welcome to "newsline." it's thursday, december 17th. i'm miki yamamoto in tokyo. officials at the u.s. federal reserve have decided to change monetary policy. a landmark decision given that direction hasn't change in years. they debated the move over two days of meetings and they will implement the strategy right away. let's go to ai uchida at our business desk. give us the details. >> they are tightening monetary policy. they decided to raise their key interest rate which has been near zero since the 2008

financial crisis. it will 0 go up for .25% point. mortgage rates and car loans will go up because commercial banks will raise their rates too. they reached their decision overnight signaling confidence in the u.s. economy and job market. they released a statement after a two-day meeting. they raised their rate from 0.25 to 0.5% on thursday. it's a first increase in almost a decade. the labor market has shown considerable improvement this year and economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace. fed chair janet yellen said the decision reflects the committee's confidence that the economy will further strengthen. she also stressed they would monitor economic conditions.

>> with the economy performing well and expected to continue to do so, the committee judged that a modest increase in the federal funds rate target is now appropriate. recognizing that even after this increase, monetary policy remains accommodative. for insight let's go a specialist in new york. we asked eric norland about the rate hikes likely effects on the u.s. economy. >> we think it will have a small impact. in 2016, we're still expecting about 2 to 3% economic growth in the u.s., which is very similar to what we have had so far in 2015. we will be watching a number of indicators quite closely, however, including inflation. inflation has been very, very low because of the collapse in energy prices in the strong u.s. dollar. the fed expects inflation will rebound up to around 2% next year. but we're not so sure it's really going to move that far.

following the fed's decision, share prices on wall street gained and the dow jones gained just about 1.3% and the tech heavy nasdaq rose 1.5%. let's look at currency, the dollar rose to 122.43-45 yen. many traders are buying the dollar, expecting higher yields on u.s. treasury notes. the feds somewhat dovish stance is limiting the dollar buying. let's take a look at some other markets across the asia-pacific. we're seeing gains across the

board. sydney share prices trading higher. the cost pi is up just slightly. the feds move ends the policy put in place seven years ago at the height of the global financial crisis. nhk world's kyoko fujita has more. >> reporter: in september 2008, the biggest bankruptcy case in u.s. history rocked financial markets. >> the financial systems in the united states and in much of the rest of the world are under extraordinary stress, particularly the credit and money markets. >> reporter: fed officials took unprecedented measures to prevent the country from sinking into a full-blown depression. up until that point, they had already been cutting interest rates in stages. they've been trying to combat the effects of an economic

slowdown brought on by the subprime mortgage crisis. then in december they lowered the rate to near zero for the first time in fed history. and they bought mortgage-backed securities and long-term government bonds to pump liquidity into the market. fed officials spent trillions of dollars before finally putting an end to their asset-buying program last october. they saw some encouraging signs that an economic recovery was taking shape. since then, investors around the world have been watching and wondering when the fed will raise the key rate. in march, fed chair janet yellen hinted that the bank would consider it once it's confident of the recovery in the labor market and prices. then in summer, global stock prices plunged due to concerns over china's economic slowdown. at meetings in september and october fed officials decided to keep the rate unchanged. meanwhile, the u.s. economy continued to get stronger. in november, the number of nonfarm jobs increased by more than 210,000 from the previous month, exceeding market expectations.

affirmed the economy was showing signs of steady growth. seven years after putting this extraordinary measure in place, fed officials have reached a milestone moment. kyoko fujita, nhk world. fed officials have spent a lot of time thinking about the ideal moment to raise the key rates. let's good to our gsh go to our economic correspondent. policy makers finally made up their mind to take a step forward. why not? >> well, ai, they decided the time is right. the jobs rate is at 5%, half of what it used to be during the peak of the global financial crisis and just about the same level it was before the crisis occurred. consumer spending seems to be holding steady.

weighing on their minds was the risk to the global economy. america's trading partner, china, has been slowing down and the economy in europe is still shaky but then raising rates now would give the fed a free hand if economy's rescind. janet yellen has been very careful. she's taken sufficient time to let participants know the fed wants to move ahead with a rate hike. after 7 years of this near zero interest rate policy, the fed is heading some way toward normalization. >> what's next? >> policy makers signaled they would hike rates four times in 2016. they stress the future increases will be slow with gradual adjustments expected to help the economy. wages are not as strong as policy makers had hoped.

