hello there, welcome to nhk "newsline." it is thursday, october 27th, 9:00 a.m. in tokyo. we start this hour with breaking news. japan's prince mikasa has died. the uncle to emperor akahito was 100 years old. the prince died on thursday. prince mikasa who is a younger brother of the late emperor whose given name was hirohito. he was admitted to a tokyo hospital in mid-may after suffering acute pneumonia. sources say he was in and out of the intensive care unit since due to a series of health issues including heart problem and

further pneumonia. in late june, he add a pacemaker implanted in his heart. once again, japan's prince mikasa has passed away. the uncle to emperor akahito was 100 years old. the prince died on thursday. prince mikasa was a younger brother of the late emperor shoa whose given name was hirohito. he was admitted to a tokyo hospital in mid-may after suffering acute pneumonia. sources say he was in and out of the intensive care unit since due to a series of health issues including heart problems and further pneumonia. in late june, he had a pacemaker implanted in his heart. zblchblgs on to other stories we're following this hour. two new earthquakes rocked central italy where a temblor killed 300 people in the town of amatrice and elsewhere in august. the u.s. geological survey says a quake of magnitude 5.5 hit

shortly after 7:00 p.m. local time on wednesday. it adds another tremor of magnitude 6.1 struck around 2 hours later. the end centers of the quakes are swestimated to be 120 kilometers northeast of the capital, rome, and roughly ten kilometers deep. local media reports say some buildings have collapsed in the towns of visso and usita. the government says many people are believed to have been evacuated from buildings after the first quake. the leaders of japan and the philippines say the issue of disputed territory and china's military buildup in the south china sea is a matter of global concern. the pair made the statement in a joint news conference in tokyo on wednesday following a meeting. >> translator: we have confirmed the importance of a peaceful resolution of maritime disputes in compliance with the u.n. convention on the law of the sea.

and other laws. without resorting to the threat or use of force. >> the philippines will continue to work closely with japan on issues of common concern in the region and uphold the shared values of democracy, adherence to the rule of law, and a peaceful settlement of disputes, including the south china sea. >> during the meeting, duterte said he will always be on japan's side in dealing with the issue. china's recent buildup in the waters has increased region tensions. the philippines and others have territorial disputes with china there. but last week in a trip to beijing, duterte agreed to set it aside for now and took home investment pledges worth billions of dollars. duterte has been making a series of harsh remarks toward the united states. shortly before his meeting with abe, the president implied he wants the u.s. military to withdraw from his country.

>> i want maybe in the next two years my country freed of the presence of foreign military troops. >> duterte again lashed out at u.s. officials for criticizing his deadly anti-drugs campaign. he said america is treating his country like a dog with a leash. but japanese officials say abe made a strong argument in defense of the u.s. alliance. japan views america's presence in the asia-pacific region as vital for peace and stability. the officials quoted duterte as saying he does not intend to sever diplomatic ties with the u.s. the leaders agreed that japan will provide the philippines with patrol boats. it will also help train pilots to help the country bolster its defenses. university students in russia and japan have swapped opinions by video conference. they were taking part in an event to mark the 60th

anniversary since bilateral ties were restored. about 30 students, including russians and japanese studying in russia, gathered on wednesday at the moscow state institute of international relations. they discussed with their japanese counterparts at kyoto sangyo university the status quo of bilateral relations and ways to bring their countries together. one russian student pointed to the need for japan and russia to strengthen their relationship by emphasizing specific fields such as the economy and security. a student in japan responded by suggesting that peace can be preserved in the region through security cooperation. >> translator: it's good for young people who will play a key role in future japan/russia ties to deepen mutual understanding. >> a russian student said the exchange of views will help increase trust between the two countries. japan has been pushing for closer economic ties and it hopes to resolve various issues like a concluding of a peace

treaty that wasn't signed after the end of world war ii due to a territorial dispute. a first group of myanmar refugees who pled persecution by the former military government have returned home. the u.n. refugee agency calls it a big step, although sporadic fighting continues between the military and armed ethnic minorities in some regions. the civil war and decades of military rule displaced more than 100,000 people in myanmar. many live in refugee camps along the border with thailand aided by the u.n. and ngos. myanmar state counselor aung san suu kyi and democratically lengted government have encouraged them to return to their homeland. 65 people left their camp in thailand's west on wednesday and crossed the bridge linking the two nations.

