here are some of the stories we're following this hour. toyota motor's president has apologized following the arrest of an american executive for allegedly smuggling drugs into japan. japan's lower house has passed a bill that would allow companies to use staff indefinitely with certain conditions. south korean officials say another person has died from

middle east respiratory syndrome. and diplomats tell us how leaders avoided one of the biggest crises in the 1970s. toyota motor's president has apologized following the arrest of an american executive at the center of drug smuggling allegations. julie hamp was arrested on violation of the narcotics drugs control act. the president bowed deeply to a room full of reporters. toyoda apologized. >> translator: what we can do now is believe in our member. we will fully cooperate with the investigation. we believe the investigation will prove that hamp didn't have any intention to break the law.

>> police in tokyo allege hamp smuggled pills in from the u.s. the tablets contained a substance known as oxycodone. japanese authorities identify oxycodone as a narcotic drug. hamp is denying the allegation. hamp's case is accepteding shock waves through the business world. we are more. >> konichiwa, ladies and gentlemen. >> reporter: julie hamp seemed calm introducing a new vice president. but hours later she would find herself talking to police. they say the discovery was made

in a parcel that arrived at the airport by international mail. they say it was sent from the u.s. state of michigan to kentucky and then on to japan. and it was addressed to hamp at a tokyo hotel. the box was labeled as necklaces and some tablets were found at the bottom of the package and inside a toy pendant case and also a paper bag. police say the pills contain oxycodone. a substance used in some countries as a painkiller. it is designated in japan as a narcotic because it can be highly addictive. people are banning from bringing the drug into the country. require the permission from the health ministry based on a medical prescription and must

carry the drug with them and be cleared at customs. "the wall street journal" points out that some americans may face problems in japan because of the tougher restrictions. in the u.s. people can take a doctor's note for oxycodone and fill their prescription at a drugstore. japan has relatively few business executives and hamp is seen as a role model. before toyota she climbed the corporate ladder at pepsi and gm. she's denying the allegation and says she didn't believe she was importing narcotics. but police suspect she had tried to conceal the substance and are now investigating who sent the parcel. naoto katase nhk world. >> thanks for that update.

lawmakers with japan's ruling coalition have moved closer to enacting a bill they consider one of the more important in the diet session. to remove term limits for temporary workers. >> translator: i want to emphasize that this bill is aimed at improving working conditions for those who choose to work as dispatch workers at opening a path for those who want to work for permanent employees. >> opposition lawmakers walked out of the lower house session. they accused of coalition of steam rolling the vote. the bill was passed with the support of the ruling liberal democratic party, its coalition party, and other parties. it was then sent to the upper house for deliberation. the amendment would set a three-year limit for the use of temporary workers for a given job. after that period staffing agencies would need to ask companies to hire the staff as regular employees. but firms won't have to accept the request. they would be able to use

dispatch workers indefinitely as long as they change the workers every three years. three opposition parties agreed to have the bill scrapped through deliberations in the upper house. >> translator: the deal was put to a vote at the session in violation of the rule that all parliamentary groups must agree to deliberate the bill urgently in a session after it passes a committee. it is outrageous. >> the lower house approved a separate bill that calls for equal pay for equal work regardless of the regular or non-regular status. officials with south korea's health ministry says another person has died from middle east respiratory syndrome. that brings the number of deaths to 24. health ministry officials say the latest victim was a 75-year-old man. they've also confirmed a new case bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 166. including fatalities.

the newly infected patient reportedly looked after a family member that was admitted to a hospital in seoul with the largest number of infections. officials are trying to pinpoint the infection route. ministry officials say six people who have been infected with mers have been discharged from hospitals. close to 6,000 people are being isolated at their homes or medical institutions. government officials hope to contain the outbreak by the end of this month. the governor of okinawa has taken his fight against the relocation of an american air base to the u.s. ambassador in japan. takeshi onaga has asked caroline kennedy to cancel the move. onaga visited the u.s. embassy for his first talks with kennedy. he told kennedy people in

okinawa showed opposition in last year's elections. japanese and u.s. officials have agreed to move the futenma air base to a coastal district in the prefecture. kennedy said the current plan is the only solution that addresses operational, political financial, and strategic concerns. >> translator: i sensed her willingness to work together but she sounded like she was reading a memo when she referred to the relocation plan of the japanese and u.s. governments. >> onaga has been urging the japanese government to listen to the concerns of the people of okinawa. he also went to the u.s. where he spoke to lawmakers. hong kong's pro-democracy legislators are demanding a new election reform plan. they voted to reject to select the territory's top leader. but the chinese government is showing no sign of conceding. the council voted down the bill

