welcome to "newsline." it's friday, may 27th, 9:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. the g 8 summit opened and nuclear safety is high on the agenda following the disaster at the fukushima power plant. japanese prime minister said thanks to the international community for its support following the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. he is determined to realize the highest possible level of safety for the nuclear power industry in japan. nhk world has more.

>> reporter: the summit is the first meeting of world leaders since the great east japan earthquake. nuclear safety was added to the agenda following the accident at the fukushima power plant. at the beginning of the summit, prime minister kan briefed g 8 leaders to the nuclear crisis. he explained the time table to stabilize the nuclear facility and brings the reactors to call the shut down by january 2012. kan said japan will examine how the crisis occurred and dismiss close the information to the public. he said that he is attaining the highest level of nuclear safety based on the experience. following the nuclear accident in japan, germany made the first

issue towards abandoning nuclear power. highlighting the differences in the nuclear policies among industrialized countries. france continues to promote nuclear energy and president car so sarkozy established new standards to nuclear safety. they promised the international community it would destroy the information in a timely manner regarding the disaster at fukushima. and the result of its investigation. prime minister kan said japan has a responsibility to history and actively disclose information with a high degree of transparency. his promise may serve to hold other developed nations and more accountable to the general

public as they continue to promote nuclear power. nhk world, kobe. >> the g 8 leaders are expected to ledge aid to support efforts in egypt and tunisia where autocratic governments have been overthrown. at a dinner on thursday, leaders exchanged views on how to support efforts currently spreading through arab countries. they plan to invite the prime ministers on sunday. nis lack sarkozy supported the need for reform. >>. >> translator: considerable support to achieve reform is one of the most important issues for the g 8. >> however g 8 nations remain divided on how to deal with libya and syria.

fighting continues between gadhafi's government forces and rebels. in syria, the government has been cracking down on demonstrations. the u.s. and european countries want to increase sanctions between the two countries. russia insists that interference in a sovereign nation's internal affairs should be avoided. japanese prime minister kan indicated that he will accept u.s. president barack obama's offer to visit the united states in early september. kan met with obama on friday at the g 8 talks in france they confirmed the importance of the alliance and president obama pledged to support japan's recovery from the march 11th disaster. kan accepted obama's invitation which was suspended due to the disaster and discussed the partnership negotiations.

>> the decision of whether or not to join the ttp has been delayed due to the march 11th disaster. but discussions will resume as soon as possible. >> kan added it account affect the recovery of japan's agriculture business in disaster-hit areas. >> the opportunity to work together trade issues and we are committed to expand opportunities for trade and commerce in the asian pacific region. >> japan and the u.s. reaffirm they will implement the plan for relocating the air base in southern japan. the two leaders noted they would hold meetings of the defense and affairs chief next month. the operator of the damaged nuclear power plant will spray a special type of liquid glue on to buildings at the site to prevent radioactive dust from spreading. the work is scheduled to begin

on friday. tokyo electric power company announced they will lose two fire engineers to spray a liquid on the buildings at the nuclear facility. company officials say not all the walls can be spread because debris blocks access to the areas. tepco is planning to erect covers at some point in the future. radioactive dust appears to be scattered over buildings at the nuclear facility due to several explosions that appear in march. the special chemical select side usually used to contain asbestos. beginning in april shlgs a different agent was sprayed over the ground and scattered debris to prevent dust from being blown away by strong winds. however the latest chemical compound won't be applied to all areas because if it gets in the pool that contains spent fuel rods, it might interfere with the circulation of cooling water. prevention of radioactive

substances from spreading to surrounding areas is one of the main goals of the utilities plan to stabilize the reactors. now let's take a look at the latest in business news. hi. >> thanks very much. a good morning to you. we start with the latest data released this morning. japan's consumer prices in april rose compared with a year ago. that was the first increase in 28 months. >> the internal affairs ministry said on friday the consumer price index rose 0.6% from a year earlier. it excludes fresh food prices the increase was due to higher gasoline and electricity charges caused by the recent surge in crude oil prices. the tax hike on cigarettes also helped to push the index higher. on the other hand free high school tuition since april last year had less of an impact. let's go to the markets and for

that we are joined by the markets reporter kan at the stock exchange we saw modest gains in new york overnight, but how is it looking here in tokyo? >> a good morning to you and thank you very much for that. we are kicking off the final trading day of the week here and so far things are not looking too good. let's look at the opening levels here on the tokyo stock exchange. they averaged in negative territory and struggling to break the tight range and the index dipped below the key psychological level of 9,500, but back up again. taking a look overnight, the dow rose slightly and enjoyed a bigger and modest gain. economic data on thursday were disappointing to analysts and those included revised data that showed a 1 hadn't 8% annualized

growth weaker than the market forecast. they were pleased to see the net ap and that boosted many of the tech shares. giving you the closing levels in new york, the dow at 12,402 and the nasdaq at 2,782 points. japan's corporate new, sony announced the profit forecast for the current business year ending in march of 2012. the electronics maker predicts $975 million and it f all goes as expected, that will be the first net profit in four years and many say that the figure might be a little bit too optimistic. sony shares are down more than 20% year to date. so far sony shares are trading lower. over to currencies. the yen gained against the dollar in new york.

