♪ hello there and welcome to "newsline." it's thursday, september 10th, i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. officials with the tokyo stock exchange are allowing two units to go public. they say it could happen later this year. the combined market value of the three firms is estimated around $100 billion. one of the country's largest public offerings. the government currently owns 100% of japan post. the firm owns all the shares in japan bank and japan insurance. sources say the approval for the listings on the board should be expected thursday. the firms will be publicly traded on november 4th. they say their market capitalization will be the

largest since ntt went public 28 years ago. leaders in tokyo are planning to use the proceeds to finance rebuilding work for areas affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. japan's only nuclear reactor currently online is set to undergo final inspections before resuming commercial operations. if it gets the green light, it will be the first in the country to start generating electricity for sale since 2013. the operator, kyushu electric power company, started the number 1 reactor in southwestern japan on august 11th. it became the first to be activated under new regulations after the fukushima daiichi accident in 2011. inspectors from the nuclear regulation authority plan to conduct final checks of the reactor and other equipment on thursday morning. and if no abnormalities are found, the regulator will allow kyushu electric to resume commercial operations as soon as in the afternoon.

the president of the european commission is calling on eu countries to open their doors to the victims of a humanitarian crisis. jean-claude juncker said member states should give shelter to 160,000 refugees and migrants fleeing the middle east and africa. juncker described the crisis as the biggest challenge facing the eu. he criticized the reluctance to help and said countries need to act as one on the issue. >> now is not the time to take flight. >> it is time for bold, determined, concerted action by the european union, by its member states and by its institutions. >> eu leaders agreed in may to take in 40,000 refugees who had arrived in italy and greece. most had fled the conflict in syria. juncker says it needs to be compulsory for member states to

share the increasing burden. he said countries should provide support equal to their economic strength and the size of their population. he urged leaders to prepare laws enabling asylum seekers to work while they await permission to stay. interior ministers will discuss the proposal at an extraordinary meeting on monday. german chancellor angela merkel welcomed the proposal. >> translator: we need a binding agreement on a binding distribution of refugees among all member states according to fair criteria. it can't stay the way it is now. >> but leaders of some countries have already indicated they oppose quotas. a spokesman for the hungarian government says sharing refugees among member states is not the proper way to tackle the crisis. >> we have to do the first step, and that is, we have to reinstall border security.

we have to step up against illegal migration and stop the flood of illegal migration. >> he added many people want to go to germany. and it's difficult to keep them in other countries. no quota has been set for hungary because the nation is already confronting a large influx of migrants. finance ministers are meeting today to discuss the global economy. ramin mellegard joins us from the business desk. what's on the agenda? >> a lot of key policies are high on the agenda. both for the u.s. and for china's economy. officials are going to be focusing on recent policy changes in china and a possible rate hike by the u.s. central bank as well. it follows last week's meeting which covered similar ground. the two-day apac gathering gets under way in a philippine city. the 21-member forum includes japan, the united states, and

china. philippines finance minister who chairs the conference, spoke with nhk, ahead of the meeting. >> clearly the action of devaluing the chinese currency had a chain effect, not only in the region, but across the world. it's about creating a framework so that we can accelerate and facilitate the integration of the regional economies. >> risks posed by policy changes by the world's largest and second largest economies were high on the agenda at last week's group of 20 meeting of financial ministers and central bank governors. china's premier has said he's seen no reason for a further slide in his country's currency. he was speaking at the world economic forum. china central bank has been trying to make the yuan reflect market conditions.

it cut the rate against the dollar last month. premier li said the weakening of other currencies against the dollar prompted the bank to decide the way it adjusted the interest rates. he added the adjustment was minor. >> translator: the chinese economy is being managed within a rational range, and the country's trade surplus continues to grow. there are no grounds for the yuan to weaken continuously. >> investors on the foreign exchange market have been selling the yuan against the dollar on concerns over the future of the chinese economy. market players think li's comments indicates beijing intention to top the yuan from plunging and to keep its rates stabilized. let's see how the markets are doing after a stellar performance yet in tokyo. we go to mayu, we saw prices sky rocket on wednesday, something we haven't seen in many years. so how are stocks doing this

morning? how's that following on? >> well, good morning, ramin. we're seeing markets taking a breather after that huge gain you mentioned. investors are taking some money off the table. so let's go to the opening levels here in tokyo this thursday morning. the nikkei is opening down 3%, and the topix is down 2.6%. but given yesterday's 7% gain, maybe the 3% loss is not that big. ramin, just to recap, the nikkei soared to 1,300 points yesterday, the biggest gain in 21 years. jumping 7.7%. looks like yesterday's momentum was short-lived after sluggish trading on wall street where the dow and the nasdaq closed down over 1%. yesterday's gains in tokyo was due to massive bargain hunting, especially by foreign hedge funds. so whether the markets will resume their bull run or not depends heavily on the federal reserve's policy meeting next

week. we also have some major economic data coming out in asia today. we have china's cpi and australia's employment data. australia's s&p and down 1% ahead of that data. they're in a wait and see mode ahead of regional numbers and the fed's meeting. so to see more clear direction, we'll need to wait for next week to see whether there will be a rate hike announcement or not, ramin. >> yeah, a lot of focus on that. but switching to currencies, looks like the dollar's a little bit range-bound, despite yesterday's jump here in japan during the trading hours. but how's it doing right now? >> the dollar is still losing that momentum after hitting 121 yen overnight, because it's now around 120.15. the fed's meeting is making dealers hold off bets, but a lower close to wall street also prevents the dealers from chasing the dollar higher. meanwhile, euro/dollar is around

