ff with a quick look at some stories we're covering this hour. japan's prime minister met with one of his toughest opponents to move the u.s. base in southern japan. the two sides remain far apart. and american community that took an economic hit when a local nuclear weapons facility shutdown is becoming a hub for new businesses. japan's prime minister has

met with a strong opponent of his administration's plan to move a u.s. military base shinzo abe spoke with takeshi onaga. the negotiations haven't bunched their gap. takeshi onaga has been trying have direct talks with abe since he took office in december. he won election by a land slide. he wanted to meet with abe before the prime minister's summit with the u.s. president later this month. >> translator: we believe the relocation of the base is our only option. we will continue to clearly explain our position and try our best to gain understanding. >> translator: first we're being stripped of our land and now we're told it's the most dangerous base in the world. we've been asked to come up with an alternative if we don't like the current plan.

it's unreasonable. >> the central government wants to relocate the u.s. air station to a less populated area within okinawa. the southwestern prefecture is the home 70% of the u.s. military facility in japan. preparations are under way to build an airfield off the prefecture's coast. tip meeting, takeshi onaga called on the government to scrap the plan but abe stressed relocating the base is the only option. he conveyed his intention to reduce the burden on onkinawa. russian president vladimir putin says he's ready to push forward talks with japanese leaders over a territorial dispute. the two countries have been locked in disagreement for decades regarding four russian held islands. in japan they are known as the northern territories. putin has indicated russia's

annexation of crimea is different. he said crimea was ornlly part of russia and people there approved the annexation by a referendum. putin said dialogue with japan has stopped due to circumstances on the japanese side. he said he's ready to discuss the territorial issue based on the 1956 declaration. the russian side will return to the islands if a peace treaty is signed. the japanese government maintains the islands are an inherent part of japan's territory which were illegally occupied after world war ii. officials of the two nations have agreed that putin would visit japan this year. but preparations were suspended after japan imposed sanctions on russia over the crisis in ukraine. >> translator: senior foreign affairs officials from japan and

russia met in february. japanese delegates raised the issue of a peace treaty and both sides discussed it. >> he noted prime minister shinzo abe and put agreed in 2013 they will restart negotiations to settle the territory dispute in a manner acceptable to both sides. he said he hopes russian leaders will follow through with that agreement. a senior u.s. government official is calling on japan and south korea to work more closely to maintain stability in asia. u.s. deputy secretary of state met in washington with japanese vice foreign minister and south korea's first vice foreign minister. the three discussed a range of issues including china's increased maritime activity and ways to romost peace and prosperity in the region. it was described north korea's continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles

as an acute athlete. he encouraged south korea to build the strongest possible relationship. official from the two nations must come together to find solutions for regional challenges. >> both sides are responsible for making the relationship better. and japan on its part will continue to make efforts to improve the relationship with the korean friends and i'm hoping our korean friends are also going to do the same thing. >> on questions of history, as i said we have our own consistent and principled position. and i had a chance today to share my government's position. >> he called the north korean

issue a priority. they agreed to work towards a summit between the leaders of their countries and china. saki said last month's meeting was a meaningful step towards improving relations. he urged his south korean counterpart to make sure the tri-level summit goes ahead. improvement in bilateral relations is already off to a good start. now time to get a business and financial perspective on things with gene otani. >> finance ministers from the world's 20 major economies are in washington to discuss the global economy. day one of the two day meeting has come to a close. finance minister and bank of japan governor were at the table. they said they told their colleagues the effect of japan's consumption tax hike is fading and domestic economy is on a

moderate recovery track. they stressed their intentions to achieve a good balance between economic growth and financial reconstruction. the g-20 participants were expected to attack greece's debt problem. the united states is the imf's largest contributor and congress opposes change but china and other emerging nations want a stronger say in the fun's management. and a majority of those g-20 members plan to be a part of beijing's new development bank. china says 57 nations are participating in the asian infrastructure investment bank or aiib. but japan and the u.s. are holding back citing concerns over transparency in the bank's governance. . japanese finance minister met with u.s. treasury secretary jack lew ahead of the g-20 meeting to discuss the aiib. >> translator: in talks with

jack lew we agreed the aiib must meet internal standards. they include securing proper governance and debt sustainability as well as giving consideration to the new bank's impact on the environment and relevant societies. >> he said one of the ways to effectively raise the new bank standards is joint financing. that would be with existing institutions with high standards such as the world bank and asian development bank. chinese finance minister says beijing wants to see tokyo come on board the aiib but said the two countries differ over conditions for their participation. >> translator: if they say they are not going to be part of it then there's not much we can do. we spelled out conditions for participation, but japan came out with different ones. we're not sure whether other members will accept such conditions. >> he said the number of aiib founding members exceeds those for the world bank and asian

