[ applause ] surprise visit. president obama jets to afghanistan to rally the troops sign an agreement, and to give his re-election campaign a boost. president barack obama says his country has traveled more than a decade under the dark cloud of

war, but that's changing. he spoke just a short time ago from baamir base outside kabul. obama is on a surprise visit to afghanistan. he promised 23,000 american troops will leave the country by the end of the summer and he also signed an agreement that outlines the u.s. role there once all combat soldiers go in 2014. >> today i signed an historic agreement between the united states and afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries. a future in which afghans are responsible for the security of their nation and we build an equal partnership between t sovereign states. >> ahead of the speech he and afghan president hamid karzai signed a strategic partnership agreement. the deal cements u.s. commitment to afghanistan after 2014. that's when american combat troops are scheduled to leave the country. the agreement allows u.s. forces to train afghan soldiers and

engage in sweep operations against al qaeda. >> others will ask, why don't we leave immediately? that answer is also clear -- we must give afghanistan the opportunity to stabilize. otherwise our gains could be lost. al qaeda could establish itself once more. as commander in chief, i refuse to let that happen. >> this is obama's first visit to afghanistan since december 2010 and third since he took office. he's currently campaigning for re-election in november. aung san suu kyi and her colleagues are getting ready to take their seats in myanmar's parliament. the opposition leader agreed to end a boycott, a week-long one, and swear an oath to the constitution. nhk has more. >> reporter: aung san suu kyi met the visiting ban ki moon at

her home on tuesday. >> we have always believed in flexibility in the political process because that is the only way in which we can achieve our goal without violence. >> reporter: ban praised her decision to compromise over the wording and showed determination to helpyanmar to me progrs toward democracy. >> the united nations will continue to stand by the people in every step and? any way we can. this is my pledge. >> reporter: aung san suu kyi had agreed on monday to swear to protect a constitution drafted under military control. she says she will take a seat in parliament which she won in april, out of respect for the wishes of the people. the pro-democracy leader's party won by a large margin in last month's bi-elections but she

decided to boycott parliament rather than take an oath to uphold the constitution that stipulates the military's superiority. aung san suu kyi and her party will travel to the capital on wednesday to make their historic debut in the country's assembly. nhk world, pyongyang. trading has just gotten underway in tokyo markets this wednesday morning. investors may be getting a respite after gains on wall street overnight. we have the latest in business news. so will tokyo markets have a little breather today? >> well tokyo stocks were battered on tuesday, but we could be seeing a bit of an upside today. overnight in new york the dow jones closed at a fresh high in four years and four months spurred by favorable manufacturing data. for more we go to the tokyo stock exchange where rami is

standing by. good morning you to. after discouraging figures out of the u.s., an upturn for the market. >> definitely, good morning to you. the ism manufacturing data in the u.s. really gave an excuse for market players to pile back into the markets. we saw that pushing the dow as well as the s&p 500 higher as well. and that's after the bumpy ride that we saw in april with some heavy losses. so really just one trading day left here in the holiday-shortened weekend in japan. let's look at the opening levels for this wednesdayrning. looking at the nikkei and the topix, you see as you said, a bit of a rebound this morning. both indices trading a touch higher as you also mentioned there. the nikkei did take a heavy hit yesterday, closing at more than a two-month low. but we're seeing a bit of a bounce here this morning. however, i have to remind viewers, though that a lot of market participants are away, so volume may be less than average. now earnings in japan has, of

course, been a focus. and we have seen some worrying numbers, especially from a sharp. on friday, a net loss of $4.7 billion due to its flat panel business. more encouraging, honda came out aggressively giving a positive forecast or guidance for the fiscal year 2012 and saying that it's going to be increasing sales. let's not forget that honda was not only hit hard by the march 11ster last year but also flooding at its thailand factories, as well. hence the aggressive stance to increase sales. toyota also said u.s. autoales increase by % compared to this time last year. now the yen has strengthened over the last couple of days. but we are also seeing a reprieve there. currently trading around the 80 level, it was around 79 yesterday. the dollar gaining after the manufacturing data. the euro rebounding a touch from yesterday's levels now at 106