1.1234. and the british pound, trading lower ahead of the bank of england's rate decision later today. so ramin, right now, shares are still lower, i'll be back with a morning wrap-up in a few hours, back to you. >> great, looking forward to that, mayu. japanese scientist says have been hard at work developing a little known water treatment technology that could produce big benefits. tiny globules of air known as fine bubbles have applications from everything from cleaning to farming and fishing. nhk world's yusuke noguchi has more. >> reporter: kochi prefecture in western japan produces more energy than anywhere else in the country. -- ginger. farmers at this greenhouse are using a special kind of water to improve their harvest. >> translator: you can see the

root is big and really firm. >> reporter: the water is filled with fine bubbles measuring less than 1/10 of a millimeter. these are bubbles usually seen in breeding goldfish. and these are fine bubbles. they remain in water for months. that means the water holds more oxygen and other gases than usual. the water here used to contain about 20% oxygen. now, it's 90%. >> translator: it's great that we started doing this. it's working wonders. >> reporter: associate professor takashi hata is based at the national institute of technology, kochi college. he was one of the first to expand research from industrial

applications to agriculture and other fields. hata developed a portable device that can generate fine bubbles anywhere. people are seeing the benefits of this evolving technology in the fishing industry, too. this is a fish farm. yuichi hirose spent years grappling with the problem. he has to put chemicals in his preserve to prevent the fish from getting parasites. to do that efficiently, he had to gather tens of thousands of fish in a small area. that takes oxygen from the water and it causes many fish to die. >> translator: in the worst case, as many as 2,000 fish died.

it was a huge blow. >> reporter: hirose said it was time to find bubbles. he set up the generator developed by associate professor hata. the oxygen content in the water doubled. and the number of fish that died fell to almost zero. >> translator: the technology works for both water and air. they're the things that people rely on in agriculture and fisheries. all you need to make this device effective, i think we can expect this will be a revolutionary approach. >> reporter: these tiny bubbles hold enormous potential for people working in all kinds of fields. so people are aiming to use them to create a wealth of new industries.

yusuke noguchi, nhk world, kochi. >> and that's it for business news for this hour. i'll leave you with another check on the markets. ♪ ♪ the president of myanmar has met with leaders of ethnic minority guerrilla groups.

political observers believe a truce could build support for the ruling solidarity and development party. he met minorities leaders on wednesday in the capital. he emphasized the importance of a ceasefire. >> translator: i'd like to express the importance of peace in the transition to democracy. without peace, it is not possible. i'd like to call on you all to take part in the discussion with a genuine desire for peace. >> government troops have fought with armed minority groups since myanmar's independence from britain. ethnic minorities account for 1/3 of the country's population. members of the association of southeast asian nations plan to set up an economic community by the end of the year. analysts say the stabilization of border areas is essential for

development. team say the administration succeeded in a draft in march after two years of negotiation. official campaigning kicked off on tuesday. the opposition, national league for democracy, is reportedly moving ahead of the ruling party in the polls. former malaysia prime minister mahathir mohammad has promised to cooperate in a police investigation into a possible criminal defamation involving his criticism of the current prime minister. he said he knows bribes were distributed to the administration. anti-government rallies were held late last month in kuala lumpur. these came amid allegations that the prime minister illegally received about $700 million from a government affiliated fund. he is still a popular figure in malaysia, the former prime minister said lawmakers from the ruling party received illegal funds as bribes during one of the rallies.

police announced they would question mahathir allegations at the rally saying they might constitute criminal defamation. mahatea spoke to reporters on wednesday on his return from an overseas trip. he said he will cooperate with the police if asked. -- his photography is showing his past hardship says to a new generation. nhk has the story. >> a group of japanese is holding a study seminar in bangkok to mark 70 years since the end of world war ii. the organizer wanted people to know how things were in thailand during the war. one of the participants is this

80-year-old, a professional photographer based in the thai capital. he was born in 1931, on the southern island of phuket. his father was japanese. his mother thai. at the time, the japanese military saw thailand as a staging post for its strategy in southeast asia. seto said he underwent training as a child soldier. >> translator: i was told to use a spear or whatever was available to stab enemies to death if i ran out of live ammunition. i wasn't afraid of dying. >> reporter: after the end of the war when seto was 20, he discovered something shocking. it turned out he was stateless. his birth with the local japanese consulate. seto claimed japanese nationality. he submitted documents saying he was a child soldier with the defunct japanese military.

