tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." i'm james tengan. three storms came towards japan, one after another, over the weekend, and one of them hit the tokyo area on monday. typhoon mimdulle made landfall just south of the e capital arod noon. it brought more than 100 millimeters of r rain per houru. floods inunundated houseses and roads and many cars were stranded.

landslides and fallen trees halted train services. many railway lines in the tokyo ararea were disrupted, affectin commuters, tourists, and h holiy makers on summer vacation. around 500 domestic flights were canceled. at least 12 people have been injured. weather officials are warning of more heavy rainsns andtrtrong windnds as thehe storm heads no. parts of the northern prefefecte of hokkaido have already been affected by another storm over the weekend. one person was found dead on a road on monday morning. three others have been injured. sayaka mori from our weather dedesk has more on the storm. >> typhoon season is in full swing in much of japan. as we have been reporting, a typhoon made landfall in south of the konto region today. the last time a stm m hit the area was 11 years ago. the conto region is note prone

to strong tropical storms. it has already caused strong winds and heavy rainfall in a wide area. for example, amagikogen had over 103 millimeters of rainfall in just 24 hours. that's the equivalent of rainfall we see during the entire month of august. heavy rain fell in one hour, 103 millimeters of rainfall, taking place in the prefecture as well. take a look at this video just north of tokyo. inside therefecturure, about 77 millimeters of rain fell in ththe spe of only onone hour, mang the all-time record for the city. as you can see, the river overflowed and flooded surrounding neighborhoods. warnings for floods and heavy rain are still posteted in the area. the center of the storm is momoving towards the north, momg towards the tohoku region. as you can see, tokyo area, ths area is seeing conditions slightly improving. that's at least good news.

now, mindulle has been downgraded after tropical wildfire. gusts are as much as 162 kilometers per hour. it's still a powerful storm system. it's still including much of the konto region. the next target is going to be the tohoku region in the next several hours. the tohoku region will see strong winds and heavy rainfall. into tuesday mindulle will hit hokkaido, not good news. wide areas of japan will be affected by this storm. hokkaido may see an additional 200 millimeters of rainfall with very strong gusts. also, waves will be up to 7 meters. stay away from the coast. definitely not good news because over the past two weeks, hokkaido was buffeted by a couple of storms. yesterday tropical storm kompasu made landfall in the eastern portions of the island. one person was killed because of floods and heavy rainfall has already caused significant

flooding in many areas. two systems hitting hokkaido in one season is -- actually, we've never heard before. now, in fact, over the past 20 days, much of hokkaido had significant amounts of heavy rainfall. for example, nemura had over 300 millimeters typical average rainfall for august is 120 millimeters. ababout three times more than t montnthly rainfall thafellll in0 da or so.. agagain, one more syem i is expected to move into hokkaido. definitely not good news. more floods could happen. actually, it's not the end of the story. we have another storm to mention. it's located to the south of japan. the name is lionrock. it's now a tropical storm. it's packing winds of 126 kilometers per hour. the system will likely increase significantly. the gusts could be as much as 200 kilometers per hour as we go into thursday afternoon local time. the category could be a strong typhoon because the sea surface temperatures are quite warm. actually, about 30 degrees. that's one to two degrees higher than normal.

so that's strengthening the system. strong winds and heavy rainfall could affect the okinawa region as we go into friday. then tokyo will see rain persisting into wednesday because of a front moving through the area. troops from the united states and south korea have kicked off their annual joint military drill. north korea has called it a provocation and threatened to respond with nuclear strikes. about 50,000 troops from south korea and around 25,000 from the u.s. will spend two weeks taking part in this year's freedom guardian drill. they'll take part t in computer simulations to rehearsrse how t coordinate their commands if north korea attacks. south korean media say the troops will also rehearse, conducting pre-emptive attacks on north korean nuclear facilities and missile bases. the north korean military issued

a statement saying it is ready to attack all enemies involved in the drill. it threatened to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear strike if the u.s. and south korea show the slightest sign of aggression toward north korean territory. turkish president erdogan has blamed a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 for the fatal terrorist attack at a wedding party near the border with syria. turkish authorities are investigating the attack on the outdoor event in the southeastern turkish city of gaziantep onataturdaninight. prpresident erdogagan told repos on sunday that the bombing killed at least 51 people while 69 others remain in hospitalal. he said the islamic state militant group was likely responsible and said the child bomber either committed suicide or the explosive vest was detonated by remote control. turkish media have quoted investigators as saying they found the suicide vest at the scene of the bombing. last october a suicide bombing killed at least 100 people in the capital ankara.

erdogan said the recent attack came as islamic state militants are bolstering their presence in the region near turkey's border with syria. in the u.s. white house national security spokesperson said the u.s. condemns in the strongest terms the attacks in turkey. he added that vice president joe biden will travel to ankara next week to reaffirm u.s. cooperation with turkey in the fight against terrorism. after 17 days of competition, the rio olympics have ended with a carnival inspired extravaganza. for the past several weeks, people have gotten to watch the world's top athletes in action. many of them setting new records. now the olympic flag has been handed over to the host city of the next games in 2020, tokyo. the closing ceremony in rio's

mamaracana stadium hadad a dist brazilian flavor, complete with samba dancers and traditional singers. the mayor of rio de janeiro handed the olympic flag over to tokyo governor. then a group of dancers and gymnasts from japan took to the stage. a promotional video featured former japanese olympians along with some popular cartoon characters. the crowd let out a loud roar when japan's prime minister shinzo abe, dressed as super mario, appeared. at the end of the ceremonies, the olympic torch was extinguished. prime minister abe vowed to make the next games in tokyo a success. >> translator: the next time will be our turn to imimpress people. i want to make it an olympiad where all the athletes can compete to the best of their ability and deliver the excitement of the games from

