welcome to nhk world "newsline," i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. japan and the u.s. will move ahead with a controversial plan to relocate an american base in okinawa after winning approval from the prefecture's governor. north korean leader kim jong-un has used state-run media more frequently than his father in an apparent attempt to enhance his authority.

and, remembering mao. we visit a restaurant in beijing where people look back and reflect on life under the founding father. japanese and u.s. leaders have spent nearly two decades trying to renegotiate an american base in okinawa, but widespread opposition stalled the move and strained relations. now the governor of okay noinaw given the go ahead. nhk world's tomoko kamata has the details. >> reporter: prime minister hirokazu nakaima explained he still wants the base to be moved out of okinawa eventually, but he said for now this is the best deal. >> translator: we have decided

that the project complies with environmental protection measures and meets the relevant standards. so, we decided to approve the japanese government's proposal. >> reporter: the u.s. military built futenma in 1945 in the city of okinawa. about 4,000 marines live there, but its urban location has been a source of friction. locals bring up past accidents when they complain about the risks they face. in 1996, japanese and the u.s. leaders agreed to relocate futenma. many locals hoped they would move it out of okinawa. they insist other parts of japan should shoulder more of the burden of hosting military facilities, but the two

governments agreed to shift the base to the city of nago. they decided to reclaim coastal land to build new runways. according to law, prime minister shinzo abe needed governor nakaima's approval to start dumping rocks and earth into the pacific ocean, so he tried to work out a deal. abe promised to allocate around $3 billion per year for the next eight years to boost okinawa's economy, and he said he'd try to cut in half the number of drills by a controversial u.s. aircraft, the osprey. the prime minister also pledged to start negotiations with the u.s. to speed up the process of closing futenma. >> translator: the people of okinawa continue to experience a heavy burden. that should also be shared with the people on the mainland of

japan. >> translator: the government's plan for okinawa's promotion includes most of our requests. i feel the abe cabinet is thinking more about okinawa than any other administration in the past. >> reporter: people in okinawa have listened to talk about futenma's future for years. the final decision has left them divided. >> translator: i'm for the plan. residents here can live in safety and peace. >> translator: in the end, i

knew this was going to happen. it's a real shame. i guess the government always has the power to decide. >> reporter: defense ministry officials say they will start preparing for construction, but the road ahead doesn't appear smooth. opposition to the relocation remains strong. the central government has yet to work on a road map for the closure of futenma, nor has it figured out how to eliminate safety risks for residents living near the new base. tomoko kamata, nhk world. a tokyo-based news outlet says north korea's supreme leader has used the state-run media more actively. kim jong-un has appeared more often in the media than his

father, the late kim jong-il. korean central television showed kim on friday handing out medals to military officials and posing for photographs for him. tokyo-based radio press monitors the north korean media. it says it counted 224 reports on the young leader this year. the late kim jong-il was cited by the media 161 times at most in 2010. radio press says during the past year kim jong-un was in the director of the people's army general political army. che made 148 appearances, compared to 56 times for kim's uncle, jang song thaek, who was purged and executed this month. ron madison is here with more, ron? >> as you know, there's a lot of hesitation and caution about

using nuclear power after the 3/11 disaster, and now tepco is saddled with the huge responsibility of getting it all cleaned up, not to mention the compensati compensation. the operator of the fukushima daiichi power plant has submitted a ten-year business plan to the government, together with japan's state-backed fund for nuclear accident compensation. the plan does include restarting nuclear reactors. tokyo electric power company plans to begin restarting reactors along the sea of japan coast next july. tepco estimates this will help cut fuel cost and lead to a pre-tax profit of $1 to $2 billion a year. the company plans to decommission the fukushima daiichi plant and deal with its contaminated water.

>> translator: we think it's our top priority to take full responsibility for the fukushima accident. >> hirose said the company will keep itself clean and accept responsibility. will remain key to the plan, but these reactors can be restarted only after government safety inspections and approval by local authorities. there's still a possibility that the reactors may not go back online. let's get a check of the markets now. first to currencies where the dollar is maintaining a pretty firm tone against the yen. it had topped 105 yen in tokyo trading. right now we've got it at 104.82 roughly. gains and local equities prompted investors to sell japanese currency and buy up the dollar. 144.76, the highest level in more than five years.