dealers are trading in the lower yen range. as they saw, interest rates dropped on the back of weak dita. taking a look at the euro yen, we are about nine or 10 minutes into trading on this friday morning, they averaged in that territory. >> thanks a lot for the update. that was our reporter from the tokyo stock exchange. the organization for cooperation and development called on member nations to take measures for a sustained economic recovery. it cites the march 11th disaster as a new risk for the global economy. the oecd counsel ministerial meeting ended in paris after releasing the chair summary. the summary states that economic recovery from the crisis is

proceeding gradually with growth slidely stronger than anticipated. new risks emerged including rising oil and other prices. inflationary pressures with some emerging countries and the aftereffect of the tragic earthquake in japan. the summary went on to say that the minsters are committed to implement actions required to minimize risks. japan's eight major life insurers are expected to pay $2 billion for victims of the march 11th disaster. >> top insurer nippon life expects pay owes at $520 million and da ii chi life at $376 million. the life insurance association said estimated payouts by the eight firms alone will be more than three times the amount paid by all insurers to victims of the 1995 kobe earthquake.

the eight insurers will draw on reserves to make sure policy holders can receive benefits without fail. >> a recap of the latest market figures. that's all for this hour in business. the march 11 earthquake and tsunami caused unprecedented devastation. it forced the japanese people to be better prepared for the next

sdaft effort. it accounted for 90% of the confirmed deaths in the northeast. residents of coastal areas and elected officials are revamping measures so the next time the quake triggers a monster wave, they are ready. we have the story. >> reporter: i'm standing here on japan's pacific coast. it's in the middle of the area of a major earthquake. researchers with japan believe that the earthquake will shake this part of the country in the next 30 years. the government predicted the wave higher than 10 meters will hit the city. the residents will be here for more than 10 meters that provide enough protection.

the levels are just raising questions and concerns. experts say that the tsunami was more than 20 meters high in the hardest hit areas. 70% of the residents live in areas that are less than 20 meters above sea level. this is a representative of a disaster group. >> we separated the areas by color. red means less than 10 meters above sea level. yellow is 10 to 15 meter and blue is 15 to 20 meters. >> recently we found out that the evacuation shelter in the city was located just eight meters above sea level. >> translator: this shelter is too close to sea level.

i'm very surprised, especially after experiencing the horror i felt watching the video of the march 11th tsunami. >> he and the other members decided to set up a shelter that was on a hill more than 20 meters above sea level. soon after, he and associates had a chance to find out how well the plan worked. they tested the tsunami with the first large scale grid on may 21st. then it was done a couple minutes later, the kids left their homes with backpacks full of essential items.

residents of the district head had the new evacuation site taking a route they believe to be a shortcut. he and his family about five minutes to get there. about 70% of people in the community participated in the drill. most gathered within 10 minutes and they believe the first was in the event of a major tsunami. >> more residents than expected participated in the drill. that's an achievement. i would like to carry out more drills and encourage my neighbors to take part so that no one dies should a tsunami hit. >> on march 11th, people may die

for this. after the earthquake hit, many escaped the tsunami and some didn't and died. japanese people have been from this major disaster that their lives can end up being better. nhk world, japan. the disaster didn't just prompt people to be better prepared for the next monster tsunami, it forced the country to reevaluate the safety of its power plants. no one expected fukushima to lose the cooling systems and suffer a melt down. now the crisis level there is at 7, the highest on an interesting scale. in light of what happened, what needs to be done to prevent another nuclear emergency. earlier we got insights on the story from nhk world. >> translator: tepco said the situation was beyond prediction.