compared to 105. again, thursday and friday are going to be holidays in japan. friday in the u.s. will still have the unemployment numbers coming out, as well. we may see a little bit ls an average volume, but nevertheless, we're seeing a little bounce. we'll see the full market reaction when we come back on monday. back to you. >> all right not a bad start to the day. thank you. that was ramin melegard at the tokyo stock exchange. japanese authorities are looking for counterparts in the united states for guidance. they're deciding whether to participate in transpacific partnership negotiations. the wide-ranging international pact would tear down trade barriers among a number of nations. japanese authorities are holding consultations with the nine countries that have already started tpp talk but they haven't won support from the united states, australia, and new zealand to participate in the main negotiations.

president obama told prime minister noda monday his administration is concerned about japan's automobile insurance, and beef sectors. american trade officials want noda to further liberalize his country's markets. japanese government representatives say the discussions with the u.s. will help them assess the benefits of joining the tp talks. the nine nations in the tpp negotiations aim to reach a deal this year. observers say it is not clear if japan can have much influence on the discussions within this time frame. japan will get help from kazakhstan in cleaning up areas tainted by radiation after last year's accident at the fukushima-daiichi nuclear plant. japan's economy trade and industry minister met kazakhstan's counterpart on tuesday. kazakhstan's national nuclear ceer has over 20 years of experience in decontaminating nuclear testing sites of the

former soviet union. he asked for the nation's cooperation in cleaning up and rebuilting the fukushima plant. he said the country will offer its experience and techniques to help japan. adano told reporters that he believes sharing information on decontamination will greatly assist the reconstruction of fukushima. and that's all for now in business news. i'll leave you with a recap of the latest market figures.

greek workers filled the streets of athens on may day. they marked international workers day with a protest against austerity measures. and they warned greek leaders they may not stay in power beyond parliamentary elections this sunday. nhk world reports from athens. >> reporter: thousands of greeks hit the streets on a day meant to honor workers. major labor unions called on all their mberto turn out. the messages they carried and chanted underscored their belief that the ruling party has to go. the government cut spending and increased taxes. demonstrators say plans to slash the number of government workers and their salaries infringe on their rights. >> hurting workers in every way

that they can -- >> we've lost all our labor rights. they're going to ruin the country. >> reporter: the european union and the international monetary fund prescribed the measures to rein in greece's debt. in return, they agreed to a bailout of more than $100 billion. voters are expected to punish their leaders for agreeing to the deal. opinion polls suggest the two parties in the ruling coalition will lose many of their seats in at election that will serve as a referendum on austerity. nhk world, athens. european leaders say they will boycott an international summit next week in ukraine. they're responding to allegations by the country's jailed former prime minister. he says prison guards have

beaten her. timoshenko is serving a seven-year jail sentence. a court convicted her last october of abuse of office over a natural gas import ctract with russia. she has been on a hunger strike since she claimed last month that prison guards punched her in the stomach. ukrainian prosecutors have denied using violence against her. european commission president barows oh said in protest that he has no intention of going to ucrane for the conference. the leaders of germany italy, the czech republic and other european countries also say they will not attend. timoshenko has been supported by western nations since she co-led the 2004 orange revolution that toppled the governmen western countries have criticized her trial as politically motivated. hung aaronsarians have long considered eating delicious cake in a cozy cafe part of their culture. now they're thinking twice before eating their sweets.

