business desk and meteorologist sayaka mori. "newsline" starts off with a quick look at the hour's top stories. lawmakers on a committee in japan's lower house have improved bills that would transform japan's national security policy. chinese officials say the

country's gross domestic product for the second quarter was 7% which was the target. and nasa officials say they've received the first signal from their new horizons space probe after its fly by of pluto. shinzo abe and his government have won crucial approval for a package of bills on national security. members of a special lower house committee of the diet have given their backing to the legislation. it would allow japan the right to collective self-defense. the vote was a scene of chaos as opposition lawmakers shouted out in protest. members of the ruling liberal democratic party and komeito voted in favor of the bills. they hold the majority on the committee. opposition lawmakers have called the deliberations insufficient and said the bills don't have the public's support. the committee's approval clears

the way for the legislation to go before a full session of the lower house for a vote. coalition members are aiming for passage on thursday. the bills would then be sent to the upper chamber. the prime minister and members of the ruling bloc want to see the legislation enacted by late september when the current session of the diet ends. lawmakers with the ruling coalition are welcoming the committee's decision, but members of the opposition are voicing harsh criticism. >> translator: we made every effort to get an approval. i don't think there was a problem with the process. it's regrettable that opposition lawmakers didn't accept the bills. >> translator: we will use every opportunity to elaborate to get people to understand the meaning and the importance of the bills.

>> translator: i strongly protest that they ram such controversial bills through the special committee. bills are highly suspects of being unconstitutional it is a big change for the national security policy. >> translator: that was terrible steam rolling. we had been saying that we need more discussion because we still don't have the public's understanding. but they forced a vote. >> translator: i strongly protest this as an act of violence that tramples on article 9 of the constitution and undermines the sovereignty of the people. >> crowds of demonstrators have gathered outside the diet to protest. they're expressing their anger over the vote and say the bills violate article 9 of japan's constitution that renounces war.

>> translator: it's clearly wrong to force a vote. so many are against the security bills. i'm certainly against them. i think the whole process has been problematic. >> translator: legal scholars say the bills are unconstitutional but lawmakers with the ruling parties are forcing them through. i can't understand why they're violating the constitution that they should uphold. >> prime minister abe has been paving a path to achieve his longtime goal to change national security legislation. he wants to enhance the country's defense as well as appeal more actively to global peace. >> reporter: abe looked for reform soon after taking office in 2012. he convened in front of a panel he had put in nine years ago.

he's been trying to find a way for japan to exercise collective self-defense without violating the constitution. this comes from his belief that countries can no longer defend their people without cooperation. he pointed to a number of potential scenarios. one involved self-defense force destroyers coming to the u.s. aid of vessels under attack. past leaders said such acts were unconstitutional. >> translator: the constitution doesn't allow the use of collective self-defense. >> reporter: last year abe and his cabinet ministers decided to reinterpret the constitution. abe told the people it was necessary because japan's security environment has grown more severe. the new interpretation views the constitution as allowing japan to use force to a minimum extent necessary to defend its people's

lives. >> translator: it is necessary to develop security legislation that enables seamless responses to any situation to secure the lives and peace of the japanese people. >> reporter: abe said he was committed to give the new policy a legal basis by enacting security laws during the current session of the diet. in may he and his administers submitted the bills to the house. they sparked vigorous debate. members of the opposition argued the bills could be used to justify activities without limit. abe tried to down play their concerns. >> translator: the government believes that sending armed troops to foreign territories with the intention of using force exceeds the minimum extent necessary test for self-defense. so that is not allowed by the constitution. >> reporter: the discussion became even more heating when experts offered their views on

the diet. some of them said they believe the legislation would be unconstitutional. >> translator: legal scholars and lawyers are adamant that the bills are against the constitution. i am also very concerned. >> reporter: abe and ruling party leaders said they're confident the legislation is constitutional. but the controversy has led them to extend the current diet session longer than ever before. >> early minogue ta ka wa spoke more in depth on this issue. >> the ruling bloc has been very intent on holding a vote. and the opposition though has strongly opposed saying we need more time to deliberate. what's behind all this? >> well members of prime minister abe's administration have wanted to avoid giving the

impression they're ramming the bills through the diet but the opposition has been fierce and the government leaders are pressed for time. prime minister abe vowed to enact during this diet session. he made the pledge to u.s. officials when he visited washington in april. ruling party leaders have in mind a constitutional provision that allows lawmakers to enact the bill by a two-thirds majority in the lower house if the upper house fails to vote on it in 60 days. the diet session ends on september 27th so they decided it was about time to move on to the next step. >> you mentioned the upper house deliberations. what would be the focus there? >> one of the central issues would be the constitutionality of the bills. legal experts are divided in their views about that. and an nhk survey conducted last

weekend suggests the public is not fully persuaded. 24% of respondents said the government has convinced them that the bills are constitutional. but 66% said they're not convinced. abe and the government leaders look like they need to make a greater effort to gain public understanding. officials at the bank of japan have wrapped up their latest policy meeting and they have changed their outlook to lesser growth. gene otani is here with more. >> we're not talking about much. they're just tweaks that they may change. the central bankers will keep their current monetary easing numbers to achieve their inflation goal of 2%. but the bank did lower its forecast for the current fiscal year. the boj updates its economic projections every three months. the bank puts gdp growth ending next march at 1.7%. that's down from the previous projection of 2%. the growth forecast for fiscal

