a very warm welcome to nhk "newsline" broadcasting to viewers around the globe. it is 10:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. our top story this hour, the american president is scheduled to deliver his first policy speech to congress. the white house says it be forward looking and highlight donald trump's longstanding theme of america first. trump will present his plans for the year including an expected significant increase in defense spending that he referenced monday. he's also likely to vow to build a wall on the border with mexico and tighten immigration control. those proposals have been

controversial. the president is expected to highlight the withdrawal from the transpacific partnership free trade deal as an achievement of his first 40 days in office and he'll likely call for tax reforms. that's the structure investment to create jobs. the address or the address is likely to also mark a shift from former president barack obama. trump is expected to speak about reviewing obama's national healthcare program and easing regulations. the speech will be broadcast live across the u.s. tuesday evening. reuters reports they could face death if convicted. the women rubbed highly toxic vx nerve agent over kim jong-nam's face two weeks ago. he fell sick and died while being taken to hospital. the women claimed they thought they were taking part in a tv

prank. prosecutors suspect they knew the material was toxic because they had been instructed to wash their hands afterwards. police say four other suspects from north korea have returned home. they want to question an embassy staffer member and an employee of the state owned airline. they've accused malaysia of arousing suspicion about it. >> the purpose of the visit is to settle a humanitarian issue. >> he will bring up the return of the body and the release of a north korean detained in connection. he suggested he wants to discuss ways to have friendly ties. the united states and south korea are scheduled to start a joint military drill and are stepping up surveillance in case north korea responds by launching missiles. the annual exercise in the south

is aimed at dealing with the north's nuclear and missile threats. the drill will include computer simulations and landing operations. the two countries are expected to run through scenarios targeting the north's leadership and nuclear and missile facilities. the u.s. plans to send aegis ships and an aircraft carrier. it is supposed to last two months. north korea is responding sharply. if u.s. and south korea don't abandon what it calls their ambition for invasion, pyongyang will expand its defense and preemptive capabilities. and in another military partnership to protect from the north, south korea's defense ministry says it's acquired land to deploy an advanced u.s. missile defense system. it's known as thaad and is expected to be put in place by the end of this year. a defense ministry spokesperson told reporters tuesday about a land swap deal with the conglomerate lotte group. the group is giving the ministry a golf course in exchange for

state-owned land east of seoul. china opposes the system saying the advanced radar could be used to monitor its military. on to other stories now. taiwan's president has pledged to seek the truth about a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters 70 years ago. tsai ing-wen attended a memorial service to mark the anniversary of the so-called 228 incident. more than 18,000 people are said to have died during the ruling chinese nationalist party's violent crackdown. it moved to taiwan from mainland china following the end of japanese rule. tsa indicated she would set up an independent body to investigate the crackdown. >> translator: we will resolve the issue of who was responsibility for the 228 incident. >> reporter: she referred to a proposal to make changes to a memorial hall dedicated to chiang kai-shek who was the leader at the time.

the president said she hoped all parties will look back at that difficult time with a sense of humanity. nc ncht. let's check on business headlines. the dow industrial average snapped a 12-day winning streak. let's hand things over to the business desk. how is tokyo reacting this morning? >> we are seeing investors buy here in tokyo. people here are counting down to trump's speech and waiting for details on his promise of phenomenal tax reform. the investors main cue is coming from the u.s. federal reserve. some policy makers spoke favorably of an interest rate rise. the dollar jumped and the nikkei jumped on that. it's trading higher at 19,312. all sectors opened higher.

major exporters are seeing robust gains on the weaker yen. let's take a look at that. the dollar rose above 113. that's after a fed official said the case for monetary tightening has become more compelling. that's put march on the horizon for a possible rate hike. in new york trading hours the dollar dipped to a three-week low as traders were cautious ahead of trump's speech. let's move onto markets open this hour across the asia pacific. we're seeing australia trading lower by a third of a percent. south korea's markets are closed for national holiday and china's markets will open in under half an hour. india continues to be one of the world's fastest growing economies and it expanded by 7% from a year ago in the last three months of 2016. that is despite the nationwide chaos that erupted after the government abruptly withdrew several high denomination bank notes.

