glad you could join us for nhk "newsline." i'm ross mihara in tokyo. foreign ministers from japan, chib and south korea will meet in tokyo wednesday. japan's foreign minister says he hopes for separate direct talks with china so he can protest recent incursions by chinese ships into japanese waters. japanese foreign ministry officials are working to set up a one on one meeting between fumio kishida and wang yi. they're also trying to arrange separate talks for kishida and south korean foreign minister yun byung-se. chinese vessels have entered japanese waters in the senkaku

islands. japan controls the islands, the government maintains they're an inherent part of chinese territory. china and taiwan claim them. kishida is expected to launch a long protest with wang who is first chinese foreign minister to visit japan in five years. >> translator: i want to handle pending bilateral issues in direct bilateral talks with china's foreign minister. i want to clearly and directly convey japan's position to the chinese side. >> but a chinese foreign ministry spokesperson downplayed the significance of the proposed one on one meeting. >> translator: foreign minister wang yi's visit is just to attend the multilateral meeting in response to the request from japan's side. so his visit is not related to any bilateral framework with japan. >> during the trilateral meeting the foreign ministers are expected to discuss cooperation

in dealing with north korea's ballistic missile launches and completing a free trade agreement. troops from the xwrits and south korea have kicked off their annual joint military drill. north korea has called it a provocation and threatened to respond with nuclear strikes. about 50,000 troops from south korea and around 25,000 from the u.s. will spend two weeks taking part in this year's freedom guardian drill. they'll take part in computer simulations to rehearse how to coordinate their commands if north korea attacks. south korean media say the troops will also rehearse conducting preemptive attacks on north korean nuclear facilities and missile bases. the north korean military issued a statement saying it is ready to attack all enemies involved in the drill. it threatened to carry out a preemptive nuclear strike if the u.s. and south korea show the slightest sign of aggression toward north korean territory. people in northern japan are

bracing themselves against a powerful storm. weather officials say the typhoon that lashed the greater tokyo area on monday is now a tropical storm and has hit hokkaido. severe tropical storm mindulle made landfall around 6:00 a.m. on tuesday on the coast of hokkaido. one day earlier mindulle brought tokyo more than 100 millimeters of rain per hour. one person is dead and over 60 have been injured. the storm continued to move northward ripping through the country's northeastern regions before it reached hokkaido. floods inundated houses and roads after nearby rivers overflowed. >> translator: i've never seen water come in like this before. >> translator: the water level got higher so quietly it was very surprising. >> officials are warning of floods, landslides and highways as the powerful storm continues to batter japan. let's go now to robert speta

for an update on mindulle. >> yes, this storm still tracking over hokkaido here. you can see it on satellite picture drifting off to the north and bringing a torrential amount of rainfall after making landfall and ahead of making landfall here on tuesday. remember these totals are over the past 72 hours because we also had another storm make landfall over the past weekend. in total nearly 300 millimeters of precipitation in these locations. we're still going to be watching this track overhead over the course of the next 12 hours before it kind of moves off shore and could bring some rough weather there over towards sakhalin in russia. but for now the big threat will be the gusty winds, the gale force winds here in that yellow ring but also the heavy precipitation. it is not just because of this storm. as i mentioned we had one this past weekend and another one last week, chanthu which moved

overhead. hokkaido got hit by three tropical storms that made landfall. this is the first time in recorded history back when records began that three tropical storms made landfall in hokkaido in the same year. yet alone the same few days. the span over a week and a half here. so definitely that is why we're looking at that precipitation threat still additional 150 millimeters is possible. also we can see some gusts up to 126 kilometers per hour mainly in the central areas of the island, although that's where you'll be looking at the highest landslide and flood threat. also take a look down towards the south. we have our other tropical storm out here. we're still watching this one meander and it will intensify and become a typhoon by thursday. it might linger here before pulling back towards the northeast. something we're going to watch out for over the coming days. rio de janiero has closed

