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. a japanese government advisory panel on education is calling for an overhaul of the university entrance exam system. the bank of japan chief has told nhk he'll press on with his bold monetary policy until he's beaten deflation. and some japanese athletes with disabilities are proving they've got what it takes to excel in the workplace, as well

as the world of sports. advisers to japan's education ministry have called for revising the university entrance exam system. they suggested the tests should concentrate more on a student's broad knowledge or skills. the central council for education noted the current standardized entrance exams usually test memorization. they suggested students should write essays rather than just answering multiple choice questions. the advisers also called for third party english exams, testing listening, speaking, reading, and writing. they pushed for a new system by fiscal 2020. under this system applicants would be able to sit for exams multiple times a year. >> translator: i think the recommendations will reform the exam system and school education drastically. and, help develop human resources that will be required

in the 21st century. >> ministry officials will set up an expert panel to create sample test questions in about a year. japan's chief cabinet secretary says the country will closely watch increased chinese maritime activity in and around the east china sea. yoshihide suga was speaking to reporters on monday. he said the government is always gathering information on china's military moves, and analyzes it thoroughly. but he added that he will not comment on specific information as doing so could reveal the capabilities of japanese intelligence. china has reportedly building a military base on the nanji islands of zhejiang province, about 300 kilometers northeast of the seine character cue islands. china and taiwan claim them. japan says it's part of its inherent territory. political and financial leaders in japan are on a mission. they've determined, or they're determined to end years of deflation and put japan back on

a path to growth. for more let's go to ramen mel yard at our business desk. we have a series featuring people who have a big fwluns on japan's economy. this time we talk with heir hick u kuroda the governor of japan. in april of last year he unleashed the biggest stimulus japan has seen. it's qualitative or quantitative easing or qqe. he instructed the bank to buy up huge amounts of government bonds. he plans to drag japan out of deflation by changing the way business leaders and consumers act. he hopes to create a cycle of growth where rising prices for goods deliver more profits to firms. that will hopefully lead to better wages, more spending, higher prices, and ultimately revive the economy. our nhk senior commentator spoke with him about his policy.

>> reporter: kuroda became governor of the bank in march last year. previously he was vice minister for international affairs at japan's finance ministry, and governor of the asian development bank. we asked kuroda to give his take on the state of the economy right now. >> the third quarter gdp figure was slight negative. negative growth. why in the third quarter gdp growth was negative, partly because of weak recovery of consumption. but, mainly because of substantial decline of inventory investment. meaning ongoing inventory adjustment. that is in some sense good because after inventory adjustment is made, production would increase.

naturally the recent boj tankan survey showed very strong corporate sector business sentiment, as well as business for the current fiscal year. they would increase investment, and they expect a continued good profit situation. and at the same time, the household sector experiences continued increase of employment and continued increase of nominal wages. so, i think most of economic indicators show that the japanese economy would recover,

because of underlying trend of mild, modest recovery. >> higher wages are important to create a positive economic cycle. but now, many people say prices are rising, but inflation is not matched by wages. what do you think the policymakers can do to create an environment favorable to pay raises? >> if you exclude the impact of consumption tax hike, the wages are increases. but, of course, consumption tax itself is a tax, and for the time being, if you include consumption tax, impact real income may not show clear sign of positive increase.

from april next year, the impact of consumption tax hike on consumer price inflation would go away, and employment income would continue to increase so that even if you deflate by inflation rate, real income, real wages, would show clear positive from early next year. >> the yen keeps weakening against the dollar. what's your assessment of the positive and negative effects of the weaker yen on the japanese economy? what about such effects in the scenario where the yen becomes even weaker?

>> depending on sectors, or depending on the scale of economic activities, so on and so forth, the impact of the yen depreciation may be diverse in the short term. but, if a yen depreciation or whatever kind of exchange movement is based on economic fundamentals, basically i think it would not create any problem. from now on, how exchange rate behaves, it's difficult to predict, and anyway, we do not target our monetary policy to exchange rate.

