intervention with the yen back up above 81. now, the g-7 agreement has so far brought the yen's level

close to what it was before the earthquake struck last friday. as for trading today, there are two key factors markets are watching for. the first being how effective the g-7 agreement will be in stopping the yen's appreciation and second, whether authorities will be able to bring the nuclear power plants under control after authorities douse the plant with water. but overall, concerns over problems at the nuclear power plant still remain and we have yet to see how far investors will buy back shares. but for now the nikkei is up at 9,120. up 1.7% on the day. so, for now, i'll leave it back to you in the studio. ross? >> all right. thank you, emily. emily wang reporting. here's a recap of the latest market figures.

that is all this hour in business news. back to you. >> thank you very much. the number of dead from friday's massive quake and tsunami has now exceeded 6,000. more than 10,000 others are still missing. japan's national police agency says 6,405 deaths has been confirmed. so far and 10,259 people remain unaccounted for. in mia gi prefecture, 3,860 deaths have been confirmed and 2100 are missing. in iwate prefecture has 1907 confirmed deaths and over 4200 are still missing. fukushima prefecture has confirmed 583 deaths and more

than 3800 missing. more than 285,000 people are in nearly 2002 shelters in the affected prefectures. many of the shelters are short of food, water and other essential supplies. relief efforts are being hampered of fuel for truck and ambulances. severe cold weather continues to avblgt those areas on friday with temperatures falling below zero degrees celsius. according to authorities, at least 25 people have died in shelters. they include 21 hospital patients in fukushima prefecture. they died after evacuating to emergency shelters, and many of the patients were elderly. some were bedridden. nhk world reports from minami sanriku, one of the

hardest-hit areas. >> reporter: the skies clear on this friday morning here in minami sanriku. it's a break after two days of snowy weather. yesterday, japan's self-defense forces made the first delivery of daily necessities for people who are taking shelters here. they received 500 blankets they desperately need because there is almost no heating inside, even at night. and today the sdf is planning to use three helicopters to go to ten emergency locations or shelters in this town to ask people what they need and also they are trying to check if there's anyone who should be airlifted to hospitals. this is the first such sdf activity. now, we tend to describe today as one week from the devastation, but the time reference doesn't mean much for people who are struggling to live their lives each day. one man in his 50s said, he lost

a sense of time after he narrowly escaped the tsunami. now, rolling blackouts of a few hours in tokyo is a big concern there, but here it has been more than 160 hours of continuous blackout. personal hygiene is another major issue. one survivor said, taking a shower is a luxury beyond the imagination, but he said at least he wants to wash his hands. up until yesterday, people were using buckets as a toilet. now, they do have a little better facility, but it's still basically a hole in the ground and covered with a tent. 300 people were taking shelter at this evacuation center alone. 9600 in the town of minami sanriku. 166,000 in the prefecture of miyagi. 285,000 in the whole affected

areas. that is just one indication of how serious the situation remains reporting live from minami sanriku. >> sdf helicopters arriving there for rescue work, but you can see snow was still there and the situation still continued to be very see veer for the survivors doctor -- se is veer for the survivors and up next is the weather forecast wisakiochi. we are looking at conditions across japan this morning and it is looking a lot warmer. milder weather is set to move in as that cold air mass pulls away for much of the country by tonight. that's good news. high pressure is moving in instead and we will be seeing some sunny skies. precipitation wise, too, finally

a little snow lingering in the northwest flank here this morning, but that is short lived. it is now headed out and then we will see really dry and clear conditions across much of the country today. winds too are showing signs of easing. so that also will help to bring in milder túe