nhk reports. >> reporter: hungary's capital budapest, reflects the grandeur of the days when the monarchs reigned. in the 19th century, queen elizabeth was known throughout the world for two things -- her beauty and her love of sweets. one legacy is the 1,000 cafes in budapest. not even this public tradition is safe from europe's debt crisis. since the crisis, this family has ffer 20% drop in income. so they buy fewer cakes. >> translator: last year, we

bought as many cakes as we wanted whenever we felt like it. this year we can only afford to eat cake once a month. >> reporter: city cake shops feel the pinch. ferenc horvath owns four shops. in good times his shops sold more than 800 cakes a day. now, sales have fallen by 48%. he built some new shops four years ago when business of better. now he can hardly pay the mortgage which is about $150,000 a year. >> reporter: others in the cake business are also struggling of

the effect of the tax imposed last september. to cut the deficit and promote a healthier lifestyle the government is taxing some packaged foods with high sugar or salt content. any shopper who buys one of these product must pay a tax as high as 50% of the sales price. this cake factory used to hire about 100 employees. it tried to avoid the tax by baking cakes with less sugar, but a big clie a major fast food chain complained that the cakes weren't sweet enough and canceled the contract. since then the company has lost 80% of its business only nine employees remain. >> translator: we made these especially for the fast food chain. losing this client is a real setback.

>> reporter: back at horvath's cake shop, he and his daughter esther have developed new oducts to recover sale they were inspired by japanese traditional sweets. a feast finish both the mouth and the eyes. esther makes cakes from japanese ingredients like citron or sesame. they put extra care into how the cake looks. >> translator: the hungarian cake industry goes back more than 100 years. eating cakes is a hungarian tradition. i want to do all i can to keep the tradition alive. >> reporter: people in hungary's traditional cake business are in a jam. they have to alter tradition without losing it. kyota glanz, nhk world, budapest. people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster

but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses entire community. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead," every wednesday at 1:00 p.m.apanime here on "newsline. harley-davidson representative are planning to reunite a japanese man with one of his most prized possessions. the march 11 -- march, 2011 tsunami swept a man's motorcycle out to sea. it drifted across the pacific and ended up in canada. harley-davidson spokespersons tell nhk they'll send the bike back repair it for free, and give it to yokoama. a man fnd theotorcycle in a container last month on a beach off the coast of british columbia. the harley traveled 6,500 kilometer. its license plate helped identify the owner. the 29-year-old is from a town in miyagi prefecture. the march 11 earthquake and

tsunami devastated the region. he lost three family members and his house in the disaster. >> translator: i am grateful that my motorcycle was found, and i'd like to personally thank the man who found it but i don't have any way to do this. i'd like to take this opportunity to thank him. >> he added he thought he would never see the bike again. he said he bought it about five years ago and used a cargo container as a garage to store it in his yard. people in quake-hit iwate prefecture have a reason to celebrate. a festival has returned after being canceled last year. the festival is a tradition in the region. it started with a procession of children in a newly added uinvestigate oh world heritage site. the five-day celebration honors clan which formed the basis for

the region's colorful culture in the 11th to 12th centuries. children in ancient costumes paraded to the temple. >> translatorranslator: it was a lot of fun. >> translator: i felt good doing the parade. >> reporter: this year more than 350,000 people are expected to attend. for japanese companies that face a slow and aging domestic economy, the answer has been "go to china." rapid growth there is providing an opportunity for a pair of companies, not only in the big cities but in smaller towns, too. nhk world report. >> reporter: this chain is about a two-hour drive from shanghai. a company based in fukushima, japan, runs the chain.

this customer drops by once a week. she says that the prices are reasonable. she adds she never gets tired of the selection because it change so often. >> translator: i love it here pause the prices are low -- because the prices are low and the clothes are comfortable. the designs are cute and japanese. it's just my style. >> reporter: these chain stores first opened in china six years ago. between last april and this march, the chinese stores earned $72 million in sales. that's 50% higher than the year before. one reason for the chain's success is the good sales of its stores in smaller cities. they face less competition than

the companies operate that the big centers. last year the company opened 117 new stores to bring the total number to 360. here an employee who finds new store locations visits a shopping center under construction. he's looking for a new spot for a shop. >> translator: china is developing very quickly. if we don't move fast we might miss out on great locations. >> reporter: the company stresses training and performs in shanghai where its customers are. the company's paying point is the latest japanese style. the company briefs employees on the new products that seem to