>> are you excited to go back? >> i love my country. >> myanmar's government has set up facilities to receive them on a temporary basis. families looked relieved as they moved into housing units. but now they're back in myanmar, they face the challenge of making a living. despite the first steps, the return of refugees is not expected to pick up steam any time soon. hong kong's legislature was thrown into chaos on wednesday after two pro-democracy lawmakers defied an order barring them from attending meetings. they showed up to take their oaths of office, which had been annulled because of the language they'd used. other pro-democracy lawmakers surrounded them and called on the legislative council president to step down. the session was then adjourned. at the legislature's first session earlier this month, the two lawmakers used words about china that were deemed offensive.

they also displayed a flag that said "hong kong is not china." they were accused of violating the territory's de facto constitution and the council president banned them until a ruling is made. more than 8,00o-in supporters gathered outside the the lawmakers should b disqualified. the government has been accused of pandering to the will of beijing. there's a deepening rift developing between the pro-beijing hong kong government and activists critical of the mainland. japanese businesses have been making large investments in the fast-growing economies of southeast asia. one of their latest plans i to develop a suburban community in i indonesia. let's bring in ai uchida from our business desk. ai, good morning. tell us about this fronproject. >> the number of middle income

earners is growi ining indonesi. japanese businesses and a fund are planning to start a consortium to create a community with some houses. mitsubishi corporations is joining hands with several railway operatorors that have rl estate operations and an investment fund known as j.o.i.n. spon seniored by the private and public sectors. they plan to invest a total of $287 million. their new community will be about 25 kilometers from the indonesian capital, jakarta. they're going to build 900 homes plus some commercial buildings on 19 hectares of land. construction is scheduled to kick off next year. in the meantime, the consortium will establish a joint venture with indonesia's leading real estate corporate group. making and selling car parts in china is big business for some japanese companies and their local partners. many of them are -- attended,

rather, a trade fair in chongqing. japan external trade organization hosted the event. representatives of about 30 car component makers affiliated with japanese companies took part. exhibiters pitched their products to local businesspeople. auto production in chongqing topped 3 million vehicles last year making it chineachina's to producer. the city raced ahead of shanghai and guangdong province for the number one position for the second year in a row. both domestic and foreign auto firms are opening production hubs in the city. and now let's turn to markets. wall street ended mixed on wednesday on diverse u.s. earnings results and continued volatility in oil prices. the dow jones industrial average closing at 18,199, that is a gain of 0.17%. the tech-heavy nasdaq, though, that dropped .6% on the day. we're going to see what is happening here in tokyo this thursday morning. for that, we're going to ramin

mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. good morning, ramin, tell us what you're seeing over there. >> good morning, ai. as you mentioned, earnings results a phoenix wifocus with coming out in the u.s. and japan. key data in the u.s. was a big focus. we'll see a little bit of a mixed bag, if you will, but we're still seeing a stronger dollar that may help underlying sentiment. let's have a look at the opening levels here for the nikkei and the topix. thursday october 27th. and both just in the negative there for the first few minutes of trading. we'll see how that develops during the morning session. now the nikkei has been helped higher overall on weaker yen. rising for a third day through wednesday. in fact, closing at a six-month high. the u.s. session was dominated by earnings results. some providing a bit of a drag. others providing a bit of a lift. now on the negative side, shares of apple dragged sentiment lower. it's the u.s.' largest company

by market valuation, but it fell after its earnings reports and it dragged down some tech sector stocks as well. however, on the positive side, shares of boeing lifted sentiment somewhat and that was thanks to a jump in profits at the aircraft maker and we'll watch for selected stocks. now, nintendo, big focus. i want to focus on shares of that today. on wednesday, downgraded its profit forecast. now it sees a pretax profit for the year through march, falling 65% as declining sales of its console games and overall stronger yen hurt its bottom line. in fact, analysts also saying that even sales of a hugely popular pokemon go in which nintendo holds a stake in the app developer may not be enough to encounter overall drop in sales. ai? >> all right, ramin. looks like we saw a swing higher for the dollar following some favorable u.s. data. tell us what's going on with all

that. >> yes, exactly. we did have two sets of daytotdn fact, we're focusing on. dollar/yen, 104.62. on wednesday we saw an unexpected rise in new home sales and services sector data that came in at the highest level in almost a year. so they provided a boost signaling continued momentum in the u.s. economy. expectations the fed's going to raise rates in november. let's take a quick look at asian indexes before i go. seo seoul's kospi higher. sydney's is lower. we'll have more in a couple hours. >> ramin, thanks for keeping us up to date. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. hands-free driving is no longer a fantasy. self-driving cars are already on the roads. today we start a two-part report on how this technology will mark a turning point in everyday life beginning with public transport. nhk world explains. >> reporter: self-driving vehicles are coming to the

