hello there. welcome to nhk "newsline." it is wednesday, june 1st, 9a.m. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. members of the lower house have fended off an attack on the cabinet. on tuesday they rejected a no-confidence motion against it. the opposition parties who filed the motion say prime minister abe's plans to delay a tax hike mean his policy has failed. >> translator: most of the people say they don't feel the economy is recovering. their livelihoods are not improving. the wealth gap and poverty are spreading and the government is

wasting taxpayers' money. these are the reasons the cabinet should resign. >> a senior member of abe's liberal democratic party rejected the allegation. >> translator: japan's economy is steadily recovering. the no-confidence motion is based on the interests of the opposition parties. its aim is a kind of political performance. it further enhances people's mistrust in politics. >> a majority of lawmakers from the ruling coalition voted down the motion. they held meetings to discuss abe's plan. the consumption tax is supposed to rise from 8% to 10% in april 2016, but abe wants to push it back to october 2019. to be effective the change has to be approved by the diet. the ruling parties approved the delay and called on abe to give a thorough explanation on why the delay is needed.

the prime minister plans to hold a news conference to explain his decision on wednesday when the current session of the diet comes to a close. the u.s. government is denouncing north korea's latest missile launches. the south korean military announced news of it on tuesday. >> strongly condemning the missile test. >> josh earnest said president barack obama and other g7 leaders last year discussed stepping up defenses posed -- again the threats by north korea. it's believed to have been a medium-range missile capable of reaching the u.s. territory of guam. pyongyang frequently expresses hostility towards the united states, which led a push this year for new u.n. sanctions in response to the north's nuclear and missile tests. the u.s. also conducts joint military exercises with south korea south korea.

north korea is thought to have launched 20 missiles since march with various ranges. it's time for eye an asia. they have begun laying the ground work to report those referred to as comfort women. the members held their first meeting on tuesday in seoul. they will discuss how the fund can address the women's psychological scars and restore their dignity. the governments of south korea and japan agreed to set up the foundation as part of a deal last december to bring a permanent end to the long simmering issue. japan will contribute about $9 million to the project. university professor heads the committee. she said the members will work hard to provide what the women really want. kim referred to a debate over a

statue symbolizing comfort women. the statue was erected in front of the japanese embassy. they have demanded it be removed. kim says it has nothing to do with the foundation's activities. prosecutors have indicted four people. authorities say the product killed 95 people and injured many others. all four charged are former executives of produced disinfectant for humidifier humidifiers. prosecutors indicted the former head of another manufacturer that has since gone out of business. the prosecutors say the executives failed to implement safety tests for the

disinfectants. the product caused lung damage in hundreds of people including infants. the sterilizing solutions were on sale for ten years until 2011. nhk has learned that dozens of tourists from china have gone missing after entering japan. nhk world has more. >> reporter: thousands of chinese tourists arrive. this kind of trip is especially popular among tourists who plan to shop because they can bring more baggage than if they travel by airplane. >> translator: these are for

three kindergarten teachers and 36 friends. >> translator: cruises to japan used to be the preserve of the rich, but now affordable package tours make it possible for the middle class to travel in style in floating hotels. in may, a 57-year-old man from china went missing. about three hours after arriving at the port in the western prefecture of fukoka. he was traveling alone. please and others think he may have taken part in the tour to enter japan illegally. in nagasaki, three chinese men in their 40s disappeared last october. they had arrived at the port there on board a cruise ship. coast guard officials searched for them. and found a map of japan that

the chinese government has access to. according to the police immigration and coast guard officials, 22 chinese cruise ship travellers disappeared from last july through may after reaching japan. in january last year, japan started allowing cruise ship travellers to enter the country without visas under certain conditions including a limited duration of stay. the move came amid arising number of chinese traveling to japan. in the past, when chinese tourists entered japan via cruise liners, they needed to obtain a visa from the japanese embassy in china. cruise ship operators apply for entry permission on behalf of the travelers after confirming their identities. and immigration authorities no

longer take photos of foreign tourists who arrive on board vessels. the police suspect an organization that arranging illegal immigration may be behind the disappearances. japanese authorities are concerned about what seems to be a new way of smuggling people into the country, by taking advantage of relaxed visa regulations for foreign tourists. let's check on the latest business stories. japanese automakers have been caught rigging information. one of them is isuzu. we have more from the business desk. how many cars are we talking about? >> more than two dozen models were affected. the head of suzuki admitted

staff didn't follow mandated rules when calculating mileage for 26 models. the error was made on two million vehicles. he says the company didn't perform the required out door test runs only giving inspectors data collected from indoor testing. >> translator: as the person at the top, i feel a sense of responsibility for failing to provide the right environment for employee training and technological development. >> suzuki says everyone from board members down to regular workers should have been more aware of the regulations. he says the automaker never intended to illegally manipulate data. in fact, when it retested all the models using correct methods, it found the results were better. officials say they won't change their published fuel economy

figures. as to why the problem was not properly addressed, the suzuki officials say they lacked a kmek system. employees didn't realize the implications of ignoring the government regulations. suzuki executives say they will continue to sell the models as revised testing showed better mileages their their own methods. they will come out with new measures and report them to the transport ministry. india has come out with some strong growth data. gdp expanded as manufacturers saw robust sales and consumers splashed out. gross domestic product for the january to march quarter grew 7.9% year on year. the rate was 7.6% for fiscal