india has released its gdp number. growth compared to the previous quarter was down 0.4%. still, gdp has remained at the 7% level for the seventh straight quarter. the manufacturing sector grew 8.3%, agriculture 6%. the government of prime minister narendra modi suddenly abolished the bank notes in november. officials said the move was to fight tax evasion. it hurt consumption, raising concerns over the economy, but modi said the bank note ban had only a temporary effect. major businesses across japan are kicking off their seasonal recruitment drive. the activities are targeting college students who will graduate in a year from now. an ongoing national labor shortage means it is going to be another seller's market. large companies officially start recruitment on the same day, march 1st. this is based on guidelines from

japan's largest business federation. firms are holding meetings to explain their business activities and hiring processes. interviews are scheduled to get under way in june. recruitment agencies say a growing number of students are interested in what kind of workplace environments are on offer. many businesses are expected to boast having flexible work environments, stressing child care benefits and systems that prevent long working hours. long term interest rates have been on the rise since president trump won the u.s. election last fall. that's making it hard for japan to hold its long term yield. the bank of japan has normally kept market participants in the dark until the day it went ahead with its purchases of government bonds. that practice occasionally led to surges in long term rates. that's because market players

unloaded their bonds in anticipation of the boj's move. officials are now saying they will announce their monthly purchase schedule at the end of the previous month to avoid this volatility. should long term rates spike, boj officials say they may make extra unscheduled purchases or buy unlimited amounts at a certain yield. rice is often served in bowls but it's now appearing in cakes and bread. >> reporter: this bakery in kumamato prefecture is already filled with customers. they are brought in here to buy bread made mainly from brown rice flour. brown rice wasn't used to make bread until recently. it's difficult to process. this bakery developed the first technology to do so. it makes a brown rice base.

brown rice bread is more nutritious. it has more vitamins and minerals than ordinary bread made from wheat. >> translator: is it healthy? and also tastes good. there's nothing to complain about. i think that's better. both for my kids and for me as well. >> reporter: the bakery was started by a company that sells farm machinery. machine sales have fallen with a decline in the number of farmers. the company is trying to support rice producers by promoting the use of brown rice flours in bakery products. >> translator: we need to work with farmers for our mutual benefit. we're trying to create a win-win situation by developing new markets that support farmers' products. >> reporter: demand for rice flour is growing, especially overseas.

in germany and britain, it is estimated that one of every 100 people suffers from celiac disease. they cannot digest the gluten protein in wheat. european supermarkets now have shelves dedicated to gluten-free products. the current global market is worth about $9 billion. and is expected to grow. this rice flour maker in kagoshima noticed a business opportunity. this man started developing a rice flour for use in bread and cakes for people who can't eat wheat. he set out to make a bread from rice flour alone. he tested 300 versions of rice flour over a two-year period and

finally created a blend that made the bread rise quickly. >> translator: it was a difficult task. i was tossing it over in my mind almost every night. >> reporter: last december, he took his rice flour to germany. he even prepared a traditional stollen cake to appeal to local tastes. >> translator: this stollen is delicious. it tastes just like stollen made from wheat. >> reporter: people were

impressed with the taste. his rice flour started selling. >> translator: i think there's no limit to the possibilities. my company will be working to promote rice flour and other japanese food traditions around the world. >> reporter: kojo's rice flour is now available at 170 supermarkets across germany. reporting for nhk world. that's the latest in business for this hour. i'm going to leave you with a check on markets.

18 people take care of business for this company in the city. two years ago it set out working goals. executives promised to cut five minutes every time. the company's post a net profit in its annual account. workers now have ten more minutes to themselves. >> translator: see you. >> reporter: since november, they have gotten even more message. the door is locked half an hour after when it's supposed to be the end of the workday.

that puts a stop to overtime. >> translator: we started recruiting new graduates last year. i noticed that students were showing strong interest in companies with shorter workweeks. we started encouraging our employees to look for ways to improve the quality of their work so they could finish on time. >> reporter: the company sells shoes over the internet. its employees are finding ways to work smarter and get done earlier. >> translator: we used to only use this white label. now we use black and pink too depending on the color of the product. >> reporter: with that information in front of them, can workers can find what customers want right away. the people who think of them keep track of whether the new approach is reduced working time. >> translator: five minutes may not seem like much but from

management standpoint that's quite a lot. we encourage our employees to continue making daily improvements to cut their hours even by a second. >> reporter: the need for working reform is even more pressing in the medical field. night shifts and emergency duty come with authority. a hospital in the city began reviewing how the nurses worked over the past decade. nurses were quitting due to marriage and childbirth and the hospital realized it had to act. >> translator: nursing staff were able to keep their jobs when they had one child but when they had a second one, many of them quit. they said they couldn't balance work and child care. >> reporter: the hospital's managers decided to give diverse scheduled a try. they created 19 patterns of shifts to suit different worlds.

they cut main maintenance and other expenses and expanded personnel by 30%. as a result overtime, half the level seen before the reforms. >> translator: we want a stable work force even if we have to hire more people. we want them to be happy about working here. we try to help them gain experience and hone their skills. that way we can provide medical care comparable to that in urban areas. >> reporter: in many industries work reform is something that has to happen sooner than later.