netherlands slowly but surely. this is a road test. the bus has no driver's seat. instead, it has sensors. they steer the bus and also identify other vehicles on the road including bicycles. city officials hope to, self-driving buses as a new public transport system. >> we think we will need another two years to go, to come to a fully operational system. >> reporter: autonomous buses will not need bus stops. users can get on and off wherever they want. officials say these buses will reduce traffic congestion. >> so not everyone owns a private car like this but can use it when it's needed because in the long run, it can replace

private cars. i think it will be a big difference everywhere. >> reporter: over in japan, another project is focusing on self-driving taxis. an i.t. company is planning to start operations in 2020. company officials believe there's a big need for self-driving taxis. especially in areas with aging populations. >> translator: total autonomous driving is possible. advancements in transportation can make life more convenient. it will bring about a revolutionary change in people's lifestyles, that's for sure. >> reporter: this town has a population of about 17,000. more than half are senior residents. many depend on public buses to get around, but services are

limited. people who don't own cars have a difficult time when shopping. executives from i.t. company think self-driving taxis are the answer. they've come to talk to residents. >> translator: there are taxi drivers who are in their late 80s or even older. that's the reality here. >> translator: some people have given up their driver's licenses so they have no means of transportation. >> reporter: he is 82 years old. he's a patient at the hospital seven kilometers away. his 77-year-old wife, keiko, drives him to and from the hospital. they say self-driving taxes would make their lives much

easier. >> translator: could take us to hospital. >> translator: that'd be great. >> reporter: but there are still obstacles to overcome. roads are narrow, and many have no -- white lines are almost invisible. the sensors on autonomous vehicles are not ready to cope with this kind of terrain. >> translator: self-driving technology must advance further to operate under these tricky conditions for people in many parts of the country to benefit it's a challenge we must overcome. >> reporter: self-driving vehicles are advancing by the day, but it looks like surrounding infrastructure still has a way to go. nhk world.

tomorrow in the second half of our two-part series, we will take a look at a driverless delivery service. that does it in business for this hour. it is back to catherine. >> thanks very much, ai. families of people with intellectual disabilities, families of people with intellectual disabilities in japan are trying to show how much they love their relatives. in july, a man stabbed 19 people to death in a care home near tokyo. he had written that people with disabilities do not deserve to live. nhk world tells us how relatives are speaking out against that. >> reporter: a montage of smiles. this special issue of the magazine features more than 200 photos of people with disabilities. they were submitted from all over japan. on the first page is a large photo of a woman with her daughter. ♪

it was sent in by mimo, a singer whose daughter has down syndrome. she has composed songs about her. and she performs at welfare facilities across the country. the photo was taken in front of a cherry tree in the park near her home. >> translator: i'm sure we both were very happy when we took the photo. if i'm feeling down, whenever i look at the photo, it really lifts my spirits. it fills me with happiness. >> reporter: mimo had visited the care home to perform three times before the attack. >> translator: i think the photo shows that we are happy just the way we are. i felt that sending it was a way to express my support for the people at the care home. >> reporter: atsuko kubo is the

head of the group that produces the magazine. she said they have received malicious e-mails voicing support for the killer's ideas. the aim of the special release is to emphasize the humanity of each and every person with disabilities. >> translator: they're all living their lives in a positive way. the recent attack has made it even more important for those with disabilities to step forward and tell their own stories. >> reporter: yoshie toda was another person who sent in a photo. her daughter sanae has a degenerative disease and now she's virtually immobile. yoshie chose a family photo taken seven years ago at her daughter's coming of age ceremony.

