in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." i'm james tengan. renowned japanese theater director has died at the age of 80. he was awarded the order of culture, japan's highest artistic honor, in 2010. ninagawa broke through with a tokyo production of shakespeare's romeo and juliette

in 1974. he took his unique vision abroad. a new york stage version of kafka on the shore received rave reviews last year. into his 70 he was active across the spectrum of drama ranging from classical to modern subjects creating what many dubbed the ninagawa world. nissan plans to take a controlling stake in scandal hit mitsubishi motors. gene otani has the details. nissan and mitsubishi motors have agreed to strengthen their business ties. nissan says it will spend $2.2 billion to buy 34% of mitsubishi, becoming its largest shareholder. the stake is more than the combined holdings of three companies within the mitsubishi group. >> nissan will become the single largest shareholder in mitsubishi motors, and we will

extend our existing partnership into new areas. >> translator: deepening the alliance with nissan will help us overcome our current development problems and make a fresh start. it will also strengthen our competitive edge. >> nissan and mitsubishi say they'll compile a partnership plan by may 25th. the two automakers set up a plan to develop many years ago. more than 600,000 vehicles were affected. mitsubishi's domestic car sales have since plummeted. for more analysis on why executives at mitsubishi motors want to rebuild under nissan our correspondent was in the studio. i asked her why nissan would spend billions of dollars to buy a third of mitsubishi.

>> for nissan, mitsubishi motors has become strategically indispensable. nissan's sales of mini vehicles account for 30% of the total auto sales in the domestic market and as you know mitsubishi has been one of the major suppliers. mitsubishi motors has enough funding now but it's scandal led conversation may balloon, further hurting its finances. >> some analysts were expecting the relationship between the two companies would turn sour, but quite the opposite has happened. why is that? >> that's right. mitsubishi is trying to survive with the help of nissan. mitsubishi has lacked certain capabilities and this is one of the factors behind the recent data fabrication. so the company apparently hopes to rebuild this capability with additional support. >> what do you think the strategies will be for the two

companies going forward? >> the japanese automakers are facing a tough challenge to reduce gas emissions as much as possible or to manufacture emission free vehicles. massive funds are needed. it's widely believed that only the industry giants can survive. nissan's president once said his company will aim at selling a total of 10 million vehicles a year along with its partner firm renault. with mitsubishi it's expected to sell more than 9.5 million. it also hopes to further increase the sales by cooperating with mitsubishi which is strong in thailand and other asian markets. the domestic auto market has been shrinking and some analysts say there are too many automakers in japan and the recent scandal is about to repaint the industry landscape. transport ministry officials plan to inspect mitsubishi motors headquarters on friday. this comes after the automaker's own investigation revealed the

company consistently used estimated test data instead of actual test results during development. data on wind resistance and road fri friction was tweaked to make numbers look better. the use of estimated data began more than five months before data that had been manipulated for the ek wagon was filed with an inspection authority. the company did conduct actual road tests on the model but did not use the results because they were inferior to the estimates. they proceeded with the development based on those estimates. in the end, the results of final road tests for fuel efficiency fell short of targets so somebody decided to tamper with the data. checking the markets. tokyo stocks continued into positive territory for a fourth straight day. for the details we go to giang

nguyen at the tokyo stock exchange. >> shares in tokyo appear to be reflecting the recent movement of the japanese currency with the weaker yen helping stocks recover losses in the afternoon. look beiing at the closing leven thursday, the nikkei added 5%. the topix rose .2%. the auto industry saw big moves in share prices. talks between mitsubishi and nissan had people rushing to buy mitsubishi motors. trading was suspended for most of the day and shares soared 16%. nissan fell 1.4%. shares of toyota also fell 1.4%. the company forecasting that its net profit for fiscal 2016 will fall by 35% due to a stronger yen. on friday, bank of japan governor will deliver a speech in tokyo.

many investors will be watching his comments closely for clues on japan's monetary policy. thank you very much. moving to other markets in the asia-pacific. in china, the shanghai composite dropping by a fraction. 2,835. the index dipped low. shares in the philippines retreated almost 1% to finish at 7, 325. investors booked profits from a two-day rally following rodrigo duterte's victory in the presidential election. the kospi down by .1%. market players stayed on the sidelinehead sideline. hong kong dropping by .7% at the lowest close in two months. singapore rising by almost .5% following two days of losses.

telecom shares led the rise. here is a look at other business stories we're following. japanese electronics maker toshiba reported a record net loss for the business year that ended in march. sales were down 7.3% from the previous year to $52 million. the full-year net loss came to $4.4 billion. executives say the huge loss is sue to one-off expenses related to massive job cuts and lowering valuation of the company's nuclear power subsidiary, westinghouse. japanese electronics maker sharp will soon have an executive from taiwan at its helm. the firm named the vice chairman as the new president. hahning hey is also phone as fox con. sharp posted a net loss of $2.3 billion a year through march. japan's finance ministry officials say the current

account surplus in fiscal 2015 rose to nearly 18 trillion yen or $165 billion. that's a rebound to the pre-2011 quake level. the trade account balance was in a surplus of $5.8 billion the first time in five years the figures have moved into the black. that's it for business news. i am going to leave you with the markets.

