hello. welcome back to "news line." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. here's a look at the latest headlines. rescue workers in central are japan are trying to reach climbers stuck on mt. ontake while volcanic tremors are still being felt. prime minister abe has

talked about the challenges he faces at the opening of the diet session. rescue workers in central japan are struggling to reach trapped climbers on mt. ontake. 10 people have been confirmed dead and 26 others have been found with cardiac and respiratory arrest. mt. ontake erupted on saturday. hundreds of police, fire, and self-defense force personnel started searching for survivors early monday morning. rescue workers have managed to bring 12 people down from the mountain, but they have been forced to halt their operations for the day due to volcanic gas near the peak.

>> translator: there's about 507 centimeters of ash on the ground and it's difficult to walk. when the winds blow, it smells of sulfur and it's so hard to see up there. the rescue operation is very difficult. police say 63 people were injured. they are still trying to make contact with families of some of the missing. a hiker of the mountain posted a video on the internet. the video was shot in an area just south of the summit. it shows rocks and ash raining down. some of the rocks are the size of a fist. the hiker hid behind some bolders when the eruption began and then evacuated to a nearby hunt. nhk world's daisuke azuma is at the foot of the volcano that is still erupting and spewing smoke.

>> reporter: as rescue operations were coming to an end. >> the sun is on the verge of coming down, but i can see the ash is coming down from the sky. you can see the ash has piled up on it. i can also smell the burnt and sulfur-like odor. meteorological agency officials say that as of 11:00 a.m., the eruption was continuing. they say smoke was rising 500 meters above the crater and was drifting to the east. volcanic tremors are also being felt. the agency says it detected similar tremors right before the eruption. relatives and friends of the missing climbers have been

arriving at a town hall in kiso at the foot mountain. about 100 people have gathered so far, waiting for information about their loved ones. >> translator: everybody here is exhausted. >> translator: there is no information. i want my family to be found soon. >> reporter: the team has faced many difficulties in the search. he said they hope to search for missing family as soon as possible. daisuke azuma, nhk world, on mt. ontake in nagano prefecture. japanese lawmakers have gathered for the first diet session since the cabinet reshuffle earlier this month. prime minister shinzo abe has

laid out his policy agenda. he says he will revitalize local communities to give hope to young people across japan. >> one of the important missions of my cabinet is for meem to feel the economic recovery. we'll continue to put our first priority on the economy and aim to bring japan out of deappalachian. >> abe says his government will look to restart reactors. currently, all the reactors are off line. he also reiterated he will work to improve relations with south korea and china. >> translator: i will work to hold a summit with china as soon as possible and promote our mutually beneficial strategic relation through dialog so that

japan and china can develop stable and friendly relations. >> japanese officials have proposed that abe meet with the chinese president xi you didn't know pinning. and the prime minister says he will promote security legislation to protect people's lives and livelihood in any kind of situation. his government decided in july to allow jap ton exercise its right to collective self-defense. diplomats from japan and north korea are meeting in china to discuss the progress of pyongyang's investigation into the fate of abducted and missing japanese.

chinese city of shemiyan. japanese officials are asking for an update on the north's probe into the fate of japanese nationals in the country, including those abducted. the head of the japanese foreign ministries asian and oceanic affairs bureau is attending the meeting long with north korea's envoy for normalizing relations with japan, song il ho. >> translator: we hold that north korea should comprehensively investigate the fate of all japanese abductees and we think the north should report the results of the probe as soon as possible. we are paying close attention to the progress made by north korea in fulfilling their promise. >> our aim at this time is not necessarily to obtain the results of the investigation but to report on its progress. i hope both sides will be able to explain what actions have been taken and what approach we plan to take from here on in. >> the north promised a report

on the whereabouts of the missing japanese, including several people abducted by north korean asians in the 1970s and 80s, they also looking into the fate of other missing and the report remains on of jap japanese who died around that period. pro-democracy demonstrations in central hong kong are beginning to disrupt people's daily lives. some financial and public institutions have suspended services. several hundred citizens are still occupying the streets near government offices, following a mass rally on sunday. they're opposing beijing's plan to screen candidates for their 2017 leadership election. some bus services have been halted, and elementary and junior high schools are closed for the day. the protesters are spread across

an area close to the financial district. local officials say services have been affected and about 35 bank branches in the territory. hong kong's current top executive leung chun-ying urged the demonstrators to stop occupying the city center and to quietly go home. the protest organizers say about 70,000 people rallied on sunday. they say at least 41 people were injured in clashes with police. >> now are the latest in business news. >> we get started with some economic data out of japan. it shows that auto production fell for the second straight month in august. executives at eight major car makers blamed the impact of april's consumption tax on sales. the margin of decline was steeper than in july.

