oç it's a friday evening here in japan i'm james tengan in tokyo. welcome to this hour's edition of "newsline". we start off with a quick look at the hour's top stories. >> a volcano on a southern japanese island is erupting. hot rocks and gases are reaching the shore and everyone has evacuated. a diet committee debating security bills broke up on friday after lawmakers walked

out. a new survey shows people in japan and south korea realize the importance of the relationship between the two countries but still have negative views of each other. >> a volcano in southern japan has erupted. officials have issued the highest level warning and ordered all the residents to >> mt, shindake exploded a little before 10:00 a.m. friday local time. it sent up a 9,000 meter column of smoke. 140 people live on the island. one resident said he heard a huge explosion when the volcano erupted. officials say rapid flows of gases and rocks have reached the coast. >> translator: more strong and large scale explosions could happen. we want people where explosions could happen to follow directions issued by local

authorities including evacuation orders. >> reporter: kuchinoerabu is in kagoshima prefecture. kuchinoerabu is only about 50 kilometers around. eight people were killed about 80 years ago when mt, shindake erupted several times. the mountain was quiet for 34 years. last august it spewed large rocks up to several hundred meter from the crater. experts say they were on alert at the time of friday's eruption. >> translator: we've seen signs that are consistent with an impending large eruption. these include swallowing of the ground and volcanic earthquakes were detected in january and on saturday. this eruption was much larger than the one last august. >> reporter: prime minister shinzo abe has set up an

emergency task force. >> translator: i've ordered officials to work closely with local municipalities to secure the residents' safety and ask them to monitor the volcano carefully and provide accurate and timely information to the residents. >> reporter: some injuries have been reported but government officials have confirmed that all the residents are safe. officials plan to keep residents off the island until it is declared safe. thanks for those updates. japanese lawmakers have hit a road block in their deliberations or security bills. they are holding heated debates over proposed legislation that would expand the role of the self-defense forces. but opposition lawmakers broke up a lower house committee on friday by walking out. the committee was supposed to

discuss legislation for about seven hours. but an hour into the meeting members of three opposition parties left. they accused the foreign minister kish of not properly answering a question what constitutes a per allows situation surrounding japan. opposition camps failed to agree on a resuchtion. the opposition bloc is urging the prime minister to apologize for a remark he made on thursday. the opposition democratic party of japan was grilling abe and he cut her off. abe apologized at the meeting but the opposition bloc said it was not sincere enough. so lawmakers seem far apart

on this issue. what was the focus of this week's debate? >> one of the key issues is how japan to exercise self-defense. last july members of the cabinet said the country can use that right. that was a departure from the way in the past the constitution was interpreted. the abe administration has determined that there are three conditions under which japan could use the right. they include an attack on closely related country that threatens japan's survival but only if other appropriate means are not available. in addition only the minimum amount of force could be applied. governmental officials earlier

this month submitted security bills to the diet. if passed it will give the government a legal basis for using the right. >> what are the members of the opposition saying? >> well they have been highly critical. they say that the government could apply the criteria arbitrarily to many situations. others said they would be extremely careful to make sure the situation meets all three criteria before mobilizing the sdf. he says he would in principle not apply overseas to use force. he said that would go against the rule of necessary minimum and violate the constitution. but abe says the government code is patch mind sweepers to the persian gulf even though that action could be interpreted as a

use of force. many foreign tankers carrying oil to japan go through the straits. abe said he may send sweepers if tankers are impeded by mines and threaten japanese lives. >> translator: mine sweeping can be considered an exception to my principle. the purpose of such operations is to protect civilian vessels from underwater danger and ensure safe navigation. so the nature of the activities is passive and limited. it could meet the three conditions for the use of force even overseas. >> abe said he'll achieve his reforms by the summer. but opposition members say that the debate is far from over. >> thanks very much.

