. glad to have you with us on "newsline." the new president of i ran reached out to the world with words. leaders in other nations are waiting to see if he will follow through with actions especially when it comes to his nation's nuclear program. he called for transparency and trust in his inaugural speech.

he took the oath of office and became the first iranian president to invite foreign dignitaries to a swearing in ceremony. >> translator: we seek respect. we want to establish constructive relationships with nations of the world. but any dialogue with iran must be conducted respectively. >> transparency is the key to the door of trust. his country does not desire war with other nations. authorities say that the afghan president was among the representatives of at least 50 nations who attended the ceremony. after his speech rowhani submitted a list of nominees for the new cabinet and picked the

united nations ambassador to the united nations. he looked to improve ties with the u.s. analysts show that he wants better relations with western nations. many iranians have been waiting for this changing of the guard and reflecting on what rowhani had to say to see what it might mean for them. >> reporter: many irani have been caught up in the wave of optimism. they wonder how he will alter relations with the west and how he might change teheran's nuclear program and improve the economy. >> translator: i hope rowhani achieve what he has promised. then the economy will improve and we will have a better society. >> reporter: many irani are

happy to see many years under ahmendinejad come to an end. he with his rhetoric and showed little willingness to compromise. under him, negotiators took a confrontational approach. europeans responded with more serious sanctions. the currency, the real was two-thirds in the past two years. commodity price have widen and so have frustrations of the iranian people. >> translator: inflation has been hard on our lifestyles. if prices remain high people will be left helpless. >> reporter: hold the final

decision on iran's nuclear future. he is expected to attend the meeting of the u.n. general assembly in new york. many will be watching to see how he holds himself in relation to other leaders and they looking to hear whether he adapts a change in tone. iranian authorities have long maintained their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. but leaders in the u.s. and europe argue the country is trying to build a bomb. a spokesperson for president obama says that it presents an opportunity to resolve the issue. jay carney says that the u.s. will work with the new government provided it meets its international obligations and

finds a peaceful solution. he knows that it represented a call by the iranian people for change. he says that the obama administration hopes that the country will make new choices to lead to a better future for iranians. benjamin netanyahu says that he shares the -- the president of i ran looks to get rid of israel. >> translator: the president of iran may have changed. but the goal of the regime has not. iran's intention is to develop a nuclear capability, nuclear weapons, whose purpose is to destroy israel. >> netanyahu warned israel is prepared to use military action to prevent iran from developing

nuclear capability. the syrian prime minister met with rowhani before the inauguration. he delivered a message from the president. the agency said that asad wants to enhance strategic ties between syria and iran to protest against the actions of the west. iran is one of the few nations backing the asad regime and believes that the country is providing arms to the syrian military fighting opposition forces. rowhani wants to build an alliance for stability and prosperity in the region and says that they will maintain tied with asad. the foreign ministers of china and vietnam agreed to continue discussions to resolve sovereignty disputes in islands

in the south china sea. chinese foreign minister wang yi and his vietnamese counterpart pham binh minh met in hanoi on monday. minh said the dispute over the islands should be settled peacefully. wang replied that china has no intention of jeopardizing its relations with vietnam. chinese ships have obstructed vietnamese fishing boats near the islands and drawn protests from vietnam. china also has a territorial dispute with the philippines. china and the association of southeast asian nations or asean are to start official negotiations next month to draw up legally binding rules to settle the disputes. south korea has once again urged north korea to hold talks on reopening the kaesong joint industrial park. >> translator: the patience of the south korean people is reaching its limit, and north korea should behave in a responsible way. >> the unification ministry said in a statement on sunday that the four-month suspension of the complex has caused south korean

firms about $6.7 billion. south korea's requesting compensation from the north for the financial damage. south korea issued the statement one week after making what it calls the final offer for talks on reopening the industrial park. seoul also announced humanitarian assistance for its northern neighbor. pyongyang has made no response. china's government is alarmed about the fast-growing off-the-book debt of local government. it's begun a survey of such debt nationwide. china's national audit office puts the debt owed by local governments at between $2.4 trillion and $3.2 trillion. chinese law prohibits local governments from raising funds by issuing bonds. instead, they use subsidiary investment firms to get money from investors for public spending such as for infrastructure. the method is often referred to