during the visit they will meet vietnamese who studied in japan as well add representatives of japanese organizations. they will meet wives and children of former soldiers of the japanese army who remained in the country even after japan's surrender in world war ii. they helped train vietnamese forces to fight french colonialists. there's more questions about a school in japan. regulations were eased for the

school in osaka. the operator is building the school on land it purchased from the state. the deal has been under scrutiny because the price was a small fraction of the appraised value. allegations of special treatment led abe and his wife to sever ties. now it's emerged the corporate body hadn't met the criteria for opening the school and the rules were changed. the governor denies that was done as a favor. they are hoping to open the school this april but still need the prefecture's approval. a crime of passion has resulted in a lengthy prison

term for a stalker. a tokyo court has sentenced man to 14 and a half years in prison for stabbing an aspiring singer/songwriter. the judge said he must be ware of the seriousness of his crime that took away the victim's dreams. nhk has more. ♪ >> reporter: university student and a singer/songwriter mayo tomita was stabbed before a concert she was to perform last may. she went into coma after the stabbing. a man was accused of attempted murder. he attended her concerts and repeatedly tried to contact her through online messages. it was clear he was becoming infatuated with tomita. he asks for her phone number and was angered when she didn't respond to his text messages. tomita filed a police report asking that he stop harassing her but police failed to

recognize he was stalking her. in the trial tomita spoke from behind a screen. she said she lost a lot of things due to the defendant's selfish act. she said her heart is full of fear that the defendant may try to kill her. during the trial, iwazaki spoke out without the judge's permission. >> why don't you kill me? >> reporter: he was ordered to leave the courtroom. on tuesday a ruling was handed down. before the ruling, iwazaki apologized for causing serious damage to tomita and her family. he claimed he had no intention to kill her. the presiding judge said -- >> the defendant's act of stabbing tomita was very dangerous and vicious and could

have resulted in her death. there is no room for tolerating the motive he had to carry out the attack. >> reporter: in closing the judge said -- >> it took away her dreams and he must learn to control himself and abide by society's rules while he is in prison. >> reporter: tomita delivered a comment through her lawyer. >> translator: i feel scared when i think about him walking out of prison in about 14 years. >> reporter: she also says she cannot tolerate the suffering the crime caused her and her family. reporting for nhk world. we take you to the u.s.

where people in the central states are experiencing travel delays. robert speta has the details. >> a few of these airports are looking at thunderstorms, chicago in fact. recently we were looking at lightning around the airport and causing delays out there. if we have travel plans over the next 24 hours be careful and check in ahead of time before you head out to the airport here. we have all you can see here on our cloud cover, this whole storm system shifting towards the east. this has an abundance of upper level support. a very potent jet stream dipping down here. the maximum, the high wind located here on the right side of this moving over missouri into illinois and indiana. this is supporting our surface low quite strongly and really fueling up these storms. it's not just that. we have the big temperature gradient in here and that strong wind sheer alot ft associated wh the jet stream. that's when we get in the severe

thunderstorm territory. we're talking about large hail. these damaging winds which could be gusting well over 100 kilometers per times and also tornadoes out here. there's been several reports of tornadoes on the ground here on your tuesday afternoon through the evening hours. the big dangerous thing with this is the storms are probably not going to weaken out too much as we head through the overnight hours. once you get after dark that makes it that much dangerous especially when people start heading to bed and as this moves off toward the east heading into wednesday. we still have the severe weather threat from the morning heading into the afternoon hours for the south eastern state. this is a very potent and dangerous storm system. you want to keep aware with this and check in with your local agencies. if you look north, we have cold air sweeping in behind this. this will be dropping down temperatures quite rapidly for mu much of the great lakes region. we take a look at our temperatures for the three-day

forecast, cleveland, for example. 17 down to just 3 for the high by thursday. buffalo, 16. below the freezing point by thursday into friday. over towards washington, d.c. it's about 80 degrees fahrenheit. right now some of the cherry blos son blossoms are starting ining to and just 7 by your friday. now i want to take your attention over towards europe. we still have this storm system back in the north around the scandanavian peninsula. that's firing up strong storms even across eastern areas of france. moving over towards the balkan peninsula as well. if you're in places like rome and into london expect some scattered showers on your wednesday. it's going to be dreary across much of the uk. then if we take a look here

across japan, mild conditions on wednesday morning. that is shifting over to rainfall through the afternoon and evening hours and throughout the day on friday. most of the country is looking at some form of precipitation. at least for now move out of the way here. tokyo, partly cloudy skies. 13 for the high on wednesday. i'll leave you now with your extended outlook.

that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." thanks very much for joining us.

>> euromaxx highlights. >> hi, everyone, and welcome to our highlights show with the best picks of the week. here's a look at what's coming up: grumpy cat is one of the new faces of carmaker opel. a british photographer and his then and now images. green monster: a fast-growing indoor plant is enjoying a comeback. what do a grumpy cat and a fashion model have in common? well, they are the current faces of auto maker opel's new calendar. georgia may jagger teamed up with internet feline sensation grumpy cat to promote opel in a