its olympic games, and tokyo is already increasing efforts to prepare for hosting the olympics and paralympics in four years. tokyo governor yuriko koike visited the rio games as part of her official duties and says seeing the venues in operation and learning from them was a significant experience. she also pledged to scrutinized the budget for the 2020 tokyo games. >> translator: we need to work quickly to prepare for the tokyo games, but we also need to review plans and make corrections where necessary. >> koike says that she will work to make the games a success and win the support of the people of tokyo. ypz government officials are putting the finishing touches on a second supplementary budget to help pay for a new stimulus package. nhk has learned nearly $33 billion will come out of the general account for the extra budget for the current fiscal

year. the japanese are earmarking more than $7 billion for child rearing support and a one-time payment to low income earners. they're also setting aside some $14 billion for infrastructure projects such as port that can handle large cruise ships. they're allocating another $14 billion to help rebuild the quake-struck kumamato area and the tsunami-hit northeast. they plan to approve the budget on wednesday and submit it to an extraordinary session of the diet in the fall. china says it will scrap anti-dumping duties on stainless steel tubes from japan and the european union. china imposed the fines saying unfairly low prices other products hurt the country's industry. but a dispute panel decided last october the policy was unjust and against wto rules. they called on china to rectify the situation. officials at japan's trade min see the reestimate the duties

cost about $5.3 million annually. they say china's move will help make japanese tubes more competitive. the leaders of germany, france and italy have called for unity in the european union following the british decision to leave the bloc. they had talked ahead of a meeting of eu leaders except britain's in slovakia next month. angela merkel, francois hollande and matteo renzi spoke to reporters before their meeting on an italian aircraft carrier off naples. renzi said many people assume that brexit would trigger the end of europe, but that isn't the case. details other talks have not been disclosed, but the leaders are believed to have worked together on job creation for young people and boosting security cooperation in response to a series of terror attacks.

in our series "women of vision "we meet figures who are challenging society and prevailing norms. today expat catherine jane fisher. she's leading a campaign that seeks justice for victims of sexual assault by u.s. servicemen and base workers. >> tens of thousands of people gathered in june to protest a crime that shocked the nation. weeks earlier police arrested a former u.s. marine who was working at a military base. they believe he assaulted and murdered a 20-year-old japanese woman. catherine jane fisher traveled from tokyo to join the rally. years ago she endured a similar attack. >> i'm not afraid. i'm not ashamed to say that i'm a survivor of u.s. military

rape. >> reporter: fisher came to japan with her family as a teenager. she worked as a model and english teacher and raised three children. in 2002, everything changed when she was the victim of a horrific attack. she was visiting a city south of tokyo where the u.s. has a naval base. in the parking lot she was raped by an american serviceman. a self-portrait she drew shortly afterward depicts her terror. for years she suffered from insomn insomnia, flashbacks and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. >> i couldn't sleep at night. even the slightest noise, the slightest noise would scare me. it would be very difficult for me to explain how a rape victim feels. what does ptsd feel like, you know? and how it destroys your life.

>> reporter: the suspect was not indicted. so fisher filed a suit seeking compensation. during the trial, the serviceman returned to the u.s. and disappeared. fisher was furious that her attacker was able to leave the country without facing up to what he did. she spent ten years tracking him down. later, she filed a suit in the u.s. and won. during that trial, she learned of shocking testimony by the rapist. he claimed he was told by a u.s. navy lawyer to leave japan. fisher began talking to groups in okinawa prefecture that support female victims. she discovered that violence against women by u.s. servicemen and base workers was widespread. >> nothing has changed. they're still gang raping women in japan. >> reporter: she started recording the cases. fisher is convinced the