development bank when they were inaugurated. checking the markets tokyo stocks fell posting their biggest loss in three weeks. the nikkei average closed 1.17% at 19,652. the stronger yen weighed on exporters. some investors booked profits ahead of the corporate earnings season starting next week. for the week the nikkei 225 was down 1.2% after hitting 20,000 last friday. moving on to chinese markets shanghai composite climbed more than 2% hitting 4287. analysts say investors expect the government to take further stimulus measures. the index has posted seven straight weeks of gains. on to australia. sidney fell from yesterday's gain. it dropped 1.17% closing at 5877. some market players sold mining shares on falling iron and ore

prices. in other markets. hong kong was down 0.3%. hang seng index rose. seoul ended up 0.17 stretching its winning streak six days. indonesia, down by .2 of 1%. government officials believe japanese people are becoming more inclined to loosen their purse strings. they say consumer sentiment improved in march for the fourth straight month. the consumer confidence index for march stood at 41.7. that's up from the previous month. the index is based on a monthly cabinet office survey of 8400 households of two or more people. officials say improvements is attributed to pay raises as well as the improving job market. the cabinet office revised up where ward its assessment of consumer confidence. it went from showing signs of recovery to recovering.

regarding the price outlook for the year from now. 87.8% of households said they expect prices to go up. that's up 0.5 point from the previous month. workers at major firms in japan have won their biggest pay raises in 21 years this spring. many firms offered record level base pay hikes as their earnings improved. the japan business federation is compiling figures from annual wage negotiations. data were available from 62 large firms as of thursday. they gave an average increase in monthly pay of $71.4 or 2.59% in yen terms the biggest increase since 1994. by industry auto sector workers got the largest pay raise. wages be went up $82.6, up 2.91%. officials say businesses posting increased earnings likely to set

to raise pay to encourage a positive economic cycle. analysts are focusing on whether the move will spread to small and mid-size businesses. property developers in japan are struggling with the rising cost of labor and materials they say they got no choice but to charge more for new condominium so some are devising creative strategies to draw in more customers. >> reporter: in the heart of tokyo a condominium is going up. the develop certificate a major real estate company. the complex will have over 900 units ranging from studios to three bedroom apartments with spacious living rooms. prices start at $270,000 and most expensive unit will go for a whopping $3 million. one major selling point is a large common area for residents.

it will include a cafe like space with chairs and tables a play room for kids and a park. a virtual reality head set allows visitors to envision how the space will look when it's complete. so using the controller i can move forward and go out the balcony and when i move my head towards the left the scenery also changes and i can actually view the big park outside the condo and really feel the pay show us environment. company officials say such innovative marketing approaches are essential if they are going to lure potential buyers. >> translator: the virtual reality experience is an effective promotional tool. we need to come up with more unique ways to present our properties so that our customers

will appreciate what we have to offer. >> reporter: another company is transforming older properties into new homes. this condo is a few kilometers from the center of tokyo. the building is 20 years old but everything inside is brand new. the whole complex has undergone a major renovation. the developer hopes that it will increase the value of the property. 56 square meter apartments start at $250,000. that's about 20% cheaper than the brand new units. >> translator: i'm very surprised. it looks completely new. it's very clean and affordable. i hope there will be more condos like this. >> translator: renovated properties are relatively

inexpensive. we want to give customers more choice by offering both new and used units. >> reporter: despite recent trends one real estate perfect is optimistic. he says the market for high end condos in center tokyo will continue to be strong. >> translator: wealthier people who have made money in the stock market are shopping for homes now. in addition to that the weaker yen is making properties here in tokyo much more attractive to foreign investors. >> reporter: the 2020 olympics will also be a boom to condo development. investors from around the globe flock to tokyo in pursuit of real estate goals. and that's it for business news. i'll leave you with the markets.

people living near former nuclear weapons facilities in u.s. depended on the jobs it provided. once shut down many worried about their future and the contaminatition left behind. new businesses that take advantage of local expertise are emerging.

>> reporter: the hanford site in southeastern washington state is known as the most contaminated nuclear site in the united states. established in 1943 as part of the manhattan project, the site produced plutonium for the nuclear weapons program. when all nine reactors were shut down more than 200 million litters of radioactive waste remain. clean up began in 1989. originally it was set to be completed within 30 years. but due to leaking waste tanks and other technical challenges the process has faced extensive delays. across the river clean up work continues even decades after this nuclear weapons related facility was shut down. they estimate that it will take at least until 2060 before the work is completed. the decontamination effort has supported the local economy with

it's $2 billion annual price tag. the region has become a hub for research and technology. new companies have been springing up. like this consulting firm. many of its employees used to work at the hanford site. they now provide radiological and nuclear services to u.s. and internal science. >> if you're trying to find several spots of contamination, you really need to go fairly slow. >> reporter: their services include radiation safety training. >> it's been great. i learned a lot. it takes experience use of a lot of different instruments i've never used before. it's valuable training. >> ed. >> good to see you. >> reporter: dave mccormick