inflation is still below

china is growing more slowly and importing less and that's taking a toll on economies that export to the world's most populous nations. global monetary easing has yet to be known. fed officials have every reason to be cautious and ensure the global economy stays on a steady path. i'll have more business for you later on the show. for now i'll hand it back to miki. u.n. secretary-general ban

ki-moon says he hopes to visit north korea to help ease tensions. he will be the first u.n. chief to visit north korea in 22 years. >> i'm ready to provide my role as the secretary-general, wherever they take for peace and stability. >> ban, a south korean national has expressed his willingness to visit the north since 2007. he hopes the u.s. and pyongyang will find a mutual date. u.n. diplomatic sources say china is actively involved in the arrangements. beijing has been seeking to help pyongyang's ties and ease

tensions between korea. investigation into japan's march 2011 nuclear accident. investigators believe extreme heat in the pufukushima power pn may have melted some parts. officials at tepco believe that damaged parts impeded emergency responders from cooling down the number two reactor. the failure caused the reactor to meltdown and release large amounts of radioactive substances. investigators say temperatures exceeded 200 degrees celsius at the time of the accident. a temperature hot enough to melt key parts. tepco officials say there are other reactors have the same parts and they plan to replace the parts with heat resistant ones. jachen -- japan's trade

balance has return to the red. government officials say exports fell in november. the officials at the finance ministry says japan's trade deficit was about 380 billion yen. exports were down 3.3% year on year. that was the second straight month of decline. auto exports to the u.s. were strong but shipments to china and other asian markets were down. imports also fell dropping 10.2% as prices of crude oil and liquid natural gas decline sharply. the figure fell for the 11th month in a row. japan is preparing to sign an investment deal with iran next month. a government official has told nhk the two sides are at the final stage of working out the details. the officials say the countries plan to hold the signing ceremony in japan. the document will be submitted to the diet in february. the iranian side needs to finish

off its procedures. it is expected to make inroads into the country's markets. an agreement reached in july between iran and six world powers cleared the path for lifting economic sanctions on iran. the first customers of a japanese-designed passenger jet will have to wait a by the longer. officials at mitsubishi aircraft corporation say again the initial delivery will be delayed. customers had expected to receive the mitsubishi regional jet or mrj between april and june of 2017. the period will be pushed back but they didn't specify by how long. the official are citing delays in the jet's development. they say they need more time to obtain what's called pipe certification from the japanese government. it is the fourth postponement of

the mrj which successfully completed its maiden flight in november. now the company has already received orders for more than 400 planes from regional carriers in several countries, including japan and the united states. managers at many japanese companies are having a hard time recruiting workers because of the low birth rate and aging population. in the first installment of a two-part series in japan's labor market, we look at how some businesses are finding unique ways to attract and keep the right staff. nhk world's nana yamada reports. >> reporter: a meeting is taking place at the textile recycling firm. the manager has invited a recruitment company to help him hire staff. he wants to recruit younger talent, but his firm is small, and he doesn't have time to search for candidates. >> translator: we need people

who can keep an open mind. they need to be flexible in their thinking. >> translator: we hope to introduce someone close to your ideal worker. >> reporter: the service costs more than $4,000 for each new hire, a price hiring managers seem willing to pay. the recruitment company says it has 6,400 clients on its books. many are smaller firms. >> translator: we could place ads at public job placement centers, but that would require us to handle everything from scratch. we don't have the luxury of spending that much time on the task. >> reporter: one problem for small companies is their low profile in the job market. this online service offers a proactive solution. it allows firms to search a database of students. categories range from universities and qualifications to positions held in sports

clubs. if the firm finds a promising candidate, it can make a direct offer for a job interview. >> translator: students on one hand know very little about small and mid-sized firms. the companies, on the other hand, know from past experience what type of students they want to hire. so naturally, we thought that the companies should approach the students, not the other way around. >> reporter: this is one company using the service. a wholesaler based in osaka, western japan. the company has been expanding into new areas and is doubling efforts to hire young talent with innovative ideas. on this day, four university students all contacted through

the online scouting program are visiting the head office. >> translator: do the purchasing officers have market data to find out which items are likely to sell better? >> translator: well, there's rarely marketing data available for new products. so we often have to rely on intuition. >> translator: the atmosphere was free and lively. i will definitely apply for a job interview. >> reporter: the recruitment chief says she's been encouraged by the positive responses from students. >> translator: about 80% of students who take part in the company tour apply for the next step in the recruitment process. we're getting better in terms of finding the right match. >> reporter: the website operator says 28,000 students have signed up from across japan. the service is promising to be a new lead for smaller companies scouting for manpower.

nana yamada, nhk world. >> and in the second part of our labor market series, we'll take a look at a japanese firm that's hitting targets with an unconventional staffing solution. that's the latest in business news for this hour. i'll leave you with a check on markets. ♪ ♪

>> reporter: st. john was one of the pilots who dropped bombs on the "musashi." he had rarely spoken about it. after he heard that the "musashi" had been found, his feelings began to change. >> it's still weird to look at it, and i'm sure there are many that are still there. >> reporter: october 24, 1944. 162 u.s. war planes took part in the attack. st. john came at the "musashi" from the side. it was even more massive than he imagined. he flew into heavy anti-aircraft fire and thought he might die. >> as a matter of fact, i'd have to say that none of the rest of the american fleet ever saw anything like that. it was just like a big old blanket. you could walk on it, really. >> reporter: st. john said the ship put up a fierce fight for hours before it finally sank. over 1,000 crew members died.