2015. that ended in march. that's up 0.4.from 2014. gasoline prices fell on the global slide of crude oil. consumers responded by loosening their purse springs. he is struggling with reforms sump such as simplifying the tax system. many economists believe that the political administration has been playing a key role in maintaining india's strong economic growth. now it's time to check on markets. major indices ended mixed. looking at the month they ended higher. the dow jones rose for a fourth straight month. that was the longest rally since 2014. we're going to siee why this

happened in tokyo. good morning, ramin. tell us what you're seeing. >> looks like investors pretty much ignored that expression of sell in may and go away. a lot of the stock markets gained significantly over the month of may. it was pretty good for japanese equities as well. the stronger dollar also happening. a little bit of a negative start. we're still above that 17,000 level. a reminder on tuesday, the nikkei rose for a fifth straight session ending may up. not bad. sentiment in tokyo was also boosted by the prospect of a delay in the consumption tax hike from 8% to 10% by over two years. many investors eyes will be glued to the job numbers. we may see at the againing of every month is data on manufacturing and services which

investors will look at very keenly. in this region of the world, there's still some head winds as weakness in china's currency is a cause for concern among investors with many waiting to see if the bank of china may take steps to intervene. the yuan weakness has not been held by anticipation of u.s. policymakers raising their key interest rates according to analysts sooner than many had been expecting. >> the dollar did have a strong showing in may. tell us about some of the other key currency players. >> that dollar yen has been very closely watched. overnight the pair moved up and down. right now 110.51. it gained after the release of personal consumption which rose 1% in april. the highest in nearly seven years. after the conference boards index of consumer confidence came out a little bit weaker than expected then it fell.

the euro moved without any clear direction. the central bank meets on thursday for its policy meeting. that's keenly awaited as well. also in commodities, the big focus is the opec meeting in vienna on thursday. crude benchmarks hovering at the $50 a barrel level. you're looking at a graph of the wti now. let's get a check of the markets open right now across asia. seoul's kospi is down. the hour and a half. that's all for me. back to you. >> all right. thanks a lot. we'll talk to you in a few hours. for many young south koreans, finding work isn't easy.

among university graduates only about half have managed to find jobs. we look at measures being taken to help young people. >> reporter: more than 5,000 young job seekers showed up at this job fair in seoul. south korea's government is sponsoring programs to help young job seekers connect with foreign employers like this job fair. over 100 companies from around the world have gathered to hunt for south korean talent. they included staff from the i.t. and manufacturing sectors. some of them even conducted job interviews on the spot. >> it's becoming harder by the year to find work here. that's why i'm looking abroad. >> i think the working style is more flexible overseas and the

quality of life is higher. >> we have been trying to increase domestic employment. we now have no choice but to look abroad. some people working overseas may stay but others will return with a lot of experience. i expect both will contribute to south korea's development. >> reporter: one foreign destination that's proving popular is japan. this south korean school supports such graduates. it offers an eight-month program to study i.t. related skills. the government covers more than 80% of the tuition. i.t. skills aren't the only thing they learn. the school also teaches them japanese business etiquette, including the proper way to bow. the school aims to prepare students so that they can smoothly adapt to japanese

corporate culture. he's within of the students who has chosen to work in japan. he's been at this i.t. firm for one and a half years and is one of nearly 3,000 young south koreans who last year found employment overseas. >> translator: japan and south korea have much in common culturally. i didn't think it would be hard to get used to. i'm glad i came. if i stayed in south korea, i wouldn't have had a good opportunity like this. >> reporter: officials from a south korean education facility recently visited tokyo. they were trying to find more japanese employers interested in hiring their students. they met with representatives from over 30 companies. they researched the needs of their clients and say they reflect them in their school curriculum. >> translator: we're expecting to send 300 young koreans.