a white house spokesperson says president barack obama won't make a major speech during his visit to hiroshima this month. his team says they're working on the message the president will deliver there. >> i wouldn't anticipate the president will have an opportunity to reflect on his time there, but i would -- but i -- the president does not plan to deliver a major address in hiroshima. earnest added that a team of u.s. officials will work out the details in japan. obama will be the first sitting american president to visit hiroshima, which was devastated by a supplemen atomi 1945. the white house did not make it clear if obama will visit hiroshima's peace memorial museum but that's one of of the places atomic bomb survivors are asking him to see.

a group of the survivors is planning to send a letter to the president. in it they'll ask him to lead efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. >> translator: it would be very significant for the president of a nuclear superpower to call for a world without nuclear weapons. we really want him to do that. >> they hope the president will meet with them and other survivors in hiroshima. japan's defense ministry officials have carried out a survey of a plot of land with an eye toward deploying osprey transport aircraft. some 40 officials conducted the survey on thursday near an airport in saga prefecture. they asked to check about 30 hectares of land. the defense ministry intends to equip the self-defense forces with 17 of the tilt-rotor aircraft through fiscal 2018 under its mid-term defense

buildup plan. a group of residents opposed the plan and they were angry at the ministry for conducting the survey without prior notice. >> translator: the plan just keeps moving further and further ahead. >> saga governor yamaguchi has yet to decide whether to accept the deployment. he said he realizes that the ministry has the responsibility to condition duuct the survey te a complete picture of the plan. an upper house panel on justice has passed a bill on hate speech. the bill says that unjust discriminatory acts are not allowed and calls for greater government effort to raise public awareness towards ethnic discrimination. the diet is expected to pass the bill into law during the current session. nhk world reports on the levels of discrimination in japan and the road which led to dealing with the issue.

>> reporter: they describe what's become an all too common occurrence in japan. spewing hate against ethnic minorities. >> translator: protesters are moving this way toward the waterfront area. >> reporter: last november and again in january a neighborhood outside tokyo was a site of demonstrations calling for koreans to leave japan. >> translator: when i saw hate rallies i felt like my soul just died even though my body was alive. >> reporter: the japanese government is now making an effort to do something about it. it says ethnic discrimination is a growing problem. hate speech is getting more

attention in japan. protests against filipinos who overstayed visas was said to be a trigger and the korean community has long been subject to discrimination. many ancestors moved to japan while forcibly brought here when the korean peninsula was under japanese rule. hate rallies regularly take place right across japan. it's gotten so bad that even communities for human rights have called on the country to bring in people to deal with the problem. in 2014 japan's supreme court got a bold ruling, it ruled the repeated demonstrations near a korean school were acts of racial discrimination. the court ordered the group to pay compensation. in march of this year, the ministry of justice released findings of an investigation on hate speech. it found that discrimination in

japan is rampant. there were more than 800 speeches made by hate groups across the country over a three and a half year period. the japanese government is taking action. it has introduced its first bill that defines hate speech in the hopes that it will raise awareness about this issue. this lawyer says the bill is a art, buthe says tre is a glaring omission. >> translator: the bill does not ban hate speech itself, so i doubt if it's really effective. the crucial point is that it only applies to legal foreign residents in japan, not for people asking for refugee status or those who stay in the country illegally after their visa expires. >> reporter: what does she think of the years of discrimination? >>. >> translator: i felt hopeless when i faced hate speech. i was in a state of despair.

but this bill is a start in the process to eliminate discrimination from japan. >> reporter: the bill is just the first step in stopping hate speech in japan. the big question is, once the bill becomes law, how will the japanese government enforce it. at sukhoi iwasaki. japan is home to many koreans. historically living as an ethnic minority in japan posed many challenges. for one playwright he has tried to put those struggles on center stage. ♪ >> reporter: the play is called "unique dragon." it's been racking up awards in japan and south korea.

it's about a korean families struggles while running a barbecue restaurant in japan during the '70s. the director is a third-generation korean in japan. >> translator: i decided to write about koreans in japan who are about to be forgotten, both in japan and in south korea. i think i am the only one who can do so. >> reporter: he was born in a city that's famous for its castle. but for him, in a way the castle is like home. his family used to live in one of many shacks built within the castle's compound. he says his family had very little money to live on in those days. the same is true for kim's family in the play.

