common threat. the leaders of japan and the u.s. vow to stay united in the face of any future provokeations by north korean authorities. the leaders of japan and the united states are trying to show solidarity with common challenges and common threats. they met in washington and emphasized the importance of the decades old alliance on maintaining security. they titled it a shared vision for the future.

the documents said the japan-u.s. alliance said the foundation of peace and stability in the region. >> translator: the asia pacific region is at the center of the world development. they had factors such as fears over north korea. they had a maritime dispute. we will realize the realignment of forces to strengthen the security of the region. >> he was referring to china and taiwan. their governments are allocating more money to military spending. they are involved in territorial disputes with japan. obama calls the region strategically important and stresses a military presence there will be geographically distributed and operationally resilient. >> the u.s.-japan alliance will

maintain the foundation of the security and prosperity of the two nations and a cornerstone of peace and security. we reviewed the agreement to realign american forces in japan. this reflects our effort to modernize america's defense posture in the asia pacific with the forces that are more broadly distribute and plexible and sustainable. >> obama reaffirmed the need to warn north korean leaders against acts including nuclear tests. >> translator: there is a strong possibility that north korea will continue provocations. the country previous tested soon after missile launches. we will act according to the un security council's statement. japan and the u.s. will talk to china and yaush and the community as a whole will convey

a strong message to north korea. >> the more you engage, the more isolated you will be. the stronger sanctions are in place and the more isolated you will be diplomatically and commercially. they are clear that the united states, japan, and south korea and other countries in the region are unified in insisting that it abides by the responsibilities and abide by international norms and they will not be able to purchase anything from further provocative acts. >> the prime minister and the president also discussed china. japan and the u.s. needs dialogue with the country. obama points out that the chinese government must abide by international laws, rules and norms as it continues to grow. south korea's president has

fired a warning at north korea. he spoke of unmistakable counter measures if they carry out the recent threats. the north korean officials vowed to launch what they call special actions against their neighbor. they say the attacks will be harsher than the deadly shelling of an island in 2o 10. >> translator: we won't allow provocations against us. we will retaliate with unmistakable counter measures. >> he referred to the movements in arab countries that toppled long-term dictatorships and said no one can deter or reverse this trend with powerful weapons. they said the new leadership has a chance to change the country's course. e has called on north korea to abandon the military first policy since a failed launch in

mid-april. the north has only hardened the stats. high unemployment and inflated deficit and now confirmation of a recession. things are not getting any better for spain. we are at the business desk with more. >> the picture is not looking so bright and spain had high unemployment. that could put more pressure on the country's bonds. spain's economy showed a second quarter of contraction that indicates they have entered a recession. the national statistics institute said on monday that from january through march was 0.3% from the previous quarter. the country is the fourth largest economy in the euro zone struggling to reduce the deficit, however as the country has now gone into a recession, they may be more difficult. meanwhile on monday, the u.s. agency standard and poor's

downgraded on spain's 11 commercial banks by one or two notches. they include the two-notch downgrade on the sovereign rating and s&p said another downgrade is possible depending on the economic situation. now let's get a check on the markets. the u.s. stock prices ended lower on monday as centiment was weighed down by economic dita. we go to the stock exchange. good morning. april was not a great month overall with markets globally giving back a lot of gains earlier in the year. >> definitely. we did see a selling spree in april there. on the back of economic data out of the u.s. as well as slowing growth signals in china. reemerging concerns about euro zone debt especially spain mentioned there. a major focus. the elections in france and

greece coming up as well. it could be a major focus for europe in may. also now to remind viewers that monday was a public holiday in japan. thursday and friday will be closed. let's see how we are kicking off this tuesday morning, may 1st here in japan and both are trading a touch lower and that follows on giving up a bit of a ground on friday after the bank of japan led stimulus measures that did give a knee jerk boost to the markets. we did see a strong reversal with the nikkei ending lower and continuing lower today as we can see there. finance minster has come out and said that the bank should continue the fight against deflation. however it does look as though that fell on deaf ears for the market place.

we have seen the yen strengthen. let's have a look at the currency levels as well this tuesday morning in japan. they are clearly the dollar is 79.86-87. it jumped up to 81.40 levels. the yen strengthened quite a bit from this initial boost. the euro yen 10570-74. falling after spain's contraction as you mentioned with the gdp and high unemployment numbers. >> and another major focus and earnings reports from the japanese companies that. can ha an impact today. >> we did have positives and sharp came out and reported the biggest net loss. the holdings came out and net profits jumped 86%. we will see a bit of a tug of war. holiday shortened week and the full impact next week.

