to "newsline". there could be moments in a controversial plan to relocate a u.s. air base in japan. prime minister abe will meet with the okinawa governor. officials with the central governments have been at odds over the plan. the chief cabinet secretary says abe will meet on friday in

tokyo. abe's government wants to proceed with a plan based on a agreement with the u.s. they want to reduce possible dangers of the base in a densely-populated district. they plan to move it to a coastal area. the governor said he'll do everything he can to scrap the plan. he opposes building a new base and wants it moved out of the prefecture. they tried to find common ground when they met earlier this month but remain far apart. abe will make an official visit to the u.s. later this month. suga didn't confirm whether friday's meeting is intended to send a message to the u.s. people in south korea are expressing grief and anger looking back at one of the country's worst maritime disasters. they are marking one year since the sewol ferry sank.

>> translator: we will quickly take measures so we can salvage the ship as soon as possible. >> park spoke near the scene. she said everybody must cooperate to make south korea a safer place to live. 295 people died in the accident. nine others are still missing. most of the victims were high school students on a field trip. people who lost loved ones say the government is not acting quickly enough. they are demanding a thorough investigation. they cancelled a memorial service to express their anger at the government. they blocked the country's prime minister from attempting another commemorative event. the families of victims are trying to manage the pain of all they lost and some of them have started a campaign to make sure the tragedy is never forgotten.

>> reporter: park lived with her husband and four daughters. she lost her second daughter in the disaster. she was on the ferry for a high school trip. her body was found ten days later. her dream was to become a singer. she'd travel to music lessons, even if it was four hours round tr. >> translator: she faced many difficulties in making her dreams come true. once in a while she felt desperate, but she tried her best to pursue her dreams. the accident put an end to everything. >> reporter: she says after the disaster, she stayed at home to avoid people. later she thought about how her daughter would feel if she didn't take any action.

she began to work with other bereaved families and their supporters. they passed on lessons from the disaster. >> translator: what we, the bereaved families, really want is the truth of the accident to be revealed. and we strongly hope this country will become safer, changing from the way it used to be when the accident happened. >> reporter: park took her message to the public, but she became anxious. she feared memories of the disaster were fading away. >> translator: i feel as if i'm living in another country. i feel some type of alienation. it's just as if i were left alone on a group trip. >> reporter: then she found a campaign to keep alive the disaster memories. childrens book writers started a project called the sewol ferry

memory wall in november. they asked families to draw pictures and write messages on small tiles. she poured her soul into her message. her painted tile had an inscription that said spring has come without you. members of the campaign carried all of the tiles to the closest port to the accident site. bereaved families and people across the country took part, making their own tiles. they installed them, one by one at the edge of the port. on the day before the one-year anniversary, park and the

families of other victims visited the site to pray for the lost. >> translator: many people seem to have put the tragedy behind them. others look like they have forgotten about it. i want as many people as possible to remember the disaster. >> reporter: it's been a long year for the families of the victims. many are struggling to heal and find a sense of peace. nhk world. japan's transport officials have been trying to find out what cause ad plane to skid off a runway in hiroshima. the asiana plane was flying at normal altitude until one minute before it touched down.

>> translator: the accident occurred on tuesday evening. the airbus a 320 hit the communication structure as it flew in. once the jet landed it veered off the runway and then came to a stop. the wing and engine on the left side were damaged. 25 people on board were injured. >> translator: there's no doubt the plane was flying at an altitude. >> reporter: the plane was traveling at an altitude of 900 meters two minutes after landing. then it suddenly dropped and with six meters from the ground. this device can simulate landings on the various conditions. red and white lights can be seen on the left side of the runway. they are part of a system called papi or precision approach path

indicator. it helps pilots adjust their altitude while landing. the system shows different combinations of red and white lights depending on the altitude of the plane. if a pilot sees white, white, red, red from the left the plane is approaching at the correct height. but an array of four red lights is a warning that a plane is flying too low. investigators said visibility deteriorated shortly before the asiana plane landed. while lights guiding the approach route are visible in heavy fog lights for papi are hard to make out. experts say the conventional rule for pilots is to go around if they can't see the lights. officials with japan's transport safety board have retrieved the plane's flight and voice recorder.