as shadow banking. central government officials say local governments are not bringing in as much revenue as they did in the past. and making matters worse, their investment companies are facing higher debt repayments in the near future. they are concerned some governments may be unable to repay their debts, which could lead to a potential credit crisis. major japanese credit firms are expanding their business operations in asia. aeon financial service launched a aeon microfinance corporation in july in myanmar. the company expects the country's economy to grow with the progress in democratization. the company is the first japanese firm to provide financial service in myanmar. the company has contracted with some 100 shops. they include furniture and home appliance vendors. consumers can pay for items in installments with aeon's credit service. aeon hopes to increase the

number of contractors to 1,000. another major credit firm, jcb, has formed a tie-up with indonesia's fifth largest bank, cimb niaga. jcb credit cards are now accepted by about 11,000 stores in indonesia. the indonesian bank plans to start issuing jcb credit cards early next year. people in rural japan are scratching their heads about what to do with the wild animals that ruin their fields, boars and deer cause millions of dollars of damage a year. some communities are turning the creatures into a source of income. >> reporter: these may look like traditional leather products. but they are actually made with

boar hides and they are starting to make a positive impact on this village. the town of misato is home to 5,000 people. half of them work in agriculture. farmers grow pumpkins here. it takes months to cultivate the crops. but here's what the wild animals did to the crops. >> translator: it's so shocking it makes me regret growing them. >> translator: my rice paddies were a total mess. i had to tear out the seedlings and plant new ones. >> the critters responsible for most of the town's damage are boars. they wonder through the town at night and root through vegetable fields. people are set up over 200 cages in this area and captured these wild boarings every day.

the residents trap about 300 of them every year. they are tired of having their hard work undone by the animals and have been trying to control their numbers. boar meat makes its way on to residents plates but the skins are thrown away, until now. this person who works at town hall wanted to do something about what he saw as waste. he thought the skins could be processed into leather. >> translator: i think we should appreciate the boar as gift from nature. we should use every part of the animal. >> the operators of a small-scale tannery in tokyo stepped in to help. they receive animal hides from communities all across japan with the same problem and process the skins at discounted price. >> translator: we're not just trying to sell products as a

tannery. we want to be of use to these communities. our work seems to be in line with their needs so we're happy to be collaborating with them. >> the operators then send the leathers back to misato. elderly residents then turn them into products for daily use. the town's major1970s was sewiny women worked at seamstresses. but they started losing their jobs in the '80s as the local fabric industry slowed down. and now, the women are once again putting their leather sewing techniques into practice. they transform the leather into items like change purses and pencil cases. each piece showcases the unique handiwork of the person who made it. the women then sell what they made. >> i like doing this together

with my friends. that's why i come here. it's more fun to work with them than to stay home by myself. >> the women come here to make the leather goods once a week. they say it's a great way to reconnect. >> translator: we tend to consider wild animals a problem. but it's encouraging to see people enjoying the process of making these items and that livens up the community too. i hope the positive affects of our project will spread throughout the town. >> people from towns dealing with damage caused by wildlife visit misato almost every week to learn from the residents. a change in the way these an malice a -- animals are received could change the way they are viewed

throughout japan. fresh water eel is a popular dish in japan and people say it helps to beat the heat. but eel prices are rising and as demand grows abroad. >> eel is a staple of the japanese diet. a traditional way of enjoying it is this style where the fish is split open and dipped in a sweet glaze and grilled. it's a delicacy that provides stamina as it is rich in vitamins. >> i crave in the summer. >> i'll keep eating it as long as i can afford to. >> fresh water eel is becoming an expensive habit. much of it is imported from

china and the weaker yen is putting pressure on buyers. domestic producers are also facing challenge that stem from the weak currency. the feed imported from south america is now more expensive. the fish is also becoming popular outside japan. demand is particularly strong among wealthy russians and americans. and now japanese buyers have to compete with them for eel from china. this eel restaurant in tokyo was established 140 years ago. the price of a domestic eel dish here is now more than 3,000 yen, almost $30. it's owners don't want to raise

prices, and are trying to compensate by reducing kitchen staff. >> translator: if we raise prices we'll lose customers. we need to make more cuts to cope with our supplier's price hikes. the eels cost us $5 more per kilo than last year. >> many consumers are turning to eel substitutes when they can't get their hands on the real thing. chicken is stepping in to fill the gap. they are made to look like grilled eel. >> one company offers another option, shark. the spiney duck fish is a common variety of shark that is readily available around the world. this company processes 500 tons

of the fish every year. they decided to offer this alternative. they say spiney duck fish tastes just like eel and has a similar texture but comes with an affordable price tag. they hope that the new product will be a hit with eel lovers. >> translator: let's say you feel like eel, but there isn't any available. that's where the dog fish comes in. i'd like to make this a bigger business opportunity. >> reporter: as eel prices soar around the world, businesses are dreaming up more products that can satisfy customers' cravings without breaking the bank. nhk world, tokyo.