>> translator: the doctors told me sanae might not live to be 20, but she made it, and she had her picture taken wearing a kimono to celebrate her coming of age. she was all smiles and it was a beautiful occasion that made all the family happy. so i felt i wanted to share it. >> reporter: sanae was just 3 when she first showed the symptoms of the disease. she gradually lost her mobility and became unable to talk. but she was able to enjoy her coming of age ceremony. >> translator: it was sad when sanae became ill. but the happiness of being with her has never changed. i want people to know that my daughter is intent on continuing to live. >> reporter: the smiles in the photos are an important response

to the prejudice faced by people with disabilities. they're a vivid demonstration of how precious each person's life is. nhk world. we take you to central italy now, as we've been reporting people there have been getting hit by a series of earthquakes. authorities are hoping the weather cooperates as they assess damage and continue with recovery efforts. our meteorologist robert speta joins us with the details. >> indeed. the weather is not helping out here at all. the earthquakes are bad enough. we have been seeing these tremors out here just toward the east of rome in a lot of these rural areas that were hit by this past summer's earthquake, in fact. as we look ahead, it does look like cloud cover continues to dominate. we have widespread thunderstorms across this area. actually, severe weather is possible with large hail, damaging winds and maybe even some flash flooding.

we get all that rough weather with the ground shaking, increases that chance of landslides. some more headaches as we go ahead through thursday morning into the afternoon hours across this region. the good news, this whole low is pulling toward the east. it is going to bring rough weather maybe over toward the balkan peninsula. actually parts of croatia could see wind gusts upwards 70, 80 kilometers per hour. at least things do dry up as we head into friday and saturday across italy here. that's going to help with some of those recovery efforts and assessing that damage. but have to get through thursday first. at least through the morning hours. looking at widespread thunderstorms out across this region. pulling back the bigger picture, rome, of course, still thunderstorms there for you, but it does look like things are staying on the chilly side back toward the north. i do want to mention moscow and kiev. snowfall here in your forecast. highs around the freezing point here on thursday. take a look here back toward the americas. actually have several areas. one here in the central u.s. and the other one in the pacific

northwest. now, this has been pumping moisture onshore for several days now and we have been seeing that threat of flooding. still gusty winds out there. some areas 70, 80 kilometers per hour. that's going to be one of the biggest things we're looking at into this area over the next several days. but if we turn our attention back towards the east, you have this low here. that is racing toward the northeast right now. actually some areas, especially across the hills of upstate new york, even into new england, you can be looking at a few snowflakes, maybe a few centimeters coming down in higher elevations as we go ahead through your wednesday evening into thursday morning. big thing is, though, behind it, it is going to be shifting over toward rain. you're going to have some messy weather with this. any snow accumulation that does come down, especially further toward the south, is going to melt off rather quickly. for example, into new york, not expecting snow there. it's going to stay cold, rain. a high of 11. d.c., 17. toronto, 7. dry air will filter in behind this, though. chicago with a high of 12. you're looking at partly cloudy skies.

same over toward winnipeg. here across japan today, actually some pretty decent weather shaping up for the most part. tokyo some sunny skies. little bit cooler. back toward the north we have that classic sea-effect snow continuing to kick in across the mountains of hokkaido. it's because of those strong northwesterly winds. actually fairly strong. one report out there about 8 f6 kilometers per hour. could see gusts up to 100 kilometers per hour near the coastal areas. not a day to be heading to the coast at all. windy and cold and snow. back toward the west though the decent weather will be short-lived. by the time we head into friday we do have another low kind of developing and that's going to race off toward the east and with it bring some scattered showers throughout the day on friday, even over toward saturday. clears up by sunday but much more chilly temperatures. sapporo expecting snowfall. sea-effect snow sunday, monday, maybe even tuesday as well. all right, here's your extended outlook.

we'd like to remind you of our lead story this hour. japan's prince mikasa has died. the uncle of emperor akahito was 1 hear 100 years old. he was admitted to a tokyo hospital in mid-may after suffering acute pneumonia. sources say he was in and out of the intensive care unit since due to a series of health issues including heart problems and further pneumonia. in january, prince mikasa appeared at the imperial palace balcony with his wife when the emperor delivered new year's greetings to the general public. once again, japan's prince mi mikasa has died.

uncle of emperor akahito was 100 years old. he was the younger brother of the late emperor shoa. he was admitted to a tokyo hospital in mid-may after suffering acute pneumonia. sources say he was in and out of the intensive care unit since due to a series of health issues including heart problems and further pneumonia. in january, prince mikasa appeared at the imperial palace balcony with his wife when the emperor delivered new year's greetings to the general public. and that is all for this hour of nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. we will be back at the top of the next hour. thanks very much for joining us.

♪ >> welcome to "in good shape." coming up, the importance of vitamins and how much you really need. why more and more people are slipping into kangaroo shoes and the finest of surgeries. reattaching severed extremities. and here is your host, dr. carsten lekutat. dr. lekutat: hello and welcome to "in good shape." everyone is getting ready for winter, they are clipping their branches, but you have to be very careful with all of tho