they will analyze the data and try to determine what went rock. the foreign ministers of the group of seven nations wrapped up their talks in germany. they met to discuss a wide range of issues in the past two days including the crisis in ukraine. they agreed to step up pressure on russian leaders to make sure a fragile truce olds. >> translator: there needs be an end to the conflict in ukraine. >> he said the group is concerned about the deadly artillery attacks of past few days between ukrainian troops and pro russian separatists and calling on both sides to stop the fighting. the ministers spoke about china's increased maritime activities in the east and south china seas. in a declaration on maritime security they expressed concern

about unilateral actions. they include large scale land reclamation projects and oppose any maritime claims through the use of intimidation coercion or force. they also welcomed the framework agreement reached earlier this month by iran. they support the continuation of efforts to achieve a comprehensive solution by the end of june. u.s. aviation authorities are trying to figure out how a man of able to land a gyrocopter near the capitol building. a man from florida landed on the west lawn of the capitol on wednesday afternoon. media report iraqi prime minister and many lawmakers were inside the building. police closed nearby roads and arrested the pilot. a florida newspaper identified him as a 61-year-old mailman.

it says he was trying to deliver letters appealing for electoral reform. the paper post ad video showing him loading the gyrocopter on to a truck. >> seems dangerous. they should try to avoid that. >> that's pretty incredible anybody would try to do that. >> private pilots need permission to fly near the congress building. officials with the federal aviation administration said the man did not have it. authorities were under fire for a breach of washington's airspace security in january. a drone crashed on the lawn of the white house. now mcdonald's in japan can't seem to earn back the trust of its customers fast enough. now it's thinking of closing hundreds of stores in this country. gene otani has more. >> mcdonald and little playgrounds did everything to get customers into their restaurants. now top executives of mcdonald's

holding yap is taking big steps to turn around the declining business. she says the company will shut down about 130 restaurants and ask 100 full time employees to take early retirement. >> i take our results very seriously. and i will do everything i can to recover our business. there is more we can and will do. >> she said mcdonald's will most a net loss of more than $300 million. that's a record and second straight year in the red. she said she will take a monthly salary cut of 20% to take responsibility for the poor performance. the suit is for six months. sales of mcdonald's japan have suffered double digit declines for nine months in a row. last month a supplier in china used expired food products. that was followed by several reports of customers finding

foreign objects in their food. direct investment from japan to china fell by double digits in the first three months of this year but the decline has slowed as relations between the two countries shows signs of improvement. officials at china's commerce department said investment was $34 billion an 11% increase from last year. that's smaller than the decline for the first two months of the year. the total figure was just over $1 billion. manufacturers there are still cautious about rising labor and other costs. but some companies have been putting more money into china, they are expecting local markets for goods and services to grow. checking the markets some investors went on a late buying spree to reverse some hefty losses in tokyo. they listed the nikkei 225 in

positive territory where it ended the day up 0.08% at 19,885. earlier people reacted to the stronger yen by dumping shares in exporters but market players targeting energy stocks led a sharp rebound. moving on to chinese markets the shanghai composite jumped 2.71%. it posted its biggest gains in three months. investors expect the government to follow up weak gdp figures this week with a new round of stimulus. in sidney they closed at 5947. it snapped a three day losing streak following the release of better than expected jobs data for march. many other asian markets ended higher today. hong kong closed 0.4% higher investors are expecting more money to flow in from mainland china. kospi rose 1% hitting another

four year high. property developers in greater tokyo are struggling with the rising costs of labor and materials. they say that's affected construction. it's the third month in a row they've put fewer new condominiums up for sale than last year. analysts at the real estate economic institute say in march nearly 4,500 units came on the market in tokyo in three neighboring prefectures, down 4% from a year ago. the analysts say last year's consumption tax hike is another factor behind the slump. they say it's a different story in the center of tokyo. sales of new condos are still strong and condos in suburbs with good access to the city center are also popular. the operators of japanese utility companies say they will

have enough capacity to get through the summer even with all the country's nuclear reactors off line. government officials will not set power saving targets for the third straight year. the utilities released their estimates for summer power supplies at a meeting of experts and reporting to the industry ministry. tokyo electric power company says it expects to have surplus capacity of 11%. they say they will have a minimum surplus of 3% by resuming operations at thermal plants and receiving power from other utilities. that's it for business news. i'll leave you with the markets.