for now they are a little bit lower. back to you. >> that was from the tokyo stock exchange. >> india and japan want to cooperate on the infrastructure and rare earth minerals. the two held a level dialogue in india on monday. the two sides agreed to come up with a plan for japan to help with environmental projects in india. they include solar power development and using seawater. these will be part of large scale projects worth over $80 billion. also under the agreement, japanese trading houses will start producing air earths in the summer. the aim is to export to japan. >> india is a huge market and also has potential as a key production phase. infrastructure development will

make the factors more significant so that will be a big advantage for not only india, but japan. i will leave with you the recap of the latest market figures. opposition leader and other elected members of her party are getting ready to join parliament

and decided to end the boycott and swear to safeguard the country's pro military constitution. they said she and her league for democracy are not giving up, just yielding to the aspirations of the people. she and 40 elected members will start a 10ing parliament and skipped the opening session last minute. they objected to the wording of the oath of office. the representatives said the pledge to protect the count re's constitution is essentially a proving military superiority as laid out in the document. un secretary general spoke on monday in the parliament. it was the first speech to the legislature of the long isolated country. he praised the progress. >> the dramatic changes have

inspired the world. we know that the ambitions for the future reach the highest yield. i have no doubt that myanmar will quickly begin as a respected and responsible member of the international community. >> they have the potential to be a 21st century model for peace, democracy and prosperity. it should stay on the path for democracy. they urged other countries to go further in lifting or suspending sanctions on myanmar and said they need more foreign aid or investment. they met with the president and pushed him to address tensions with ethnic minority groups and asked the president to attend in september to explain the country's democratic progress. they are scheduled to meet on tuesday to discuss future un

aid. more than a year after the earthquake and tsunami triggered melt downs at fukushima, the problems are far from over. tokyo electric workers are trying to prepare languaged reactors for the long decommissioning process. the techno nrnls sent a robot in the suppression chambers in april for the first time. that's an area located at the bottom of the containment vessel. they had five cameras. it traveled around much of the suppression chamber which is 125 meters in circumference. earlier we heard about the results of the inspection. >> the main purpose of the inspection was to check for damage to the suppression

chamber. at reactor number to number three, high temperature made a hole at the bottom of the vessel and part of the fuel had fallen to the bottom of the containment vessel and it is lined there in highly radioactive water and tepco thought the water level in the vessel of the number two reactor was three meters and the inspection found the water is just 60 centimeters deep. this indicates the water is leaking from the chamber and the government are planning to field the vessel with water to retreat the rods inside. any water leak must be located and repaired and this inspection was the first step in achieving that. this is the cover for heat-insulating material. the material has remains intact.

they think new damage was done to pipes and the cover fell offdoff due to the earthquake or corrosion. they have an inspection manhole cover in the chamber. before the inspection, tepco assumed water is leaking from here, but no water leaks or damage was found this time. when the camera of the robot was tilted downward, it showed a water surface through a scaffold. it is believed to be water leaking for the containment vessel. tepco checked about 90% of the upper part of the suppression chamber and found no pipes in the facility. water may be leaking through the lower part of the chamber or the pipes connecting the chamber and the containment vessel. but the lower part is submerged in the water and not easily

accessible. so tepco needs to develop a new method for inspection. the inspection has just started. we can't say anything with absolute certainty, but tepco learned this time locating leaks is difficult even at number two reactors which is less damaged therefore chosen to be inspected first. as for the number and number three reactors, tepco has no idea at all when to start inspections. the decommissioning process at fukushima is expected to take 40 years, but without decommissioning, there is no end in sight. it's not an easy process, but tepco needs to use all available knowledge to bring the situation under control as early as possible. people living on japan's northeast coast have been wary of the sea since it rose up and

ravaged towns and vimages last year. a new poll suggests the majority of the representatives are planning to rebuild residential areas away from the bsk ocean's reach. land and infrastructure ministry surveyed 200 communities and fukushima prefectures. 70% said they aim to move inland or to higher ground. 12% plan to build up areas and levies and move there. 18% hope to construct or strengthen levies before rebuilding on ground where moments used to stand. they suggest that people could be h higher than two meters hope to move or raise the ground level in residential districts. those in locations that could be hit by smaller waves hope to stay where they are. >> people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the

challenges of the 2011 disaster, but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild home, businesses, entire communities. we will show you the struggles and the successes on the road ahead, every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time here on "newsline." >> the tallest structure in japan opens in three weeks. officials in charge of the tokyo sky tree are getting ready to welcome tens of thousands of visitors. they are prepared to keep all the people safe. police and firefighters and self defense force members and tokyo residents took part in a drill to prepare for a chemical attack. 2,000 people participated in all. a man sprayed what was meant to be a chemical agent on the tower's 350 meter high observatory deck. they slumped to the floor. authorities in protective gear took them away. they carried out checks on the