we do not intend to influence the exchange rates to gain competitiveness, and so on and so forth. that not the case. and i can assure you that our monetary policy will continue to be targeted at achieving the 2% deflation rate. >> in october, policymakers at the central bank surprised everyone by expanding the scale of their monetary easing. they said they were worried the shift away from deflation was harder. that's because weak spending had persist eed after the increase the consumption tax. and also because falling crude oil prices threatened to weigh down prices. crude oil prices continue to slide. if this trend continues, and there is a risk that the

transmission function of the quantitative and qualitative easing is weakened, will the central bank make another adjustment? >> i think the short run, substantial decline of oil prices will tend to exert downward pressure on consumer price inflation. that is true. but, eventually in the medium to long run, decreased oil prices would raise inflation rate, consumer inflation rates, to 2%. so, although when we decided to expand our qqe, at the end of october, the weak recovery of

consumption, weak recovery of production, and also possibly negative impact on prices of continued oil price decline. after that, inflation expectations, generally speaking, are maintained. and market responded very positively. so, i do think that oil price decline is basically beneficial to the japanese economy. >> in generally last year, central bank and government officials put out a statement. the bankers said they focused on driving inflation. government officials promised to do their bit by putting japan's

finances in order. but prime minister shinzo abe threw that plan off course by postponing a second tax hike from 8% to 10%. the government decision to postpone the consumption tax hike has, in effect, delayed the process of fiscal consolidation. if long-term interest rates rise because of deteriorating public finances, will that undercut your efforts? >> i think if -- i mean this is a big if, if fiscal conservativation is delayed substantially, as the market concern over the sustainability of of the public finance, then

interest rates might be affected.sustainability of of t finance, then interest rates might be affected. that is a possibility. but at the same time the government continues to stick to the medium-term fiscal plan to achieve the primary surplus by fiscal 2020. and also the government declared that concrete measures to achieve the 2020 target would be fresh out by next summer. and i think that is a very clear commitment to fiscal sustainability. fiscal consolidation. so, i do not expect any serious

impact on prices. but i would like to emphasize that the government is aware to stick to the medium-term fiscal plan and to achieve the primary surplus by fiscal 2020. >> in the metaphor about qqe, you said the patient should continue to take medicine, until the disease is completely cured. >> yeah. >> with the medicine, some side effects might develop if it's taken for a long period. what do you think the side effects are of prolonged and unconventional monetary easing policy? >> i don't think that the program would be only in the

unconventional monetary policy. even in the conventional monetary policy, if you prolong monetary easing too long, you might experience some kind of financial market excess or something. bubble and so on. now, second, under the qqe, we have been carefully monitoring financial market conditions. 33 whether there's any excess, or not. and and every six months the boj issue financial market report. and under the latest report you can see that at this moment, there's no financial excess. so we will continue to carefully monitor financial market,

financial institutions carefully so that we should not jeopardize financial stability. objective, our target is 2% inflation. consumer price increase, and we are only halfway. so, we are now focusing on the price stability, and we will continue the qqe until 2% target is met, and maintained in a stable manner. in the mean time, of course, we will continue carefully monitoring the financial system. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. now let's have a check on the markets. many investors have taken off christmas and new year holidays. so trading has been a little thin. but major indices in europe

started this holiday shortened week on a pretty strong footing. let's have a look. investors were heartened to see crude oil prices rebound from last week's five-year lows so they bought up energy linked shares. we're looking at london's ftse, paris' cac 40 and frankfurt's dax all trading higher. now markets in asia were also pretty positive. tokyo finished slightly higher to post its fourth straight gain. shanghai was up 0.6% to a four-year high. australian shares jumped 1.9% on the back of strong performances by energy and mining shares. let's switch to currencies now. in london, the dollar is inching up against the yen, after investors regained their risk appetite, and put the japanese currency under a bit of pressure. dollar/yen right now trading at 119.79-83. now meanwhile the euro is bouncing back from two-year lows against the dollar. traders keeping an eye on the greek presidential vote on tuesday. now market players also waiting for finalized third quarter gdp

data for the u.s., which is due out on tuesday. now, officials at tokyo's haneda airport have celebrated a special achievement. they say in 2014 they recorded their highest number of travelers. ♪ officials gathered in the departure lobby to celebrate the success. they say more than 70 million people used the airport this year. up 1.5 million from last year. crowds thinned out after the global financial crisis hit, and after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern japan. officials say in 2012, numbers began to recover. for several years they've added more slots for both domestic, as well as international, flights. the record makes haneda the world's fourth busiest hub. for flights after airports in atlanta, beijing, and london. that's all for business news

for this hour. i'll leave you with a look at the region's markets. disabled athletes in japan are finding success outside of sports. many are moving in to jobs where they can inspire people to achieve their personal best. >> reporter: wheelchair tennis player is back on court. she was on the japanese team at the beijing and london paralympics.