european shares are trading higher, sustaining positive sentiment now. london is up by 0.6 of a percent. frankfurt gaining about three-quarters of a percent. earlier in asian trading, stocks ended mostly higher. tokyo's nikkei went up for an eighth straight session. shanghai up nearly 1.4%, finishing above the key level about tight liquidity in china. seoul shares inched up on optimism about the u.s. economy. well, the tokyo stock market showed a strong performance in 2013, rising by more than 50%. other asian markets did show volatility. the benchmark stock index, excluding japan, moving like this pretty much in a roller coaster fashion over the year. 0.4% from the start of this

year. our market reporter asked for a view on the market trend on this year, as well as his outlook for 2014. >> from the beginning of this year up until now, the performance has been almost flat, and i think this is because of the uncertainty about the chinese economy and some concern in the u.s. >> reporter: the fed has decided to taper his monetary stimulus program, so how have the markets reacted to that so far? >> i can see stabilization of the market activity now. bad news has been discounted in the market, and one important point is the tapering means, the gradual economic improvement in the u.s., which is good for the asian market, especially asian

market export to the u.s. so tapering's not necessary, but for asian market. >> reporter: what's your outlook for asian markets for 2014? >> i think the market characteristics move from the liquidity to the market to earnings market. market participants will try to focus more on the earnings, visibility or earnings improvement than based on the earnings growth rate of 2014. the market gradually going up. that's my expectation. so relative data not as high as this year next year. u.s. economy expansion and euro areas are bottoming out and the japanese economy are also growing, so economic growth to

some extent contribute to the emerging markets. one wildcard is the chinese economy, if the chinese economy can maintain the stability of the growth next year. i think it's up to how they set the growth target next year. most of the people, i think, the china economic growth will not rehire next year. and since most of the emerging market like indonesia has been depending on economic growth in terms of the resource export, not your resources export, so i think current market sentiment in emerging markets is not as good as it was last year. well, japan's biggest business organization has decided to urge companies to take advantage of improving earnings and raise wages.

keidanren plans to make the call in annual wage negotiations in the spring. the report will follow an agreement among government business and labor union leaders to seek higher wages. it says firms should boost pay and hiring, as well as capital investment. the report notes the steps will bring about a favorable business cycle but leaves it up to businesses how to raise wages. firms could consider a variety of steps. japan's largest labor union has decided to ask employers to implement base pay hikes. it's the first time in five years the federation has made such a request. the annual labor negotiations will kick off late next month. japan's consumer price index rose for the sixth straight month in november, getting close to the bank of japan's target. internal affairs ministry

officials says the consumer price index rose 1.2% last month from a year ago. the index does exclude volatile fresh food prices. gasoline rose nearly 9%, electricity up over 8%. a price hike in tv sets also contributed to the gain. meanwhile, japan's job data for november were also released. internal affairs officials say the jobless rate was 4%. the figure remains unchanged for a third month in a row. people without jobs declined to about 2.5 million, while those with jobs was up to more than 63.7 million. labor ministry officials say job availability improved. they say there were 100 vacancies for every 100 job seekers. this is the first time in six years the ratio is 1:1. by industry, job availability rose for manufacturers by 20%

and for construction by 11%. among the manufacturers, job availability for automakers showed a sharp increase of 54.7%. labor ministry officials say a weaker yen helped to boost auto exports, and there is still a rush in demand before that consumption tax hike takes effect in april. all right, that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. let's see how things are looking on the markets. a japanese power company wants to restart a nuclear reactor damaged by the 2011

earthquake and tsunami. tohoku electric has applied for the reactor at its plant in northeastern japan. a fire broke out at the plant when the quake hit. the tsunami damaged some of the plant's emergency generators. the utility is building seawalls to protect the plant from future tsunamis. it also plans to install a filtered vent by march 2016. plant officials would use the vent in an emergency. the vent would also limit radioactive emissions. >> translator: we want to prove that our safety measures meet the new standards set by the nuclear regulation authority. actually, we're doing more than that. we want local people to know that. we want to dispel their anxiety about the safety of the plant. >> utilities have submitted safety screening applications for eight other plants since july. those plants were not damaged by

the quake and tsunami. all reactors at the plant are now offline. swimmers in argentina are covering from an attack from both. more than 70 were hurt when a school of pi ra that went into a feeding frenzy. thousands of people were cooling off in a river in the city of rowe sar ya owe. then the fish moved in. the swimmers were victimed of a kind of piranha. the fish have sharp teeth and a ferocious nature. paramedics say they sometimes attack people, but it's rare for them to bite so many people at once. a bus has plunged to the bottom of a gorge in northern thailand. police suspect the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. the accident occurred in a mountainous area.