situation won't change until the status of forces agreement changes. the u.s./japan status of forces agreement applies to u.s. military personnel and base workers in japan. it says if u.s. authorities detain a suspect first, they have the primary right to investigate. >> anybody who is thinking about doing a crime in japan knows that they don't have to obey the laws of japan. it only says respect. so they can walk out of this country freely. so we have to set certain rules, which says not only do you have to respect the law of japan, you have to obey them. >> reporter: u.s. military officials reject the idea that the status of forces agreement causes criminal activity. they say the u.s. military does not tolerate sexual assault and has a policy that reinforces efforts to prevent it. recently fisher launched a new campaign to highlight the

scourge of violence against women. she went to a university in okinawa to discuss the problem with students. fisher wants to set up a 24-hour rape crisis center that victims can visit regardless of their gender or nationality. she asked the students for their help. >> i have taken such a painful experience and made it into something very beautiful and powerful, which will actually save people's lives. >> reporter: fisher believes that only by speaking out together can the victims of violence tear down the wall of silence that surrounds these awful crimes. one of the tragedies of world war ii is being remembered 72 years later. people attended a memorial service in the southern japanese prefecture of okinawa for the

1500 victims of an attack on a ship. more than half of them were children. about 450 relatives and survivors were present at the service. on august 22, 1944, ra u.s. submarine sank a japanese cargo ship, the tsushima maru. it was carrying children who were on their way to japan's mainland to avoid a major imminent battle in okinawa. this woman lost her five family members. >> translator: i'm the only survivor in my family. and i always feel lost for words at this time of year. >> reporter: a separate memorial service was held on a small island near where the ship sank. residents scrubbed a monument and prayed for the victims. local elementary school students clean the monument every month to keep the memory alive. banana farmers in the philippines are fighting a disease that's putting the future of their crop in doubt.

nhk world reports from the country, one of the biggest banana exporters in the world. >> reporter: the island of mindanao is the largest banana producing area in the country. but the crop is under threat. a new strain of the phantom of the seas has been spreading in mindanao as well as other parts of the world. this farm was left abandoned years ago when the disease started to spread and was not contained. the disease is caused by a fungal pathogen. it can kill banana plants after entering from the roots and causing the crop to rot. the original strain of the disease broke out in panama about 100 years ago. the infection quickly spread

around the world and nearly wiped out the banana variety that was most popular at the time. the new strain of disease believed to be more infectious than the older one. major crop damage from it was first discovered in taiwan in 1990. it has since been confirmed in other parts of asia as well as the middle east and africa. a banana grower has been trying to deal with the infection in his plantation for the past four years. >> you can see the leaves are yellowing. so once it's infected with it, it will not grow. >> reporter: there is no cure for the infected plants at this

point. the only choice is to chop them down. the surrounding area is then declared off limits in a bid to stop the infection from spreading. they are carefully disinfected before entering the plantation to stop the fungus from spreading further. but despite these efforts. >> there are already some plantations that have been closed because of the spread of it. banana disease is very critical. >> reporter: a local group of banana growers says the banana trees have already been infected. banana production has dropped in the past five years and will likely drop even more this year. >> if local measures are being implemented, it's possible, it's very possible that it can wipe out the banana industry maybe in

the next five to ten years. >> reporter: the philippine government is trying to develop a new variety to protect its banana industry. this experimental banana trees have reached the stage where it's almost resistant to the fungus. but it only yields about half the amount of bananas the current variety produces. and will unlikely be commercially available for the foreseeable future. >> translator: it's unclear when we'll find a solution. but we have to try to find one as long as the panama disease exists. >> reporter: 100 years of the world's banana crop came under threat, a new strain of phantom of the seas is threatening. they need to find a way to deal with it to make sure bananas don't disappear from supermarket

shelves. reporting for nhk world from mindanao. at universities overseas is tend to find jobs abroad after graduating. the brain drain has become a major social issue. some chinese firms are working hard to lure skilled graduates back home. nhk world has more. >> reporter: this firm in beijing makes arrangements for young chinese looking to study abroad. firm officials say more and more high school students wt to go to europe and the u.s. to study state of the art technologies. >> translator: if i get the chance, i would like to study overseas to learn more. if i do that, it will give me an advantage. >> reporter: the chinese academy of sciences says only one-third of students who study abroad