today, she's teaching tennis skills to elementary school students. >> translator: i hope we have a dream or goal and we work hard to achieve it. >> reporter: domoni does a lot of events like this. she's in public relations and her jacket bears the company logo. she works for an entertainment agency that promotes performing artists. this company began recruiting disabled athletes like domoni six years ago after the government suggested quotas for hiring people with disabilities. but soon the managers realized her potential to inspire people. it now employs 12 athletes, including a gold medalist from the laondon paralympics. >> translator: as far as inspiring people goes, there's no difference between the impact

of an athlete, and that of a performing artist. >> reporter: athletes with disabilities are moving into many areas of the workforce. not just public relations. this seminar is run by a placement agency specializing in introducing disabled athletes to companies. in the past 2 1/2 years, some 500 corporations have taken part in these seminars. >> translator: athletes tend to be very resilient with the best applicants several companies would compete for them. >> reporter: ioko mori is one of japan's top visually impaired bowlers. she works at an international financial term in tokyo. she spends two days a week at the office and three days training. thank you ohmmy tsuru hired mori to work in her department years ago. she praises her communications skills honed through an active

social and sporting life. >> translator: i think i'd be good at answering questions, and talking to students with disabilities when we set up a booth at job fairs. >> translator: if you can support us, that would be a good help. >> translator: i think she's a powerful team member who can tackle challenging tasks and cooperate with the other members. >> reporter: she recently entrusted mori with a bigger role in the department, interviewing job applicants with disabilities. tsuru thinks they'll feel more comfortable talking with mori. today mori reports back on a job applicant. a man confined to a wheelchair because of a spine injury. >> translator: i heard he's good at jobs involving making proposals. what was he like? frnz i think he's very

imaginative. he says he volunteers at an npo so he probably has a lot of experience organizing events, or creating projects from the ground up. >> reporter: tsuru is considering expanding mori's role and letting her interview applicants without disabilities. >> translator: i think she's able to observe people very closely with senses other than sight. she interacts sensitively with people trying to understand their various characteristics. >> reporter: companies are discovering a new pool of workers. that's allowing athletes with disabilities to take their talents into new fields. severe storms are expected to be problems for parts of the u.s. deep south. our meteorologist jonathan oh has a look at the forecast. jonathan? >> hello, gene. yes, we are monitoring some busy weather taking place in the

united states. as we go through out this monday. here's the reason why. we have a couple of systems located toward the western side of the u.s. that's bringing in the cold air. and that's producing the snowfall, especially along the rocky mountains. but down toward the deep south, we have a frontal passage that's struggling to move through. it's a little bit unusual. typically around this time of year when cold air sweeps through it pushes through and the cold front moves out of the way. this one is getting some resistance for some warm air down in the south and that interaction is producing lots of rainfall. and also some strong thunderstorms. in fact, the region going from louisiana into mississippi and alabama, even into the tallahassee portion of florida, you are looking at the possibility of some severe weather. so look out for that. thunderstorms will extend as far east as the carolinas as we go throughout our monday. and then further up toward the north is where we'll see a chance for some snowfall into parts of new england, also into the upper midwest, and then into the upper rockies we'll see a chance for some snowfall. 4 in denver.

2 in winnipeg. rain in seattle and we're seeing that rain extending from chicago all the way into new york and way down into atlanta. now, as we go through the week, christmas is coming very soon and austin you will see some sunny skies by wednesday into thursday. highs in the upper teens. and in newport beach, the weather very appropriate for the christmas boat parade, sunny skies, highs will be relatively warm as we go throughout the next few days. now, in europe, a very wet weather scenario for the northern areas. we have a couple of low pressure systems that's going to really whip up the winds for ireland, the uk, and also into the scandinavian countries. so look out for some very wet weather. high of 4 in stockholm, 12 in berlin, 7 in warsaw with snow possible into moscow and kiev. the southern half of the continent, sunny skies and temperatures will be from 9 in vienna to 18 in rome, 13 in athens. now, here over in east asia we are seeing some cold air pulling in to japan, creating the sea-effect snow from hokkaido and the western portions of

japan. this snow will eventually move out. high pressure moving in from the west. that's going to create sunnier skies for the korean peninsula and extending from the western side of japan into the central portions, and then eventually into the northern portions by the time we go into wednesday. high of 5 in seoul. 7 in beijing. 11 in tokyo with sunny skies. frost advisories, though, look out, for the southern portions of china as we go into tuesday. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. from all of us here at nhk world, thanks very much for

joining us. until next time, good-bye. ññ

♪ >> in paris. after the attack on a school in pakistan that left close to 150 d, officials threatened to reinstate executions. becoming a reality. a reported 500 terror convicts due to be executed in the coming weeks. more from karachi. >> it started happening three days ago when the fipe