officials from 17 nations have begun talks on ways to fight human smuggling in southeast asia. they are meeting in bangkok. the delegates are looking to stop gangs who have been profiting after migrants trying to flee persecution. >> no country can solve this problem alone. >> a rising member of myanmar's ethnic minority rohingya have fallen victim to traffickers. they are hoping to come up ways to resettle and repatriate the migrants. malaysia and indonesian officials announced plans to set up temporary facilities to shelter them. migrants have been fleeing by boat to nearby countries including malaysia and indonesia. authorities think about 2,500 people are still adrift at sea. more than 170 bodies were discovered in a mountainous area

in a border between thailand and malaysia. some remains are believed to be those of rohingya. the myanmar government refuses to recognize them as citizens. delegate from the country are attending a meeting. usa representative surging myanmar authorities to take action to resolve the crisis. >> we need to go and look at the root causes of why people feel they have know the alternative but to flee their own countries and take such a dangerous, dangerous trip. >> she said the u.s. government is ready to take a leading role in helping rohingya migrants find homes. 15 chinese nationals have been indicted in the united states for using fake passports to commit examination fraud. an official of the district court in the eastern state of pennsylvania made the announcement on thursday. the official said those indicted are chinese nationals between 19

and 26 years old. u.s. authorities say the suspects face prosecution for crimes that include conspiracy and counterfeiting passports. they say six of them used fake chinese passports to take tests such as the graduate record examination on behalf of others. u.s. universities require students take such tests in order to qualify forced a mission. the officials say the other nine paid people to sit for the exams or served as interintermediaries to forge the documents. they vow to safeguard the universities from fraudulent access. the u.s. is experiencing a surge in the number of chinese students and there have been growing calls for tougher measures to prevent unlawful access to higher education. japanese officials are leasing plenty of economic data today. ramin mellegard is here from the

business desk to break it down for us. what do the futures say? >> it's all pretty encouraging data so far. why don't we start with housing. now the market managed to maintain an upturn first seen in march. at that time housing starts rose after a full year of decline and the latest figure for april extends the positive trend. land ministry officials say housing starts last month were up 0.4% from a year earlier. this say large condominium in tokyo were the main factor. the number for built for sale homes increased by over 7%. built to order houses and rental units were down by about 2%. ministry officials say demand the recovering from the declines we saw in the wake in the hike of the consumption tax in april of last year. now officials at japan's economy ministry say industrial output in april was up 1% from march. first expansion in three months. the officials attribute the rise

to an increase in production of air conditioners for the domestic market and smartphone parts for china. they predict industrial output will rise again this month. they cite an expected increase in odds for plant facilities and construction machinery. now another set of data show prices for daily goods and services rose for the 23rd consecutive month but at a slower pace. officials with the internal afirst ministry say the consumer price index for april was up 0.3% from the same month last year. the bank of japan estimates prices remain flat if the effects of a consumption tax hike are subtracted. now checking the markets. tokyo stocks managed to streak to 11 days. that's the main index longest rally in 27 years. the nikkei average ended almost flat at 20,563. now profit taking kicked in from recent gains but some investors bought shares on hopes for

better corporate earnings. the index has now enjoyed five straight months of gains rising 3.5% in may. in china trading in the shanghai composite was volatile after the index post ad sharp fall on thursday. the index is down nearly 0.2% extending its losses and closing at 4611. analysts say some investors believe the correction phase of the market will continue for a while. but the index rose for the fourth consecutive month. sidney rebounded from two days of losses. the s&p/asx 200 rose almost 2% up to 4777 hitting a three week high. the rise was led by financials and energy and resource. but the index post ad third straight monthly loss. in other markets, in asia-pacific region hong kong ended a touch lower, stretching its losses to a third day.