the operators said they produced 597,000 units last month. toyota's output was down 10%, nissan 21% fall and honda recorded a 4.7% drop. the auto makers hope to produce sales. executives at major trading house sumitomo says they expect to post $1.5 billion loss. executives said they are finding it difficult to extract oil and gas there efficiently. they don't expect to recover their vex. the company and the u.s. partner have been working on the project since 2012. the company said it will sell most of its development rights at the site. sumitomo executives also down

graded the company's net profit for the year. company officials in may projected it would grow about $2 billion. let's get a check of the markets now. protesters to occupy the financial center in hong kong and the chaos there is bringing stocks down in the territory. the hsi down to a three-month low. losing 22% today. hong kong is ready to inject liquidity into the banking system. sydney drop to its lowest point in over seven months. other markets appear to be fairly unruffled by the unrest. the nikkei stock average is up half a percent. it finished up the day at 16,310. investors hope big firms like

toyota will bring earnings. shanghai finishing at a 19-month high. that's extending its winning streak now into a fifth trading day. investors are being optimistic about government reform of state-owned firms. >> hundreds of fans have snapped up the new microsoft console. it's the first game machine from a foreign maker to go on sale in china after authorities lifted a ban on them. microsoft held an event at an electronics store in the city to mark the launch of its new console. about 200 game fans lined up in front of the store. they became more excited as sales began at the stroke of midnight. chinese authorities have banned the sale and import of video game consoles for the past 14 years. they claim the devices could harm the health of young people. but starting this year they allowed foreign companies to sell models made in the shanghai free trade zone if government

inspectors approved them. >> translator: i'm now very excited. i want to go home and start playing right away. i won't get any sleep. >> many game and console makers came to tap into china's vast and lucrative market. the game ban has created a big black market for smuggled foreign consoles. analysts say it is hard to say how well legal products will sell. the people at softbank may have their eyes on hollywood. reports say the telecom company is in talks to buy dream works animation. the "wall street journal" and other u.s. media say softbank could buy the major hollywood studio for $3.4 billion. an executive at the firm says it doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.

analysts say buying dreamworks would make softbank more competitive in the content business. dreamworks was spun off in 2004 from a film company founded by director steven spielberg and others. it has produced hit movies like "shrek" and "kung fu panda." manga and anime continues to grow around the world. they're trying to attract fans from abroad and generate profits in the process. ♪ >> reporter: a musical recently staged in tokyo was based on a manga title, "the prince of tennis." the story is about a junior high school student with dreams of becoming a top tennis player. this is what is known as a 2.5 d musical. it combines a three dimensional musical with two dimensional media such as manga or anime.

>> translator: i liked the original story so i was interested in the musical. >> translator: i was happy that the characters were exactly like those in the manga. >> 2.5 d musicals are proven money makers. for one thing they save costs because famous and high paid actors or actresses are not needed. the central characters have already been established in the other media. also, sales of spinoff merchandise are ten time higher compared with other musicals. one group is planning to hold the performances overseas. several companies in the publishing, music and theatrical industries banded together in march to establish the association. it has been busy researching

overseas markets and supporting performances staged in other countries. >> translator: famous works such as those performed on broadway have been performed in many countries for many years. our 2.5 d musicals have the potential to be staged overseas in a variety of locations over long periods of time. >> reporter: meanwhile, a type of travel like a pilgrimage is catching on. bands from japan and other countries visit locations featured in their favorite story. an english website introduced 12 so-called sacred locations. in this city, tour buses painted with images of anime characters visit the locations on weekends.

the on board speech is from a voiceover actress. these fans have come dressed as anime characters. they are visiting a temple that appears in a story. this prefecture is using a smartphone app to promote several famous locations. the hill top is one such place. in a well known anime story, the characters hang out here. for one city, the novel pilgrimages have contributed more than $18 million to the local economy. >> translator: we regret that we have to rely on gestures to greet visitors, although they do leave messages for us. they're from south korea, thailand, the u.s. and so on, and they're growing in number. >> reporter: these businesses

are helping fans to feel the reality of manga and anime and enhance their experiences. and it's proof that one of the most popular forms of modern culture has the potential to generate even higher levels of profit. >> that's all for now in business news. i'll leave you now with a check on markets.