some people in central japan are welcoming more tourists with launch of a new bullet train line. owners of a dive shop see great potential in tourists to show off fish not just on the plate. >> reporter: toyama bay is one

of japan's richest fishing grounds. water gushes up from the ocean floor. it's full of new try ends because it's fed by snow melt from the mountains surrounding the bay. the floor of the bay drops deeply to a depth of 1,200 meters. there is another reason there are so many species of fish here. it's a great place for diving. this man leads underwater tours here. >> translator: i think this is the perfect opportunity to promote the wonders of the amazing ocean life here in toyama. >> reporter: recently he arranged a special event for a group of dive shop owners from

the tokyo region. >> translator: do many of you lead night diving tours? >> reporter: he's confident there's great potential in night diving gear because of the wide range of sea creatures. >> translator: this one you could only see late at night. >> reporter: it's late at night when they arrive at the bayshore. they dive into the darkness using underwater lights to see their way. at 20 meters they spot a devil sea fish which greets them with its colorful fins. this little creature is just five meters long. in japanese it's called an ear squid, probably because of its

shape. it's popular with divers for the way it burrows into the sand. then they catch sight of another creature. it's a firefly squid. they give off a pale glow when they rise from the depth to spawn. they are a specialty of toyama. at 30 meters they see a creature that's rare to see. this fish with a body like a tad pole. this fish live about 200 meters down and only come close to shore in the spring. it's another fish that can only be seen late at night. >> translator: i was so impressed. i'm glad i came here. >> translator: night diving here

is such a great experience. and now we can get up to this spot really fast. >> translator: we managed to see many of the creatures unique to toyama bay and everyone enjoyed the experience. i hope many divers will start coming here. >> reporter: the word is starting to spread about the unique underwater attractions of the toyama bay. a new diving place is opening up in japan. sounds like a great option for tourists. jonathan oh joins us now to walk us through the latest in weather. a lot of dust is being kicked up in mongolia and china. >> going into the spring months we the end to see winds picking up in mongolia and china. because of that that causes visibility problems and also

some respiratory issues because of the coverage that takes place. i want to show you the video to give you and idea what that looks like. those living in the region are more familiar. it's that sign of spring but the sand storm brought high winds and covered everything in the region in a blanket of dust and sand tuesday into wednesday and some people in beijing having little about it of problems of opening up their eyes. the visibility you can see here hard to see some places are seeing visibility to less than a kilometer from time to time. we're expecting this to spread further to the east as the low pressure system pushes further across the region over the korean peninsula so as we go throughout the day into friday we're going to look at this expanding further and furtrtr. more difficulty with visibility.

high in the northeastern portion of china and portions of mongolia and then as we go later into friday and into saturday that expands further to the east over the sea of japan into the country of japan. so look out for that. and then we'll see some rain trying to move in along with this sams well. we'll see some precipitation moving in. staying dry over china, though. we'll see sunny skies in beijing coming up on friday high of 24 degrees. 19 in shanghai. skill quite warm 3 degrees in taipei as we go towards the weekend. now i want to show you what's happening over in europe. we do have a very warm area in the central portions of the continent because of high pressure throwing the temperatures high up into paris, people are able to go out and try to stay cool in the process by eating ice cream and staying in the shade but still able to enjoy the outdoors. that may slowly coming to an end. a cold front is coming from north and will bring some temperatures down and a low

pressure system from the iberian peninsula. it's a slow moving system and will have some effect going into friday. but for thursday looking at wet weather in madrid and lisbon. 25 in paris with sunny skies. low pressure from the east bringing rain to moscow and kiev. north america, we have a stationary front and a low pressure system still bringing a lot of rainfall for the u.s. deep south into places like louisiana and the bayou. look out for heavy rainfall. another low coming out of the rockies that's bringing some snow for the higher elevations. some areas seeing close 20 centimeters, 30 centimeters. other lies thunderstorms. denver coming up on thursday a high of 7 degrees with snow

expected as we go through the day. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's you extended outlook.

it may be spring but sightseers in central japan's mountains are enjoying wintry sense. a popular snow corridor has re-opened after nearly five months. the alpine route cuts across the northern japan alps.

people travel the route by cable car and roadway. the operators celebrated the re-opening at the route's highest point. one of the most eye catching spots is a road with towering snow walls. the walls reach the height of 19 meters this year. >> translator: i am impressed with the height of the wall. it's really great. >> translator: i was dreaming of coming here. i'm so happy to be here today. >> officials hope to see a million visitors this year. they hope the opening of the line will ratchet up the number of sightseers. and with that we round up this hour's news from tokyo. i'm james tengan. thanks for watching.

to deal with illegal immigrants trying to get to its shores after another 400 from africa are lost at sea. hundreds gather in the south african city of durban for a march protesting attacks on foreigners. south korea marks the first anniversary of the sinking of a ferry with 304 people on board. the president vows to raise the ship. in