philippines recovered from a four month low and is now at is up 1.1%. google executives have been watching with worry as rival apple has gained legions of customers through its iphone. now google has unveiled a range of upgrades and apps for devices running its android operating system. the executives hope the new offerings prompt iphone users to search. one app is google photos. it can back up and store photos for free. the idea is to save users time by taking over the job creating albums. the app recognizes where and when the images were taken and who were in them. it them automatically sorts them. google maps is getting an enhancement users can store their maps data and then use them even when not connected to the net. the executives also rolled out a

new feature for google's payment service. android smartphone users can make payments by holding their hand sets over a cash register. apple launched payment service last year for smartphones equipped with finger print readers. now summer in japan is a time for many people to enjoy some nice cold beers. but changing consumer tastes are posing a challenge to major brewers. so they are working hard to boost demand by getting creative. >> reporter: major beverage maker kirin introduced a new service on thursday. it will deliver fresh beer from its brewery to their front doors. the new beer server is quite compact. it's about the size of a rice cooker and was designed to be used in the kitchen or living

room. the beer is delivered in an air tight bottle specially developed to keep it fresh. the bottle is put inside an insulated bag so it remains chilled all the way to the customer's home. the service costs $65 a month for four liters of beer. kirin will start deliveries in august. officials say the program is the first of its kind in the industry. they set a target of signing up 50,000 households. >> translator: we used hops with very nice floral scent to create a finer taste. we added more hops to this beer than others. the delivery service is for customers who value time at home with their family or friends. >> reporter: company officials are hoping the service will help reverse recent trends. young people in japan have been drinking less beer and the overall market is shrinking. over the past ten years, shipments have fallen by about

40%. breweries have responded by developing innovative service and products in an attempt to lure customers back to their brands. one idea is nonalcoholic drink called healthy beer. they are targeting people who are concerned with their blood sugar level. the beverage has fiber that helps curb the absorption of sugar. officials at the consumers affairs agency gave permission to label the drink. it's the first non-alcoholic beer to receive that certification. customers are buying in to the idea. >> translator: i'm interested. it's been certified so it should be better for my body. >> translator: i'll give it a try. if it tastes good i'll keep buying it. >> reporter: but some feel it will cause young people to develop a habit for drinking beer even though coerce not

marketing the beverage to anyone under 20. >> translator: i'm afraid minors will start buying beer. we have to watch out for that. >> reporter: officials of the consumer agency placed the condition on the sales of the beverage. shop keepers must check customer's i.d.s to prevent underage drinking. other major breweries have plans to introduce similar products. they have already applied for certification. they are hoping consumers this summer will be thirsty for new drinks and new ideas. >> that's all for business news for this hour. james, i hand it back to you. >> thanks for those thirst quenching updates. the relationship between japan and south korea has been sour for some time and according to a new survey looks like it may stay like that for at that

while longer. majority of people in both countries have negative impressions of each other. >> reporter: the survey was conducted by a south korean think tank east asian in april and may. 1,000 people in japan and 1,10 in south korea responded. >> translator: the impressions of people in both countries of the other nationalityiy are still negative. >> reporter: japanese who have negative feelings about south koreans decreased slightly. only 24% have positive thoughts. south korean respondents who said they have favorable

impressions of japan has decreased. the reasons for the negative impressions varies but two most cited ones 74% of south koreans said they have a negative view of japanese people because they fail to reflect on their past aggression properly. about the same percentage of japanese said they are not impressed with south koreans because they continue to criticize japan over historical and other issues. about 70% of south koreans as well as 37% of japanese also cited the dispute of the takeshima islands as a reason for having negative impressions. the japanese government maintains the islands are an inherent part of japan's territory. it says south korea is illegally occupying them. the survey showed that many people in both countries are concerned about the deteriorating bilateral relations. when asked how they view the

negative public sentiment over the other country, about 68% of japanese respondents said it's undesirable and worrisome for that it's problematic and needs to be improved. the percentage reached 67% among south korean respondents but in south korea 28% said the current situation is understandable. that's nearly three times the number of japanese respondents who gave the same answer. the survey showed some positive signs. asked how they viewed the two countries future relations, about 22% of japanese respondents said they expect bilateral ties to improve. that's up six percentage points from last year's survey. only 12% said ties will deteriorate down by 10 points. a similar trend can be seen in south korea. 19% said bilateral ties will improve. up five points and 28% said they will deteriorate.