>> we managed to miss them. it doesn't mean we were any good. this was just luck. the people that were on that ship, they didn't want to do what they were doing. but their high command turned them into that and that's what they had to do. just as we had to do what we did. well, it was war. >> reporter: in japan too, some surviving members of the battle are still alive. 91-year-old nobuo ito was an anti-aircraft gunner on the ship's deck. ito said the u.s. attack was incredibly fierce as they tried to repel it, he saw his fellow crew members being killed. and their replacements, too. >> translator: i guess we were

considered the most expendable. >> reporter: ito read the transcript of st. john's words intently. for the first time he realized that just like him, the u.s. servicemen had no choice. >> translator: he had to follow orders and fight. he had no choice in the matter. war is something that should never, ever happen. >> reporter: the discovery of the "musashi" has broken the seal on the memories of the few remaining participants of the battle. seven decades later they are only now making their peace with the tragedy that engulfed them. koji yamamoto, nhk world. and it's time now to check out the world weather with our meteorologist robert speta. robert, we've been experiencing unseasonable warm weather

recently here in tokyo and across japan. it doesn't feel like december at all. is it going to like this for some time or is winter finally going to take withhold? >> let's start off talking about the weather out here in japan, and yes, there is a big change on the way across most of the country. those warm temperatures that we actually have seen on tokyo area on wednesday, up to 17 degrees there for the high. it's going to be dropping like a rock out here. getting through the rest of thursday, into friday. you can see it on our satellite picture. we had a cold weather cumulus clouds back here toward the west. those lines setting up from the northwest toward the southeast. if you have looked at a satellite imagery out here in japan especially during the wintertime, you know exactly what that means. that means that satisfy -- sea-effect snowfall, up wards 100, 114 kilometer per hour

gusts. some areas of hokkaido could see as much as 30 centimeters i couldn't say through thursday. down the south, we'll see heavy snow pile up in some of these locations. in the tokyo area, it's going to be cooling down. i don't expect any snowfall for you. back toward the west, high pressure dominating northeastern china, getting things on the cold side. this is dipping down to the south with our latest cold surge, even being reflected toward hong kong and taiwan. temperatures lingering in the mid teens to you. we have our storm systems out here, melor rolled over the philippines the past week and has been down graded to a tropical depression. really the storm system completely disrupted by the vertical wind shear. over all, both of these storm systems do not expect any typhoon-like conditions and definitely some mess where weather over next several days.

let's take a look here into the americas. actually, we have this large storm system dominating the central u.s. it has been bringing some rough weather even down toward the south, still the chance of severe thunderstorms popping up toward the southeastern u.s. toward the north, windy conditions back over to quebec. we have seen temperatures surging in. it has felt almost spring-like for a lot of you. unfortunately for a lot of these ski resorts, people that depend on the snowfall across new england, that has been making for some rough weather. if you remember, last month, we actually got some early season snowfall into parts of new england. that really set up some of these resorts to start making their snow across many of these regions. you can see on the side, we have our snow makers kind of sticking up, but since temperatures have been so warm, that snow that was made just completely melted off and really that's been the case. a lot of these resorts

cheerless, sitting idle for the time being. that's going to be the case for the near term. we have this coming through. that's going to bring widespread rainfall. back toward the west, that hasn't been the case we've been getting above average snow for parts of the pacific northwest. still seeing some more on top of that and even heavy rain and gusty winds going through the rest of your thursday and friday as well. western areas of europe, we have wind warnings in effect in northwestern spain. that's going to be moving toward the british isles going through the next several days. down toward the south, high pressure is dominating for the time being. it is creating some heavy fog in a few areas. rome, 12 for your high. showers in vienna. paris, high 15 on thursday. here's your extended outlook. ♪ ♪

that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm miki yamamoto in tokyo. we'll be back with more news for you at the top of the hour. please stay tuned. xxxx

♪ >> hello and welcome to your health show on dw, coming to you from berlin. i'm feeling pretty excited today, as i'm going to be announcing the winners of our resistance bands. we'll also be finding out all about the latest developments in the beauty industry. also coming up -- looking good -- what you need to know about cosmetic surgery. training hard -- the exercise routine that will get you into a sweat. eating well -- the pros and cons of dairy products.