we hope the students will serve as a bridge between japan and south korea to help further develop the industries of both nations. >> reporter: people are keen to find out whether this initiative will resolve the job shortage and help the economy back home. nhk world, seoul. >> all right. that's the latest in business for this hour. i'll leave you with a check on markets. japan's weather agency says the country's carbon dioxide

level hit a record high. the it's measured at three locations across japan. av average levels exceeded 400 parts per million last year. the u.n. inter-governmental panel on climate change or ipcc, has a threshold of 420 ppm, which japan says it will hit within ten years if it doesn't slow its current rise. japanese officials also measured co2 levels concentrations. they found averages were also at all-time high. the ipcc wants to limb the rise in the global average temperature to less than 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. an international climate accord signed in december in paris calls for the world to work in keeping temperature rises to

less than 1.5 degrees celsius. the search for a missing boy in northern japan entered its fifth day wednesday. his parents told police they left him in the mountains as a punishment. >> reporter: it's a desperate hunt. his parents say he didn't have any food or clothing for the elements when he disappeared. people are coming through heavy brush, checking shedding. they are holding out hope. >> translator: he's a cheerful boy and loves baseball. i promised to play catch with my nephew on friday. i believe yamoto is safe.

>> reporter: he says the family of four went to the park on saturday, but the boy was misbehaving by throwing stones at people. he told police he wanted to teach him a lesson, so at around 5:00 p.m., he left his son by the side of the road. he said he returned five minutes later, but yamato was gone. he searched the area for a while before calling for help. yamato's disappearance, some people thought he might have gone missing while eating edible plants. >> i told a lie, because i was afraid i would be criticized. i'm sorry for my son and sorry for causing so much trouble for so many people. i'm just hoping that my son comes back safely as soon as possible.

>> heavy rain on tuesday hampered search efforts. officials are using emergency loud speakers to call for information on the boy, but had no leads so far. and concerns for his safety grow. nhk world. people across the world have been looking up at the night sky hoping to get a good look at the so-called super mars. the red planet is the closest its been to earth in over a decade, and appears much brighter and bigger than usual. on the top of the 53-story building in tokyo. mars appeared through a break in the clouds. >> translator: i'm happy i could

see mars. >> mars gets closer to the earth about every 26 months due to a difference between the orbits of the two planets. they're not at a distance of about 75 million kilometers. a group of astronomical observers enjoyed the sight. right now mars is as bright as some stars. >> translator: i can usually only see a tiny mars, but today i could even spot canyons on it. >> researchers at the national astronomical observatory of japan say the next time this will happen will be in july 2018. if you missed seeing the red planet, you can still catch it tonight, but that all depends on weather conditions. let's bring in our meteorologist robert speta.

>> it looks like japan as a whole, today's weather will be a lot better than on a tuesday night. we are looking at clearer conditions. back towards the north, we did have our storm system. it's bringing in some very foul weather, actually severe wind gusts reported in northern hokkaido. that will finally get a move on. before that does happen, still of a threat of more storms, actually coming out of hokkaido on tuesday afternoon. look at the hail coming down. that's one of the things we were talking about, the potential happening here on tuesday, also they damaging winds, and there is the threat of tornadoes, especially in some of these coastal areas with the storms coming on shore. maybe behind it we might see some snow in some of the higher elevations, after it tracks off toward the east. if you look at the rainfall outlook, as we go ahead through wednesday, it does look like things will be dramatically clearing up. now, the southern japanese

islands on the other hand still seeing some showers out here due to the rainy season, also bringing in showers into the shanghai and shone ching areas, where actually in the province about 112 millimeters reported in the past. there is still that threat of more rain up to about 100 to 150 millimeters along that front. just making the situation worse for some of those areas that have already been seeing some flooding out there. if you are in taiwan, it does look like the rainy season is starting to shift a bit further north from you, at least in hong kong, partly cloudy skies. it looks like it will stay that way through the rest of your week. let's move over here towards europe now. talk about the rough weather that's been taking place here, severe flooding reported this past week into southern germany, also across parts of france and that severe weather threat is still there, but also for

spectators at one of the biggest tennis events of the year, the french open, it has been a rough couple days. actually only two of the ten matches planned so far have gone off because of the persistent rainfall that's been coming down for six consecutive days now. you can see people being hampered by this the even some of some of the matches that were played, players not very happy about it because of the precipitation that was coming down. very slick conditions out there on the court. wednesday, thursday, friday at the very least, cloudy skies, it does look like things could shape up and become better by then, so hopefully good news for the players out there. also do want to talk about the severe weather over towards poland, really the leading edge of this jet stream wrapping around, that's the key thing over france right now, this is the cutoff low, by the way.

not moving very fast so actually thunderstorms here in your forecast on wednesday. i'll leave you no you with your extended outlook. that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

>> welcome to global 3000. this week, we head to nepal. it has been a year since the earthquake, and timber is in short supply. the big question is how to protect the forest. we go to ghana. with prices at rock bottom, the mood is one of disillusionment. but first, we go to south korea, where demonstrations often have grievous consequences. in many countries around the world, freedom of assembly is a fundamental right. article 20 of the u.n. declaration of human rights es