people in thailand have watched their economy grow and tracked their transformationst. incomes have increased. another change can be found in the area of religion. the long-standing practice of making wax replicas of monks is being blessed with new business. >> reporter: in buddhist majority thailand praying to statues and monks is a typical everyday scene. but on this day there is a new object of worship, a monk made out of wax. at a special ceremony, a revered

abbott was presented with a model of himself. >> translator: i contributed the wax monk because the abbott himself is always busy with duties that take him away from the temple. i think it will be a good representation of him so that people can still pay their respects when he's away. >> reporter: it's common to see such effigies here, wax monks are mostly ordered by temples and followers as objects of worship. this museum as revered monks on display. visitors are continually surprised at the level of detail. >> i feel like they're real monks. all the details from hair to skin seem very real, like living people. >> reporter: recently the wax

doll industry has been booming, as both people's income and the number of producers increase. affordable prices and sized varieties mean more and more people can get their own personal wax-work monk. one leading producer told nhk that at least 1,000 life-sized wax-work dolls are made every year at an average price of 3,300 u.s. dollars. the scale of the industry is not small. >> translator: we were making ten dolls a year a decade ago but now it's more than 40. sales have quadrupled and we expect that demand will continue to grow. >> reporter: the most famous monks have their own molds. even so, making a wax monk can take months. a lot of time is spent on human

imperfections such as the hair or skin. and usually, thai wax monks are made using fiberglass. this man who has been in the business for nearly half a century is one of the masters who came up with the idea. >> translator: it started with the fact that thailand is a hot and humid country and we adopted fiberglass in the creation of the glass dolls. >> thai-made wax-work dolls are being exported. orders from neighboring countries are increasing for vietnamese temples or myanmar's politicians. wax dolls are not usually

thought of as a culture from asia but driven by thai religious devotion the art continues to evolve and become ever-more original. nhk world bangkok. people in western japan are dealing with torrential rains and we have chances of thunderstorms in the afternoon. >> generally speak it will be muggy and unstable across much of japan including the southern regions and also we have report of 60 millimeters that fell in the span of one hour. more rain to come. we have warnings in southern and western japan including where we still have expectations of about 50 millimeters in an hour.

a very intense showers. that includes much of western japan and central regions of the country including tokyo where we have a 40% chance of afternoon thundershowers. it will be muggy and unstable in the afternoon and evening hours. if you are going out, carry your strongest umbrella. in the philippines we are seeing heavy rains. we had a storm last weekend that brought flooding conditions to manila and is it not alleviated yet. this low is likely to intensify into a tropical depression status by tonight and enhance the monsoonal flow. heavy showers are affecting northeastern china and north korea. 75 millimeters in north korea

and 50 millimeters in the next 24 hours in northeastern china. across the central region of eastern continental asia the summer high pressure is strong again. 37 in shanghai. and even in kyoto and japan, 35, above the average. in the americas we are dry in the pacific northwest. severe weather in the heart of the country and in the southeastern corner we have severe weather with widespread rain. more to the severe side here in new brunswick a severe thunderstorm warning posted. in the central plains, around this time of the year last year we were experiencing extreme drought conditions. but this year is a different story where the soil is very, very wet. heavy downpours will be found here. and a lot of hail has been

reported in wyoming. the same system will batter similar areas including large hail and damaging winds and intense showers. in the pacific northwest looking fine and nice in the 20s. and toronto looking at the 20s. but ottawa, your morning low will be dipping down to 8 degrees. it's going to be a drastic difference there when the temperatures between the daytime and the night hours. in europe the summer pacific high is still dominating. precipitation here in the british isles. and localized heavy downpours are possible in the area. but we are talking about this dominant weskt the summer high and looking at budapest at 33 degrees and 38 will be expected on your wednesday. i'll leave you now for your

extended forecast.

that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. thank you for joining us. 

- coming up, thinking rationally and behaving ethically. - i think of myself as like a social engineer. people have lots of interests. my interest is the things that we do wrong that we should fix. - duke professor dan ariely discusses behavioral economics, and what beer and vinegar have to do with the israeli-palestinian conflict. that's just ahead on "global ethics forum." - as one of the world's leading behavioral economists, dan ariely has taken direct aim at conventional economic theory. he argues not only that our decisions are often irrational, but that they are predictably irrational. dan ariely is the james b. duke professor of psychology and behavioral economy at duke university. he has not one but two ph.ds under his belt,