down 11 points. the survey also showed that many respondents in both countries believe the two countries leaders should meet for talks in order to reach a break through in strained relations. more than 80% of japanese respondents said two leaders should hold a summit and 87% of south koreans answered the same. but the percentage of south koreans who said the meeting should be held as soon as possible was 27 percentage points lower than the japanese. the percentage of those who believe there's no need to hurry was 26 points higher than that for japanese. >> translator: the image of each neighbor has hardened into something that is unacceptable to either side. >> translator: if we focus on the positive impressions and try hard to improve our soured relations the national sentiment

of both countries will get better. >> reporter: this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between two nations. but the survey suggests that there's little reason to celebrate and that more must to be done before the two sides see more solid ties. hoping those percentage points drop sooner than later. thank you for that report. "newsline" comes to you from tokyo. jonathan oh starts off with conditions in and around the site of today's volcanic eruption in southern japan. >> hello we are monitoring what's happening over the western side of japan because the concern about the volcano that exploded over in kag kuchinoerabu island will increase the risk for mud flow.

earlier we had rain pushing towards the east and brought rain to the kuchinoerabu region. back towards the west we have a low pressure system developing and moving out of china and pushing eastward and so by the time we go into saturday and sunday we'll have a pretty good chance for some rain and the concern is the property damage that can happen from the rain combining with the debris that came out of the volcano, so we see wet weather for saturday and sunday, that risk of mud flow will be quite high as we go throughout the weekend. we should see drier conditions by mono. temperatures in the upper 20s. now as you take a broader look at east asia and see what's happening, i mentioned the rain over in tokyo as we went through the day on friday. as you go through the weekend you'll have a little bit of a mix going on. saturday looking drier. that same system out of the west will bring rainfall into central portions of japan as we go into sunday. we're concerned about this rainy season that will be pretty

persistent. we're looking at another 100 millimeters rainfall down in the southeastern portions of china and that's in addition to the rainfall that's fallen at this point. flooding problems continue to linger as we go throughout the weekend. so for saturday shanghai down to taipei and hong kong seeing wet weather and temperatures in the 20s for shanghai 30s further down south. as we take a look at the forecast for north america we have been talking about these persistent storms in the central portions of the united states but we also saw some stormy activity over into the northeastern portions of the united states. check this picture out on thursday coming out of massachusetts where these strong storms caused trees to split apart here and land on various houses in the process and this is not something that we want to see but because of the very unstable weather those pictures are a reality and in fact on top of that flash flooding continues to be a concern along with some

strong thunderstorms in the central portions of the united states. we're looking at the possibility of seeing more flash flooding as we go throughout the day. we do have a tropical system over the eastern pacific and keep an eye on that as we progress through the weekend. back towards the central portion of the u.s. looking out for some flash flooding possibilities and a risk for some severe weather again as we go through friday. be aware of the weather situation. pay attention what's happening in your area because from denver to houston, chicago, "atlantis" and d.c. all looking at chances for thunderstorms as we go throughout the day. wrapping things up with a look at europe. we have a cold front slipping into the northern portions of the continent. that will bring rain and some cooler temperatures in the process. we're talking about teens for places like london with a high of 15. 19 in paris. 29 main drid. it will be wet. drier towards the center portions of the continent, back towards the east some thunderstorms possible with highs in the 20s for moscow and kiev for friday.

hope you have a good day wherever your. here's your three day forecast. is is. that was this hour's news and weather from our studios

here in tokyo. for all of us here at "newsline," thanks for watching.

rs in mohammed adow buhari as the country's new -- mohammed all buhari as the country post new president. a defensive burma refuses to take full blame for asia's migrant crisis. officials at a regional meeting say the situation is at an alarming level. also coming up in the program michael jackson's ranch