the bus smashed through a guardrail on a bridge before plunging 30 meters. the bus was heading from the northeast to the north. many of the passengers were returning to their hometowns for the new year. a natural gas explosion has sparked a fire at a shopping mall in china. the state news agency says at least four people were killed and 40 injured. the explosion happened on thursday night in the city of luzhou. flames burned through the ground and floors. investigators are trying to figure out what happened. people in china are marking the 120th birthday of mao,. many are choosing to focus on the positive impact mao had on

the country. nhk world report from beijing. >> reporter: this restaurant in beijing is a hot spot for mao memorabilia. the selling point is the atmosphere. it revives the sights and sounds of old communist china. the walls are decorated with mao slogans and quotations. vintage items are on display. people were poor then, but almost everyone was equal. customers might remember those times as better days. the specialty is stewed pork belly, mao's favorite dish. but mind you, taste is not a

priority. the dumplings are made from corn husks and rice bran. >> translator: they are very chewy and taste awful, so why do we serve them? because we want younger generations to experience firsthand some of the hardships their parents went through. >> reporter: the main attraction is a live show by restaurant staff. it's a hit parade of revolutionary songs and dances. everyone sang in praise of mao during the cultural revolution. customers are encouraged to join in. >> translator: life wasn't easy in those days, but there was this kind of entertainment.

i guess people had some happy moments, too. >> translator: everyone was poor. we ate the same kinds of food and lived in the same kinds of houses, but there are big differences between us now. >> reporter: a university professor says people are nostalgic for mao because they are not happy with society today. >> translator: behind all the sentimentality is the widening wealth gap. mao took measures to address this kind of thing. he also cracked down without constraint on corruption. i believe mao would be disappointed with society and its plague of corruption. >> reporter: china observers say today's president, xi jinping models himself partly on mao as he attempts to ease people's discontent, for he must surely know the mao revival is not just

about nostalgia. nhk world, beijing. a big storm looms over northern japan. our meteorologist robert speta has been following that situation. robert? >> indeed, gene. this up is packing some fairly gusty winds. it's not just the winds, it's the snowfall out here. we had the storm system move across the pacific coast last night and then across much of this area here on friday. saw some light showers there in tokyo. that's moving towards the northeast and what's happening, strong westerly winds filtering in behind it and we're also seeing fairly significant wind chill and whiteout conditions. i'll show you video coming out of hokkaido. you can see that here. this almost looks like a tropical system, but no, this is the sea of japan. strong northwesterly winds coming on shore. one location saw winds up to 114

kilometers per hour. needless to say, that's making for hazardous driving conditions out here. once again, wind chill absolutely bitter and this is something people in this part of japan deal with. it's not too unusual, but it's not anything that you want to be venturing out and about in when the storm is full ongoing. now, going into the weekend, it is going to be tapering off. there's the good news with that as far as the significant snowfall, but there's still going to be light snow here along the sea of japan coastline. much zrieer for you, expecting a warmup. then rain showers in your forecast, you could be seeing isolated strong storms. what i do want to talk about is along the pacific coast of japan. a lot of people out and about here. it's holiday season coming up from new years. going into the weekend extending into tuesday and wednesday, temperatures expected to rise very gradually. partly cloudy skies for the most part.

no significant precipitation in the forecast. a lot of people like to watch the sunrise on new year's day. you do want to bundle up. take a look at rest of east asia as far as monday, tuesday, and wednesday. the holiday forecast here, seoul, snow showers there with zero only for your high by wednesday. let's see what's going on in the americas. high pressure dominating much of the eastern seaboard. snow showers there in southern canada, northern portions of the plains, five to ten centimeters, nothing too significant. big significance is coming from the south. this is going to pull in some moisture out of the gulf of mexico and we're going to be seeing widespread rain showers along the eastern seaboards. that's going to move up and be a rain and snow maker. the bigger topic, though, stay on the topic of the new year's celebrations, a lot of people like to get out and about for the new year, but january 1st, big blast of arctic air and

temperatures will be reflecting that. look at that, chicago, minus 12 only for your high. minus 8 on tuesday. new york just getting up to right around the freezing mark. you do want to bundle up. if you're in los angeles, totally different story if you. i want to put that in there and show you the difference between the east and the west. in europe, several storm systems. in the mediterranean, unstable weather. another one, then you're expecting another one by the weekend, and this is still bringing some wet, unsettled weather. it's really windy out there. power outages, dangerous driving conditions are to be expected with this one. so keep an eye on it. temperatures above average, will be cooling down. that's something you want to watch out for towards the weekend and we can't forget about you in europe as far as your three-day forecast on new year's. here's a look at that, and here's your extended forecast.

people from japan, china, south korea, and taiwan have endured a year of often difficult relations.

musicians from those places and vietnam have staged a concert to try to improve ties. the people with the japanese music agency planned the event. the musicians performed beethoven's ninth symphony. ♪ japanese conductor directed the vietnam national symphony orchestra and the choir. singers from vietnam, china, south korea, and japan all sang solos. >> translator: it's important to use music to go beyond national interests at a time like this. ♪

and that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. ?ñw

>> a car bomb shakes central beirut. an aide to the former prime minister is among those killed. up to stemders care to stem -- gear up violence. those are the headlines here on "france 24." a deadly car bomb has hit the capital of beirut on this friday.