2016 was unchanged at 1.5%. some analysts attribute the downgrade to lower than expected exports and industrial production due to slower growth in china. the policy makers say there'll be a rise in japan's consumer price index to 0.7% in the current fiscal year. that's down 0.1 percentage point from the previous forecast in april. they also expect the cpi to rise to 1.9% in the next fiscal year. that's down 0.1 point from the earlier prediction. bank of japan governor gave reporters his outlook on consumer prices. >> translator: we have revised downward our forecast. but there's no reason to believe it won't hit 2% by the end of 2016. >> occurhe added if current prices

continue, the impact will ease by next year. analysts at china's national bureau of statists have released the country's latest gross domestic product data. growth for the second quarter was meeting the target. the april to june period was the same at the previous quarter. that's the lowest quarterly growth rate in six years. analysts say housing prices kept falling in mainly rural areas. and real estate investment was sluggish. however, the trade surplus expanded to fallen imports. >> translator: the numbers are improving. we can see positive moves in the domestic economy. but the environment in and outside china is still uncertain. the global economy is not recovering fast. so to cope with these factors, we have to make firm policy. >> officials in beijing set

their annual growth target this year to around 7%. and for more on this subject, ramin mellegard spoke to a specialist on china's economy. he gave us his view how they would see these figures. >> i think we have to be slightly relieved the numbers did come in slightly above expectations. they hung in at the 7% level which is the target of about 7%. there are some signs things could pick up a bit in the second half of this year. i think they should be concerned, though, the weakness of imports was one of the factors behind the growth holdup. but i think the domestic demand actually has been on the sluggish side. that should be of some concern to them. >> and also the level of the investment and consumption can either be an engine or break. how do you think those are

playing into the numbers? >> both of those have tended to be weakening recently so that they've definitely been upwarding as breaks rather than engines at this point. i think particularly investment has been impacted by things like weakness in the real estate market, weakness of exports. so that's still a source of some concern. >> now, china's cut rates four times since november. how effective really do you think these cuts have been or if they need to make any more? >> they are reasonably effective. we've seen some increase recently in the growth rates of money supply and bank loans. and those are lead indicators for some modest pickup of growth in the second half of this year. but i think they need to take out a bit more insurance in terms of further rate cuts further cuts in the reserve ratio, that kind of thing. >> and also they're facing a lot of challenges production

over capacity also weak consumption sluggish investment in real estate. do you think they'll be able to maintain or retain this 7% target? >> i think for this year the 7% target is achievable. if anything the first half was going to be a bit weaker than the second half. as i mentioned, we are seeing some signs of pickup in things like money and bank loan growth and that should help support growth in the second half of this year along with possible further easing measures. i'm reasonably confident the growth target can be achieved. >> what would be the biggest risk then in attaining some of these targets? >> i think the main risk exports have been weak. but if anything the global economy might be picking up a bit from here. but things like the real estate market, the effects of the stock market, those are still working for the system and i think

particularly we can see increases in non-performing loans as a result of slow growth and other problems in the financial sector. let's take a look at the asian markets. tokyo stocks ended the day higher. the nikkei average rised 0.4%. k the shanghai composite index fell 3% despite those better than expected gdp numbers. seemed to be on a correction course after last month's plunge. australia extended their gains. the index added just over 1%. the overall picture of the region is mixed. hang seng closing down .25%. jakarta in indonesia declining

by .7%. u.s. carrier delta has been named as a potential sponsor for failed japanese airline skymark. japan's third largest carrier is going under court supervisored. the aircraft leasing firm intrepid aviation. it is a counterproposal to skymark's own plan that would be partly funded of all nippon airways. company officials said they're considering the delta system. they have also accepted investments from delta. the two rehabilitation plans will be put to a vote at a creditors' meeting in august. city officials from tokyo have laid out the welcome mat in london.

they've staged a business seminar to encourage foreign companies to set up shop in the japanese capital. the metropolitan government began holding such events last year. governor yoichi masuzoe said they plan to make the use of most that come with holding the olympic games. he said he wants to learn from london who held the 2012 games. she said the city will partially subsidize local recruitment. >> i think it was a useful introduction to the opportunities in tokyo. >> tokyo officials say more than 40 companies mainly from the u.s. and europe have established business bases in the city in the past two years.

and that's it for business news. i'm going to leave you with the markets. south korean prosecute irs say they will arrange for the return of a buddhist statue stolen in japan. they believe it was brought to japan. the japanese government has designated it an important national cultural asset. it disappeared three years ago from a shrine. they will return it to japan as early as thursday. they acknowledged the shrine as the legitimate custodian.