but officials rejected his request. they said his name was absent from his father's family registry. seto says he felt abandoned by japan. he even contemplated suicide. but something happened when he climbed a hill inside a temple compound. >> translator: birds' voices and cotton-like clouds began to rise. when i was watching them, i heard a little bird telling me, you shouldn't die. and the wind wiped my tears away. >> reporter: seto decided to make a fresh start in life. he obtained thai nationality, married a local woman, and embarked on a career as a photographer. the subject of these pictures are people who are struggling to get by. in the same way he used to.

he says this photograph is unforgettable. it shows a boy carrying a gun in myanmar, a country plagued by civil war. >> translator: this photo reminds me of carrying a gun when i was a child soldier. it makes me feel as if i were reunited with my childhood self. we must see to it that children will never carry around weapons. >> reporter: he visits an educational facility. children who cannot attend local schools study here. the parents of some pupils are illegal migrant workers who fled myanmar. >> translator: are you reading a book? can you read? >> reporter: seto hopes his photos will draw attention to children with many difficulties to overcome.

shoko matsumoto, nhk world, bangkok. a powerful storm is passing through japan delivering pounding rain and as robert speta explained, many areas are seeing serious flooding. >> yes, catherine, myself included. we all woke up with showers during the morning hours, and there was localized flooding in tokyo, but really the worst is just off here towards the north into tochigi, we have emergency warnings in place. you can see on the satellite picture, our storm center is over the sea of japan, all the dry air wrapping the storm. we have the line coming on shore, bringing all the problems

in. this is just absolutely record-shattering rainfall out here. 551 millimeters there in tochigi prefe prefecture, that's 21 inches. now, there's several reasons for this, it's not just a direct impact from what's left of this storm here, we have the moisture from the south from that storm. but kilo is back towards the east, pumping in the moisture off the pacific and then cooler air from eastern porgdss of russia. once you get that combination, talking about very unstable weather. we're seeing that on the ground. and i want to show you video out of this area, first out of tochigi during the overnight hours, where the flooding was taking place. emergency warnings were issued and evacuation orders were issued as well. some people had to wade through the waters to get out of there, even some of the children and elderly had to be carried in boats. very serious situation.

let's go to video we have during the day. shows you a broader aspect of what i'm talking about, where the river flooded many homes, up to one meter deep as well. now across japan, most bullet trains have been canceled during the morning hours, we're also seeing 16 people injured across seven prefectures. and back on wednesday, upwards of about 650,000 people were advised to evacuate. not ordered, but the advisories were put out. even though the storm never really made it to that typhoon intensity, still having a very serious impact. let's talk about the forecast now. well, as this continues to pull towards the northeast, that rain band will continue to drift east with it. it's moving very slow. that training effect will linger, so there's additional flood threats. but as we go ahead into thursday night, by friday morning, we should see this pull off here.

unfortunately, we have kilo comes from the east and we still have that cloud shield. so much of hokkaido and parts of da hokeu will still see additional rain. good news, friday and saturday, partly cloudy skies for tochigi. no longer a typhoon here, a severe tropical storm, but it could move off the east coast of hokkaido, bringing rough seas and even strong winds. definitely gust when it passes by. on the bright side, if you're in korea or parts of kyushu, this storm is dragging in all that cool, dry air with it, and making for some sunny skies, actually parts of the korean peninsula, you're looking at temperatures into the high 20s to low 30s. quickly over here towards the americas, the big thing that we're talking about, look at this front, dominating the

picture all along, thunderstorms and damaging winds reported in parts of new york state, moving up the eastern coastline. if you have travel plans, get ready for delays. another front behind that. but the big topic, things are cooling off for parts of central canada. also the southwest, staying on the hot side. stay hydrated and cool out there. i'll leave you now with your extended outlook. ♪ ♪

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>> we have one more story to share with you before we go. people in britain are celebrating as queen elizabeth became the country's longest reigning monarch on wednesday, surpassing the record set by her great great grandmother victoria, by serving for more than 63 years and seven months. ♪ >> the 89-year-old marked the day with the inauguration of a new train route in scotland. she said she didn't want any special events to be held out of consideration for queen victoria. >> a long life can pass by many milestones. my own is no exception. but i thank you all and the many others at home and overseas for your touching messages of great kindness. >> prime minister david cameron

congratulated her in a speech at parliament. >> she has served this country with unerring grace, dignity and decency and long may she continue to do so. >> people in london honored the queen with the flotilla of boats that sailed down the thames river. >> she is an amazing woman and i think, obviously she's been queen for almost all my life. >> polls suggest that many people in britain consider queen elizabeth to be the country's best monarch ever. over 70% of the population supports the monarchy. and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for staying with us. we'll be back at the top of the hour.

>> hello and welcome to "in good shape," on dw coming to you from berlin. relax and enjoy the upcoming 26 minutes of this show about your health. and this is what we'll have for you. painless diagnosis -- new tests for detecting skin cancer. pain-free joints -- tips to protect your knees. and gut feelings -- we'll talk about them with our studio guest. if you've been watching german television or reading magazi