on thursday which would allow direct election of the territory's chief executive. a two-thirds majority was required for passage. 40% of the council voted no. pro-democracy groups criticized the bill for blocking people from being selected as candidates. pro-democracy legislators say the no vote is a starting point for a new democratic movement. they say they will continue to demand true universal suffrage without conditions imposed against those who stand for office. china's national people's congress standing committee issued a statement saying the direction it set must continue to be upheld. a veteran diplomat is shedding light on the early days of normalized ties between japan and south korea. endo played a major role in maintaining stability between

the two countries. but he says one incident pushed relations to the edge. nhk world's hirokiage a.j. ma reports. >> reporter: during that time he had his first meeting. kim had fled to japan after not only losing the 1971 presidential election to the incumbent. he said he felt his life was in danger because he had criticized park's regime as a dictatorship. >> translator: kim was talkative, eloquent. he was perfectly fluent in chinese. another important factor was then-president park was a dictator. when kim came to japan, many came after him. including south korean

intelligence agents. >> reporter: kim was unable to elude his enemies even in japan. he was kidnapped from a hotel in tokyo. >> reporter: a couple of days later he was in seoul. investigators collected fingerprints at the hotel and matched them to an official at the south korean embassy. >> translator: the japanese side reacted strongly. what was that all about? was it an infringement of sovereignty? but the south korean government

would not admit to any involvement. >> translator: japanese officials asked their south korean counterparts to hand kim over for questioning. but officials in seoul refused. then they placed him under house arrest. president park held secret negotiations with the japanese side. then japanese prime minister tanaka reviewed the incident. >> translator: government leaders shared the view ties between the two countries were important. they also thought a certain level of compromise would also be necessary even if they couldn't always be so honest. >> reporter: kim was forced to spend time in confinement as a political prisoner. but eventually won his freedom.

>> reporter: the political showdown helped avoid one of the biggest crisis between the countries. it was more than 30 years later that the south korean government admitted committing the crime and officially apologized to japan. hiroki yaj ma yajima nhk world. gene otani from our business desk is here to fill us in on other developments. >> thanks. the bank of japan policy makers have decided to maintain the easing measures they began last october. the bank is trying to hit a 2%

inflation target. they've left their views on the economy unchanged. the officials are sticking with their description to have the world's third largest economy saying it has continued to recover moderately. they've also revised their assessment on housing investment. previously they said it has bottomed out and showed some signs of picking up. now they say it has started to pick up. the policy maker's views on private consumption, business investment, and exports remain unchanged. boj officials say next year they'll hold eight annual meetings down from around 14. they say that's a framework widely used by major central banks. but they plan to double the frequency of publication of a report called the outlook for economic activity and prices. it is currently published twice a year. they say these changes will help deliberations at the meetings and improve communication on monetary policy. the bank of japan's governor has defended the decision to reduce the number of policy board

meetings a year. ku kuroda said the bank will double the number of times it releases reports on economic and commodity prices forecasts. it will enhance the transparency of operations. checking the markets. the nikkei regained the 20,000 mark. it snapped its four-day losing streak. but over the week it lost more than 1%. analysts say some positive momentum came from wall street. u.s. stocks rallied after the federal reserve suggested the key interest rate would rise slowly. but not much positive news from china. the shanghai composite plunged more than 6% ending at its lowest in a month. it fell 14% over the week. that's the biggest weekly fall in seven years. some analysts said the market has entered a corrective phase.

tighter rules for margin trading are one factor weighing on sentiment. hong kong gained however, despite the sharp fall. ended up 0.25% at 26,760. some investors bought stocks as uncertainty eased after legislators vote down a beijing-backed electoral reform plan. in other markets in the asia pacific reason seoul's kospi stretched its winning streak to a third day. indonesia gained .8% after keeping the key interest rate unchanged. sydney gained 1.3%. sales at department stores in japan rose in may for the second straight month. industry officials say nearly $4 billion in sales were recorded at roughly 240 stores last month. that's 6.3% higher than a year earlier and a shine stores are recovering from the consumption

tax hike last year. officials with the japan department stores' association say foreign tourists boosted sales. a spell of good weather helped too, prompting many people to splash out on summer clothing. officials hope that rising stock prices and an uptick in consumer sentiment will keep the momentum going. the u.s. house of representatives has passed a trade promotion authority bill or tpa after removing legislation to aid american workers. it would give president barack obama more authority on trade deals such as the transpacific partnership. house members passed the so-called fast track bill on thursday with a vote of 218-208. the tpa bill was x-rated from a companion measure called trade adjustment assistance or taa. it helped workers who lose their jobs due to foreign competition.