kim is running a restaurant in the korean community to feed his wife and four children. their lives are hard. they don't feel accepted either by japan or by their mother country. the family is eventually compelled to change their lives. the municipality forces them to abandon their home because they are living on state-owned land. chang wants to show that koreans in japan have been deeply affected by 20th century history. >> translator: how do we identify ourselves? that's a complicated issue facing koreans in japan. we are puzzled if we are asked which country we're from. my nationality is south korean,

not japanese, but if i visit south korea, i feel it's a foreign country. i don't belong to japan or south korea. i'm living somewhere in between. that's how i feel. >> reporter: in addition to the play, chong has two other plays that deal with korean families from the '50s to '70s. all three have been performed on stage at the new national theater tokyo, one of the most prestigious theaters in japan. this actress has a leading role in one of the dramas. she too is a third-generation korean. >> translator: all characters have their own lives and experiences and futures. chong would never put anyone above others, regardless of if they are korean or japanese.

i believe that's how he usually sees people. >> reporter: chong hopes his plays will bring people together to laugh, cry, and reflect on the lives of minorities living in japan. australia's prime minister has denied wrong doing after his name was discovered in the "panama papers." malcolm turnbull is among the thousands of high profile people listed in the database as having offshore accounts and the observers say this revelation could impact july's parliamently election. he is named as a former director of a british virgin islands company set up in the '90s to develop a siberian gold mine. turnbull says he has done nothing wrong.

>> as the article acknowledged there is no suggestion of any impropriety whatsoever. >> turnbull built up huge assets in business before entering politics. some members of the opposition are calling on him to disclose full details of those assets. the documents were leaked to german newspapers "sueddeutsche zeitung," the international consortium of international journalists released the data online this week. law firm officials say they followed the rules as setting up an offshore company is not illegal but governments around the world are probing possibly wrong doing. brazil's president dilma rousseff is being impeached. the brlen parliament has been debating whether the president should fe impeachment since

last december. in final deliberations on wednesday, senators discussed it overnight and took a vote the following morning. 55 voted in favor of the motion and 22 voted against. rousseff will be automatically forced from office after being notified of the decision. her presidential duties will be taken over by the vice president. for those of you planning to visit tokyo this weekend, we should be in for fair conditions until sunday. expected highs will be in the lower 20s celsius or upper 60s, lower 70s fahrenheit. jonathan oh is here to give us the outlook for the storm-battered southern u.s. and other parts of the world. >> hello! we're in the thick of tornado season for those in the southern united states. it doesn't look like it's going to be wrapping up at least for the next day or so as these systems have already caused some problems during this week and continue to move to the east.

i have mentioned a few times a key feature in identyingreas wherthere are severe weather. that's when y s cloudshat seemo appea out of nhere and they're ry, very whitend brig on this rspectiv that ges us an idea of ver unstle air wrehe srms really start popping in, and that's where we see the severe storms. let me show you video coming out of the southern united states beginning with a look at kentucky where spring storms spawned several tornadoes wednesday injuring at least ten people. many businesses along with a schoolere damaged. authorities were saying they would monitor neighborhoods to prevent looting because during these types of situations that's a bit of a concern. torrential rains flooded residential areas in tennessee. officials say it could take eight weeks to restore the areas to their proper condition. i mentioned we are in the thick of tornado season in the southern united states. here is a look at the charts. and when it comes to average

tornado numbers by month from the past 15 years. notice, may has the highest number on average during that time period. we are in may, so this is something that we'll be looking at very closely. the instability continues to build as we have warm air from the south and cold air from the north and west. that collision is leading to the possibility of more severe weather. as we go through thursday, flash flooding possible toward the ohio river valley. from the great lakes to texas, cutting through portions of the deep south, look being at the possibility of severe thunderstorms. we can't rule out the possibility of tornadoes along with strong winds and hail. flash flooding is also part of the picture. the line of rain and thunderstorms pushes to the east, back toward the west. high pressure takes over. we should see sunnier conditions and warm as well. 22 in denver. 25 in los angeles. we're up to 24 degrees in seattle as we go through the day on thursday. as you look at the forecast for east asia, we do have instability continuing to impact the southern portions of china.

meanwhile, high pressure is controlling areas in south korea and also into the -- into japan. we'll see dry conditions moving forward, but then a cold front will come in from the north bringing showers into south korea as we go into the day friday. be on the lookout for that. rain in taipei. into the weekend, above average highs expected through the weekend. it will be dry. if you have outdoor plans, look being very good. hot weather in india and in the indian subcontinent. showers to the south. thunderstorms in places like clum beau. we're in the premonsoonal time period so this is the type of weather that's expected and i think we'll have to wait a few weeks before that takes place.

into europe, we have an area of low pressure off the coast of the continent, one in the southern portions of europe and a cold front to the east will bring the possibility of rainfall for a good portion of the continent. unstable weather in place. to the north we'll see warm temperatures and sunny skies through the debt. everywhere else looking a bit warm and stormy. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here is your extended outlook.

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>> welcome to the "france 24" newsroom. president dilma rousseff text one step closer to impeachment. the senate votes to suspend the president. breakingcused of budget lost. the french government faces a no-confidence vote over its labor reform bill. david cameron says it is time to tackle dirty money.