>> the sumo tournament wound up its competition on sunday. >> it was a really exciting and breath-taking tournament for all of the fans. >> it sure was, the top dog once again lived up to his billing. mongolia grand champion hakuho p won his division title. he had to get by a couple of fellow monday goalians. he was hoping to bounce back from his previous day's loss, but he was still one of two tourn amenities. and believe it or not, it was the youngest monday goalian,

ichinjo. he marches and hits using a pullover throw. he handed ik his second database ichinjo his second loss. on the final day, hakuho still had his work cut out for him. he had to get by his rival, kakuryu. he tries a slap down but kakuryu recysts. kakuryu kakuryu launches but hakuho rolls up his sleeves, out muscles his rival and burr ris him. hakuho is the autumn tourney champion.

[ applause ] >> the at up tourna tide him with former chiyonofuji. beside hakuho, there's one other man who contributed big time to forcing the title race down to the wire. he's the rookie from mongolia, ichinojo. he paid his pro debut in january. the 21-year-old upstart overwhelmed with his sheer power and foot work. he came so close to becoming the first rookie in 100 years to win the top division championship. ichinojo he was born and raise in a nomad family in mongolia.

his family cheers him on in their mobile dwieling. >> finally here are the special prize winners, ichinojo was awarded two trophies, one for his performance and other for his fighting spirit. his ten winds gave him the technique prize. so that's it for the autumn tourney, the next competition takes place in november in southwestern japan so see you then. it's time to look at the

world weather with meertologist jonathan oh. >> we need to keep an eye out for this particular storm as we go through the next few days because it looks like that some of the long range models are setting its sights for portions of east asia. let me give you the perspective right now. this system has thankfully not touched japan. it will continue to move toward the north and east, now down here toward the mariana islands, it's going to moving down the north and west and down the road it may become a problem for us toward the weekend. currently moving to the west 20 kilometers an hour, gusts up to 90, a tropical storm that will move toward the islands and expect to strengthen into a

seve severe tropical storm on wednesday and thursday. the trajectory for this is for this to move toward the north and west, a lot of the model are setting its sights for the smaller western islands of japan. we will be looking for this as we go through the rest of week. into china, we'll look for another frontal boundary. shanghai you'll be seeing some rain on tuesday. pleasant weather continuing in japan, tokyo with a high of 28 degrees for our tuesday. i did want to shift a little further west into india. we have been continuing to monitor this northwestern corner of india being heavily hit with strong winds and lots of rainfall. let me show you some of the video coming out of this particular region where you can see here that people are having to walk through this devastating situation where heavy rains triggered flash floods in

india's northeastern province. many people have been killed with landslides and floods. hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee their homes. at least 460 people died in floods in kashmir and neighboring pakistan earlier. i think we're going to see a drying trend, so the rain will hopefully ease up. let's take a look at north america. we have a couple of systems to look out for. a low pressure system moving through the great lakes, causing some snowfall. an extended area of low pressure down toward the south also bringing some clouds and some rain for the deep south, but we are watching out for a low that's crossing over the intermountain west. the rocky mountains. this low is going to be an area of possible severe weather when we go through monday. we're talking about strong winds, heavy rainfall, maybe

can't rule out an isolated tornado with this. 23 in denver, thunderstorms on monday. showers into vancouver and seattle and down toward the deep south, showers in atlanta, thunderstorms in miami, highs ranging from 23 to 31 degrees. we also have another area of some strong weather taking place in europe. down toward spain, you can see here the cluster of clouds. eastern spain and most of france looking at the possibility of seeing some severe weather going through monday. meanwhile, the rest of europe seeing some much drier and sunnier conditions because of high pressure. 20 in warsaw, 70 in kiev, paris and barcelona, you are going to see some rain and possibly thunderstorms, some of them may be strong. i hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

>> that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. we'll have more news for you at the top of the hour. thanks for watching 

>> protesters in hong kong facedown teargas but they still remain in the street. the biggest challenge to beijing since the crackdown on tiananmen square. calling all for the search for survivors on mount ontake, which erupted without warning on saturday. ahmadzai becomes the first new president in afghanistan in a decade. a crucial time when nato troops are pulling out of the