return home. many choose to stay overseas to work for companies and research institutes that offer better salaries and conditions. many companies in china see those young people as great opportunities. here in the city of chendu, the business community is eagerly working to attract them. this man runs a firm producing solar panels. he says the clean energy industry is highly competitive, so his firm needs young people who have graduated from technology programs overseas. last year he set up an organization called the szechuan thousand talents association with other business owner in the city to hunt for students studying abroad. the association's goal is to draw 1,000 outstanding students to local businesses. he himself had spent 15 years in

the u.s. studying electric engineering and working. he decided to return home when he was asked to help start up a company. >> reporter: he talks with one of his association managers who is leaving germany. the partner is meeting chinese students to look for suitable candidates for the company in the association. he says if a match is found, the company will immediately make a job offer and explain the working conditions in detail. >> they bring their skill, they bring their appearance, they bring the way they are thinking. so they can help our innovation. >> reporter: so far the association has brought 20 students back to china to work.

one of them is this man. he joined a pharmaceutical company in chengdu six months ago. he had studied at a college in denmark and said he was thinking of looking for a job in the country after graduating, but he says association officials told him that the chinese maker would assign him important research tasks as soon as he joins. >> i took advantage of my skills and knowledge to be with a new path for this company. >> reporter: but retaining this elite is another challenge. rival firms are also searching for young talent. and some young graduates quit their jobs because they cannot adjust to their new lives in china. >> we try to build better

environment for all. >> reporter: chinese officials are pushing businesses to put more weight on the quality of the products they make rather than just the quantity. young graduates with advanced skills and knowledge may be the key to make that leap. reporting for nhk world. robert speta is back for the world weather report. yes, let's start off with the bigger picture out here across eastern asia. we're still talking about our two tropical systems, mindulle and we have linerock down here to the south. but stretching between both of these storms we have this trough of low pressure that's just lingering towards the southeast of tokyo, really running along

the current, the warm water current out here. that's been firing up some showers. throughout the day here on tuesday, despite the fact that both of these storm systems are moving away from central areas of honshu, we're beginning to see this drift a little further inland. so pretty decent weather out here across tokyo, even towards osaka, but showers will start to kick up. some will bring some strong thunderstorms. we also have been talking about the back-to-back tropical storms out here in the western pacific and even more are possible as we look ahead through the forecast in the coming weeks, but do have to remember it is late august. we are in the peak of the western pacific tropical season out here. through september it's still about the peak until things peter off heading into october and november. but for now, though, still farce clima -- as far as climate is concerned we'll get more storms in the coming weeks. a look down towards the south still looking at scattered

showers across the indo china peninsula and the philippines. the southwest monsoon continues to kick up the rain there. and this high pressure bubble is also dominating over towards chongqing, 39. tokyo 31. still get a look ta showers especially into the afternoon hours. let's talk about the severe weather here in the americas. take a look at the satellite picture. we have that front rolling off the northeastern u.s. i want to show you some video because of the storm system that kicked up with that front into massachusetts. an ef-1 tornado ripped through there on monday. a video showing all these downed trees, about 350 meters wide, damaged about 40 homes. good news no people were injured. look back to the west, we have another front central areas of canada as it continues to roll through. then down towards the south, maybe more scattered showers in

the deep south. big problem here is you're still recovering from a serious flood last week and any more rain is definitely not going to be welcome. i'll leave you now with your extended outlook.

that's all we have this hour on nhk "newsline." thanks for staying with us.

euro max highlights, and here is your host. i am so glad you can join me. we have a very nice show for you with some of euro max's highli ghts from the past week. this is what we have coming up. good-looking, british celebrity makeup artist lisa eldridge is popular on youtube. fine dining, we visit the best restaurant in the world in italy. iconic building, a church and leipsic is nominated for a leading architecture award. the history and evolution of makeup is an interesting story.