brought 13 years of hanford experience in waste management and radiation protection to the company. >> so many of our projects really rely on experience not just education, not just certifications and the level of experience and the complexity diversity has helped us here and helped clients here. >> reporter: another company has developed a radiation treatment for cancer. the technique is derived from research on isolating radioactive materials at the hanford site. after separating and purifying the radioactive isotope it's sealed inside. prostate cancers have been treated with this technique and the company is expanding to treatments for brain, head and neck lung and other cancers. >> people who had a wide variety

of background from engineering to how to build reactors and so without that kind of a background, no we wouldn't have started. >> reporter: the local economy is finally moving away from its dependence on the hanford site. >> 50 years to get to where we are. it takes a real ambition, desire, vision. you need to explore those things in order to move ahead. >> reporter: while this community has faced major challenges, and the clean up road remains long many are moving forward in search of a future beyond the hanford legacy. the editors of "time" magazine have named who they consider the world's 100 most influential people of 2015. two japanese made the cut.

one is a writer who sold millions of books and the other helped people clear the clutter from their homes. the "us weekly" magazine has published its annual list of movers and shakers. one is a japanese novelist. the widow of john less none contributed an article on his achievements. she wrote he has enthralled motorcycle loans of readers. he spends much of his time in the u.s. and earned acclaim internally he and his books are very much a product of japan. also on the list is an organizing consultant. she wrote a book titled "the life changing magic of tidying up." it sold over 600,000 copies in the u.s. and made her a household name. she has unique recommendations for organizing living space. she says possession that no longer spark joy in the heart

should be thrown out. but has a sense of gratitude for once serving a purpose. more people in the u.s. are living in smaller quarters and they find her tips useful. in an event to promote her her methods was held in los angeles. sneezy read. simple. everybody can follow it. >> i almost think that she brings some sort of like sexiness to organizing. >> "time" editor selected kim jong-un jong-un. it's an example of negative influence. also having negative influence, sand storm blowing through parts of east aisha, damage to crops and low visibility. jonathan oh has the details. hello. whenever we go through the weather pattern in the spring we run into these problems with yellow sand because of the weather patterns where the winds become more intense further up

north and when that happens not only does it limit visibility also becomes a bit of a problem for people trying to breathe and causes damage to crops in the region. let me take you over into northern portions of china and you can see here or maybe you cannot see here because of how windy it was it kicked up dust and sand across the region this past week. this was the scene thursday in northwest china where high winds reduced the visibility at times below ten meters. this made travel hazardous. that limited the sight of drivers and also a coating of sand every where. local farmers reported 300 hectares were damaged and people are being told to stay inside because this is not good for your health. as we continue on throughout the next few days we're going to see the pattern shifting the sand over towards the east and korean pns and into japan.

if you notice the isobars this gives us an idea of where the air is flowing from. whenever you have a vertical pattern and low pressure to the east we have a northerly flow coming from the north. so look what we're expecting. yes, possibility of seeing some yellow sand coming into portions of the korean peninsula into tokyo. on the lighter side thankfully not nearly as intense as further back towards the west but nevertheless something to keep in mind especially for twhorshose who are sensitive to this. cloudy skies and warm day here in tokyo. we'll see the pattern continuing as high pressure moves in so expect temperatures to be around 21 degrees for saturday. 19 in beijing with some rain. this rain pattern will be shifting towards the east. by the time we go into first part of next week the rain will spread into the korean peninsula and japan. speak of rain.

let's look at europe. we had a period of time this week where plenty of sunshine and dry conditions were taking place. we have a cold front now pushing further towards the south. and as that takes place we're going to see temperatures dropping off and we'll see the possibility of rain and maybe some thunderstorms. this low pressure system in the iberian peninsula will travel to the north and east. it will pick up moisture. looking at possibility for thunderstorms in paris and vienna. in athens and rome before you see temperatures in the 20s as we go through friday. now as you wrap things up with a look at north america i want to point out to you these clouds bright in the rocky mountains. that's because we have snow taking place. back on april 6th look at this. beautiful. sunny. now on the 16th we have snow on the ground. this is kind of unusual but something that was taking place and now we're going to see the system slowly pushing towards the east. it's tracking with a stationary

front down the south. this produced some reports of tornadoes down in the southern plains. we're looking at the instability to remain. please pay attention to heavy rainfall, maybe some thunderstorms in houston and oklahoma city. the rain extending along the eastern seaboard as well. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's you extended outlook.

please visit our website for future stories and sproeshlts. for all of us here at "newsline," thanks for watching.8ú

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