they say they have confirmed that no one in japan obtained it illegally and no one in south korea claims ownership. south korean authorities are still holding another statue stolen from a temple also in sushima city. a south korean temple has claimed to be the original own per. the people in charge of the nuclear plant in western japan have taken another step towards restarting a reactor. nuclear regulators say the reactor meets government requirements implemented after the fukushima daiichi disaster. officials with the nuclear regulation authority gave their unanimous approval. their backing removes one of the remaining hurdles to restarting the number three reactor at the ikata plant. critics have found fault with the operator's safety measures. they say assumptions about the magnitude of earthquakes are too low and they say measures to prevent a hydrogen explosion are

insufficient. but regulators say they have taken sufficient steps to address such concerns. the reactor would be the fifth in japan to get the green light to resume operations. two reactors at a plant in kagoshima prefecture have also been approved. members of a civic group against the restart expressed their concerns. >> translator: even though the nra has approved safety measures for the reactor, there's no guarantee there won't be a serious accident or a large scale emission of radioactive materials. we can't say it's safe. >> shikoku electric must still win approval for equipment. and local officials must also give their consent.

officials at nasa are celebrating the success of their new horizons space probe. they received the first signal from the spacecraft after its fly-by of pluto. officials said they detected the signal just after midnight on wednesday. it was the probe's first communication with earth in 22 hours. it kicked off a round of cheering in the control room. officials released an image of pluto taken before the probe made its closest approach. it shows colored formations on the surface. new horizons is expected to send all the data collected during its fly-by over the next 16 months. scientists hope it will shed more light on the tiny planet and the formation of the solar system. it's time for a check on world weather with our meteorologist sayaka mori. a typhoon is approaching western

japan bringing with it powerful winds, high waves, and inundating rainfall. >> it looks like a typhoon will hit japan thursday night into early friday morning. this is nangka. you can see a very clear eye in the center. that means it's a very powerful system. now, the pacific side of japan is already feeling the effect of the storm. we have some video coming out of kochi. the sky is still blue but the pacific ocean is getting very rough. 4 meter waves have been reported today. a beach is closed because of high waves. waves could reach as high as 10 meters tomorrow. now the system will likely move up towards the north and will likely hit western japan potentially shikoku some time between thursday night and friday early morning as a typhoon and then move towards the north as we go into the next couple of days. now, in 2011 severe tropical

storm talas took a similar path. the system killed 80 people or even more and also caused landslides in the key peninsula and about 2,000 millimeters of rain fell from the storm in a certain area. now, nangka is stronger than talas and is expected to produce significant amounts of heavy rainfall. from thursday to friday morning, about 500 millimeters could fall in the key peninsula and more heavy rain after that. flooding landslides will be a very high concern. high waves are expected for many parts of the pacific site. and it's a slow-moving system. so conditions will remain quite stormy for a long duration of time. so very stormy conditions expected. and because of the humid air, the central portions of japan including tokyo will receive rainfall from thursday into friday. now, rainy weather again in

tokyo at 28 degrees for the high on thursday. staying quite wet into friday. but the temperatures have been over 30 degrees since saturday, so cooling down to the 20s finally starting on your thursday. now across the americas we have a system to mention near mexico. this is a hurricane named dolores. right now a category 2 system. it is expected to intensify. a major hurricane soon and then move towards the northwest. it will provide life threatening rip currents to the west coast of mexico for the next several days. and a tornado was reported in kansas on monday. the tornado producer is now shifting towards the southeast. the system caused four tornadoes on tuesday in kentucky or rather tennessee. this will head towards the southeast into wednesday. heavy rain is also falling. and across the west, spotty showers for the north and central plains. watch out for flooding.

temperatures are extremely high once again. denver at 31 degrees with thundershowers on the menu. very hot over the southern plains in the mid-30s for oklahoma city as well as houston. staying quite hot as we go into the latter part of this week. now, heatstroke could happen so drink plenty of water and stay away from direct sunshine. all right. that's it for me now. here's your extended forecast.

people have filled the streets of fukuoka for a tradition that dates back hundreds of years. they cheer on men carrying floats through the city for an annual summer festival. participants raced around a five kilometer course as part of a time-honored event known as hakata. they competed to the finish line with their floats each weighing more than a ton. the teams started by roaring into the grounds of a shrine circling a flag and singing a celebratory song. then they were off one after the other on a race through the city. people date the festival to the 13th century when a buddhist priest is said to have sprinkled holy water around the district to dispel an epidemic. spectators splashed the float bearers with water and cheered them on to the finish.

and with that we end this hour's "newsline." i'm james tengan in tokyo. thanks for watching. 555ñññ

more france 24 relief -- more debt relief and that finances are worse than previously reported. iran celebrates the nuclear deal and the release from crippling sanctions. the agreement was signed tuesday after more than a decade of talks. a new surveillance video shows the moment mexico's most wanted drug lord escaped from prison. joaquin el chapo guzman slipped out of the a tunnel that began