sprayed substance. workers practiced leading participants. officials set up another scenario at ground level. authorities led people away from the sky tree's commercial complex after a man carrying explosives was spotted nearby. a police dog jumped the suspect and then officers pinned him down. >> translator: the exercise was very meaningful because holding on a large scale is possible only before the tower opens. >> officials will address any problems found in the drill before the tokyo sky tree opens on may 22nd. the structure is 634 meters in height, making it the tallest broadcast tower in the world. people in japan enjoyed a sunny and warm weekend. rachel ferguson joins us now with the world weather forecast. i am loving this sunshine. will it last?

>> it was a nice run of weather. it was going to last towards the north. unfortunately we are not towards the north, so by the evening, we will see rain coming in. it is a pretty invigorated frontline towards the south of japan. already affecting the southern islands. you can see about 50 millimeters of rain in the space of one hour. that is some pretty intense rainfall. ba in towards southeastern china, it will be about 50 to 100 millimeters over 24 hours. it is the rainy season and we will see this intermittent rain. this is coming close to the pacific edge of japan and bring thundery showers from late tonight towards tokyo. as we look towards the rest of the constant, fairly dry towards the north. down to the south scattered

thunderstorms for indo china and the philippines. it is hot to the south. 36 degrees in manila and 39 in bangkok. most of indo china seeing the intense oranges and the heat will keep coming. 31 degrees in hong kong and 20s and finally we are seeing more comfortable temperatures. the freezing mark for the high and that should feel a lot better. 23 degrees in tokyo and dry most of the day and we will see hefty showers. north america, severe weather and tuesday in the southern plains and just to the south of the low here at the ohio valley. they will experience nasty thunderstorms as well. it will weaken off into tuesday. there is more severe weather to come and the system is spreading across the u.s.-canada border.

it will be coming down towards the central plains in the upper mississippi valley. again, damaging winds and hail is possible. as well as thunder and lightning. it will feel chilly. lots of cold showers spreading through and the cascades and you can see about 30 centimeters of snow and winter storm conditions for the northern rockies. look at temperatures and below average 11 and 12 respectively and the heat is building in the southeast and oklahoma city and 30 in atlanta and 29 in houston. that's more like mid-may, but hot for this early on in the month. into europe we go, not much of a change here. wet and wild towards the west. this ongoing heavy rain has led to flooding across parts of the

southern uk and heavy rain warnings here today. france dealing with some of that heavy rain as will portugal will be today. the heavy rain on the alps. elsewhere is looking dry and hot. particularly hot down here. 28 degrees and 31 in bucharest. as well as in kiev and central locations and heating up and seeing the temperatures prevailing and just about on average and pretty w and chilly out towards the west.

our lead story, japanese prime minister and u.s. president barack obama are emphasizing the importance of their country's alliance on maintaining the security in the pacific region. they issued a joint statement and entitled it a shared vision for the future. the japan-u.s. alliance is the foundation of peace, security, and stability in the region.

>> translator: the asia-pacific region is at the center of the world's development. at the same time there unstable factors such as fears over north korea. and the build up of armaments over maritime disputes. we will realize the realignment of forces to strengthen the security of the region. >> he was referring to china and taiwan. their governments are allocating more money to military spending. they are involved in territorial disputes with japan. obama calls the region strategically important and stresses the military presence there will be geographically distributed and operationally resilient. >> the u.s.-japan alliance will remain the foundation of the security and prosperity of the two nations and also a

cornerstone of peace and security. as such, we reviewed the agreement that the governments reached to realign american forces in japan. this reflects our effort to modernize america's defense posture with forces that are more broadly distribute and more flexible and sustainable. >> obama has reaffirmed the need to warn leaders against provocative acts including nuclear tests. >> translator: there is a strong possibility that they will continue provocations. the country previously tested weapons soon after the launches. we will act according to the un council's presidential statement. japan and the u.s. and south korea. they will talk to china and russia and the community as a whole will convey a strong message to north korea. >> what we have said is the more

you engage in acts, the more isolated you will become. the stronger sanctions that will number place, the more isolated you will be politically and commercially. pyongyang is clear that the united states, japan, south korea and other countries in the region are unified in insisting that it abide by its responsibilities, abide by international norms and they will not be able to purchase anything from further provocative acts. >> they discussed china. japan and the u.s. need strategic dialogue with the country. obama points out that the government must ooh bide by laws, rules and norms as it continues to grow. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.