arrive nonstop. managers say the training improves sales. >> translator: the training on displays and the staff are really helpful. our profits definitely go up. >> translator: we see china becoming more profitable than japan. within the next four years, we want to operate 1,000 stores here. >> reporter: now that many chinese women have more money to spend, they are buying fashionable clothing. the competition to attract fashion-conscious women is building up. nhk world, shanghai. tok residts are popping up their umbrellas this morning. rachel join us with the world weather forecast. good morning. it's looking pretty gloomy out there. >> good morning. it's about to get a lot worse. we have a very potent low impacting much of japan,

particularly along the pacific side here. and we're looking at rainfall totals in the next 48 hours. upwards of 120 millimeters anywhere you're seeing in the deep shades of red. actually locally we could even see as much as 250 millimeters just in the space of 24 hours. so heavy rain. now the system is very slow moving which means it will be impacting western and central japan today and then center up to northern japan into thursday. so that prolonged, heavy rain could lead to flooding as well as landslides. there will also be thunder and lightning to come with this storm and very strong winds. sustained winds of up to 72 kilometers an hour along the pacific edge. that's certainly going to be leading to very rough seas and high waves, too. so plenty to look forward to into thursday. hope there's not too many problems with that. the worst of the rain is over in the korean peninsula. a few showers left over. the tail end of that associated front is still going to be bringing significant rain to southeastern parts of china,

maybe about 50 millimeters in 24 hours. but it isn't going to be as heavy as it was yesterday. another area to watch is going to be bangladesh just here. we've been seeing heavier rain the last week, falling on already saturated land. another place to watch for potential for flooding and landslides. another hot day in bangkok 39 degrees. a little cooler here at 25. a rush of heat up to beijing, 30 degrees for the high here. and this area in the low 20s. a very big jump after last week, still looking at highs around about two to three degrees. 19 in tokyo, a little bit cooler under the influence of the storm coming in. as we head into north america, severe weather is erupting during your overnight hours in kentucky, ohio into michigan as well. we have tornado warnings posted here. that storm is going to weaken as it heads east into wednesday. however, in its place another area of severe storms from ontario down through the central plain is in the cards for wednesday.

out toward the west it's going to be much cooler here, 14 degrees in seattle and 12 in vancouver. still seeing some snow in the mountains. and that's pushing the cold air -- the cold air is going to be pushing along the u.s./canada border bringing winnipeg's high down to just 14 degrees. you were looking at about 23 yesterday and tomorrow down to seven. so a big drop in temperatures for you. keeping the heat in the midwest 27 degrees in chicago. that's one of the reasons that we're seeing this severe weather breaking out so far north. as we head now into north america, into europe i should say, not much change apart from our storm system is heading further down to the south. more heavy rain for portugal a bit of a break for the british isles, pretty hot across most of the continent. i'll leave you now with the extended forecast. ♪

our lead story this hour, president barack obama is promising 23,000 maricopa will pull out of afghanistan by the end of the summer. he on a surprise visit t the country. obama signed a deal that outlines the u.s. world there once all -- u.s. role there once all soldiers go home. >> today a signed an historic agreement between the united states and afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries. a future in which afghans responsible for the security of

their nation, and we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states. >> ahead of the speech obama and afghan president hamid karzai signed a strategic partnership agreement. the deal cements u.s. commitment to afghanistan after 2014. that's when american combat troops are subject to leave. the agreement allows u.s. forces to train afghan soldier and engage in sweep operations against al qaeda. >> others will ask, why don't we leave immediately? that answer is also clear -- we must give afghanistan the opportunity to stabilize. otherwise, our gains could be lost. and al qaeda could establish itself once more. as commander in chief, i refuse to let that happ. >> this is obama's first visit to afghanistan since december 2010, and the third since he took office. he's currently campaigning for re-election in november. and that wraps up this

edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.