republicans supporting the tpp hope that the senate will pass the bill by the end of next week and send it to obama for signing. japan's minister in charge of tpp talks commented on the passage of the fast track bill. >> translator: i hope the bill will also be approved smoothly in the u.s. senate. and i suspect the tpa will be effective and accelerate the transpacific partnership talks. >> he said if he bill passes talks on outstanding issues would resume immediately. he said all 12 nations participating in the trade talks would then follow. policy makers at south korea's central bank reduced their rate to a historic low.

they pointed to sluggish exports. and they're worried the mers outbreak will make things worse. policy makers knocked a quarter of the percentage point taking it down to 1.5%. they've already cut the rate three times in the past year. mers threatens to add to the problems officials face. earlier ai uchida spoke about the effect on the economy with a professor at efa women's university. >> professor kim thanks for being on our show. what are the industries being most affected by the mers outbreak? you're there. what is the sentiment on the street and how much damage are you expecting on the economy? >> well mers is seriously affecting the economy particularly the service sector is the most affected because people want to stay away from crowded area. therefore department stores traveling industries and medical service industries are

seriously affected. and in total we expect slightly over .5% of the total gdp increasing rate will be sacrificed for this year. and second thing is mers really affected the total psychological of the korean people. because korean people thought that korea has a well-organized medical system and government system to protect themselves against the sars and mers. >> so given all this how do you rate what the monetary officials have been doing? >> well, at 1.5% key interest rate is the best thing that they did from bank of korea. that means that bank of korea cannot decrease down to 1.5%. so we believe that 1.5% interest rate might be the bottom line for bank of korea.

for example, bank of korea cannot decrease interest rate down to 0% like that of the united states, japan, and europe. because korean is not chi currency. interest rates go down to 0% there will be serious outflow of the capital from korea. >> okay then what can fiscal side do? some analysts say the government should be doing more so. what are your expectations for fiscal measures? >> well korean government after outbreak of the mers korean government decide to provide supplementary budget. and we do not know exact size of the supplemented budget but it's going to be kind of a huge supplementary budget over $10 billion u.s. and that will be used for problematic industries like medical service and service sectors. and that's it for business news.

i'll leave you with the markets. "newsline" comes to you from our studios in tokyo where it's cloudy with intermittent rain. sayaka mori joins us with the world weather update. starting with some turbulent

conditions in europe. >> wild weather is happening across the western portions of the mediterranean countries. nearly 70 millimeters of rain fell in one hour in greece. that's much more than the monthly rainfall for june and one funnel cloud was reported in the same country and one person killed due to a lightning strike in turkey. the reason is that there is a cold air mass in the upper atmosphere and temperature near the ground is warm. so the temperature difference caused that weather. across the balkan peninsula as well as turkey the same conditions will continue into sass. and then there's a cold front and low pressure system situated over the north of italy that is providing the risk of landslides as well as heavy rainfall thunderstorms, and the risk of tornadoes into saturday across the north. now, dry spot is going to be the iberian peninsula and temperatures are going to be quite high. 35 for you in lisbon with abundance of sunshine. not too hod in madrid but that's going up to 33 degrees as

we go into sunday. it's the wet season across the south and western japan. the seasonal has been stuck here. we have some video coming out of the hunan province. it's caused severe floods and more than 225,000 people in the area. the rain has been hitting hunan province since sunday. thankfully no one has died as a result of the weather. but more rain is anticipated into the weekend. the front will weaken on saturday, but we develop once again on sunday. heavy rain is also coming down across the southwestern islands of japan. rainy weather for you in many portions of japan as well as china. rain will continue into the next three days in thaiaipeitaipei. we may see sudden bursts of showers like we have on

wednesday. now let's go to the south. it's the southwest monsoon season for southeastern areas of southeast asia. the worst will happen near myanmar. 200 millimeters likely. the monsoon season has finally started across portions of india. but across the north, the season has not started yet. it's been delayed. the indian economy is highly dependent on agriculture so rain is much needed. rain is falling heavily across the southern areas of the united states. record-breaking heavy rain has fallen in louisiana. more rain is expected for the next couple of days. this is the remnants of the tropical storm bill. it is capable of unleashing flash floods across many portions of the eastern united states. two tornadoes reported across the east coast of the united states. and another severe risk across the plains. very hot conditions dry conditions are persisting across

the southwest. temperatures are going to be in the 40s across phoenix. you had the record high temperatures on both wednesday and thursday. death valley heating to 53 degrees on saturday. quite chilly across the north where the fifa world cup series is taking place. edmonton is going to be 14 degrees with the high with rainy weather on your saturday. here's your extended forecast.

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