assumption. considering the ex-pent of damage, the assumption was overoptimistic. yes indeed tepco had an overoptimistic assumption, but it was because the guidelines of the government which served as the basis of the assumption was very overoptimistic as well. tepco had assumed that the height of the wave would be 5 hospital 7 meters before the earthquake and tsunami hit. actually a 15 meter height tsunami hit the nuclear power plant and as a result of the fukushima plant, they lost the cooling system and so there was a melt down in the reactor and it seems to be a melt down taking place for number two and number three reactors within four days after. >> what were the government guidelines like? >> translator: in japan, quake resistance and proofing

measures, a nuclear power station is based on resistance guidelines based on the safety commission. specifically the guidelines say that nuclear power stations should be prepared for earthquakes or inland earthquakes more than 6.8 magnitude. as a result of that, quake proofing measures were enhanced. there were 45 against the shaking itself. little discussion was held regarding tsunamis. and the guidelines say that consideration should be given regarding tsunamis so that functions of the power stations do not suffer serious effects. what tepco did was look up tsunamis of the past. it would be sufficient for a tsunami and the government considers the preparations sufficient, but as we know, this level of preparedness turned out to be insufficient and particularly recently it has been discovered in the area of

the recent disaster a massive earthquake hit 1,100 years ago and a tsunami large enough to flood areas far from the coastline also occurred. if the guidelines of the government have been more specific and better and had taken into consideration this massive tsunami, the situation could have been a lot different. >> the assumptions on earthquake and tsunami are about to be revised and what will be the focus from now on? >> because the 50 meter height tsunami hit, all of them should shift before the tsunami wave. however we have to study why we were not able to assume or predict this earthquake and this should be a thorough discussion by the experts, not only by atomic energy and the experts as

well. however it's important to keep in mind that no matter how hard you make assumptions, there always assumptions and you should be prepared for that as well. the power source and pumps to inject water especially are important. so we should be prepared for the failure of the power source. we should probably need a power source, a generator and also try to have spares and also prevent all those parts from being submerged under the water. these are also effective as the measures until we have guide lines in place and these measures have been taking place in other nuclear power plants. however for the power generating car, the capacity were far short of circulating water and cooling

the power plant. it takes time to get and secure the spare part. until we have a mechanism that we can call, we are not doing enough. right now they suspended the operation because of the prime minister. for the other nuclear power plants on to operation or will resume the operation, we should have measures taking place as soon as possible. hello there. time for a look at the weather update. mostly dry skies for central and southern china in the north eastern corner with a couple of lingering showers and the rain belt starts to ease off in south korea. a little bit of clouds left behind in the area. for japan, northern areas stay

dry and sunny throughout your friday. you are going to be seeing steady and heavy rain moving in from the south this afternoon. a couple of showers are up and down in the south and we look for heavy showers to develop. much of the rain will be covering japan into the week. this is going to be helped by the seasonal rain and a lot of moisture coming in from typhoons. let's get an update on the storm system. maximum wind speeds reaching 200 kilometers per hour. the intensity is at the peak. it is going to continue to move in the normal direction in the next 24 hours before going towards the northeast and the okinawa islands by sunday morning local time. now very stormy conditions expected today along with torrential rains. this is going to be raising flooding and landslide concerns as well as high waves.

coastal flooding as well. it has been raining here for days. quite a wide area will continue to experience wet weather. generally overall many areas will be looking at flood risks. 28 degrees in taipai and 26 in shanghai and 29 up in beijing with sunny spells. now for north america, a wintry gain up in the northwestern corner and unsettled out here. most of that will be rain, but snow in the mix for montana and idaho. towards the east, a flood warning posted as with the storm system moving on in. a lot of rain in the last 24 hours. it is starting to move towards the northeast. still looking at slight chances of storms. especially with the heat of the day. that will trigger intense showers. a couple of strong thunderstorms. a wide area looking at the risk from pennsylvania and new york down towards georgia and alabama

into thursday night. 31 degrees in new york city. 31 in washington d.c. we head into europe the large low pressure system shifted into scandinavia. a long frontal system associated with the system. we will look at widespread rain across central and eastern europe. a low pressure system formed over iberia and that will trigger showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. probably for the next few days as well. a bit of a break for the british aisles in the path of another storm. that will be bringing showers on friday in the northwestern corner of the uk. winds going to be calmer and station dry in the southeast. 17 degrees and 19 in paris. 21 in berlin. cooling down considerably, did you stays very, very warm in vienna at 28 celsius. here is your extended forecast.

our lead story this hour, the g 8 leaders are expected to pledge economic aid to support democratization efforts where autocratic governments have been overthrown. at a dinner on thursday, leaders exchanged views on how to support democratization efforts

they plan to invite the prime ministers to the summit meeting on friday. at a news conference, sarkozy mentioned the need to support reforms in egypt and tunisia. >> translator: globalizing considerable support to achieve reforms is one of the most important issues for the g 8. >> however g 8 nations remain divided on how to deal with libya and syria. in libya, fighting continues between ga ddhafgadhafi's force rebels. the u.s. and european countries want to increase sanctions and interventions between the two. russia insists that interference in a officer ren nation's internal affairship avoided. that wraps up this edition of "newsline." stay with us.