japan to the world. >> the tokyo games will l get under way on july 24th, 2020, and will run for 17 days. the number of the events will increase from rio's 28 to 33. they'll include the newly added baseball and softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing, and surfing. meanwhile, organizers of the rio paralympics are having to make major budget cuts. the international paralympic committee says scheduled competitions in all 22 sports will go ahead, but resources are limited for volunteers and transportation. ipc president phillip craven says funds from sponsors have fallen far short of the initial target, and ticket sales for the games starting september 7th have been slow with only 12% sold so far. craven says the ipc has secured an additional $47 million from

the city of rio de janeiro, but he says the central government hasn't done its part. during the bidding process, the government pledged to shoulder half the budget. >> never before in the 56-year history of the paralympic games have we faced circumstances like this. clearly brazil is in a far different position now to the one that it was in october 2009 when it won the right to stage both games. >> craven says there's been a delalay in covering travel cost for athletes. that means ten countries may struggle to get their teams to the rio game sales in july at major supermarkets in japan improved slightly, showing the first rise in five months. the japan chain stores association put total sales for the month from more than 9400 stores at about $11 billion.

that's up 0.2% in yen terms from the same month last year. hot weather in the early part of july boosted sales of air conditioners and wash and wear suits and jackets, but the year-on-year rise was capped by cooler weather in the second half of the month in eastern japan and an extended rainy season in some parts of the country. officials say the figures are disappointing, as there werere more saturdays and sundays to shop in july this year. the new president of japanese electronics firm sharp has promised sweeping reforms to put the company back in the black. he is the vice chairman of the honhai precision industry of taiwan, also known as foxconn. he took the helm after foxconn invested about $3.8 billion to wipe out sharp's deficit. he spoke to reporters at sharp's head office on monday. >> translator: i want to carry

out drastic reforms, and then i will work with employees to establish a new vision for the company. >> tai said his top priority is to improve earnings. he said he hopes all employees can remain with the firm, but he added that job cuts are inevitable if business doesn't improve. he offered to boost morale with special allowances starting next month. he said this would make up for the 2% wage cut workers have endured for the past year. now checking on the market. tokyo stocks edged higher, lifted by a weaker yen. our business reporter phoebe amoroso is at nhk's market studio with h more. >> market sentiment in tokyo got a boost from t the advancing dollar againinst the yen, but gains were limited as investors are caututious ahead of a glglo meeting of banankers. central bankers in wyoming this week. let's take a look at the closing levels august 22nd. the nikkei ended 0.32% higher.

closing 16,598. the broader topix rose 0.62%. the relatively weaker yen lifted exporters. both sony and panasonic rose over 1%. thai manufacturer bridgestone gained 1 1.53%. shares of nintendo rose overer afafter primime minister shinzo appeared in rio dressed as the character mario in rio de janeiro to promote the olympics in 2020. oil slipped on the news that iraq plans to increase exports. shares of inpex were down 2.65%. overall, we saw no major market moves. investors are waiting for cues from u.s. federal reserve chair janet t yellen schedululed to s in wyoming on friday. i'm phoebe amoroso. reporting from increase market studio. >> here are the latest market figures.

more than a million japanese citizens live in other countries, among them business people and their families.

a japanese woman has started a business of her own building on those connections. it helps companies go international with the help of mothers. nhk world reports. >> reporter: this woman runs a consulting agency and cares for her three children. last year her company began conducting market research overseas. there are about 100 of them in 26 countries and regions. often they are friends. she used to work for a major electronics manufacturer handling international public relations. her new venture is designed to help japanese firms expand overseas. >> translator: i look for ways

to use the view points of mothers and settled on market research. >> reporter: one of the projects led to the marketing of children's educational materials in the u.s. the publisher asks her company the views of parents. the bill was just over $900. the bill was far less than a major research firm would have used. >> translator: we learned words such as creative and critical thinking are often used in the u.s., so we decided to highlight them. >> reporter: mothers living in los angeles and new york talk to other mothers. their views reflected in the cover design. the japanese edition has a

simple design featuring illustrations. the american edition features key words to attract parents' attention. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: osu's company is also working in asia. parents there are interested in enhancing their children's education. more and more children in hong kong are taking lessons outside their regular classes, but they're not just hobbies. parents believe having their children learn a different skill will get them into better schools. this woman is one of the research workers in hong kong. she's scouting the market for business opportunities. her own child attended ballet school. she saw another mother there

unhappy because she was not able to find the right shoes for her child to wear in the contest. she showowed her what the japane company had to offer. >> they have lots of products. >> yeah, a lot. >> reporter: she reported to osu about the circumstances. >> translator: i have the impression that japan has many more choices in toe shoes than hong kong. >> reporter: those reports are sent on to about 200 japanese companies. >> translator: i hope to encourage japanese businesses and help them find opportunities by using a network of mothers abroad. >> reporter: the mothers may not have the reach of major research firms but they believe they offer something their big competitors can't match, their personal touch.

what is known as the maternal and child health handbook has been helping pregnant women, new mothers, and their children in japan for almost 70 years. the handbook contains a unique program of tracking the health of expectant mothers and newborn babies. the program has been spreading internationally to more than 30 countries, mostly in africa and asia. from northern vietnam, nhk world has more. >> reporter: for the past six years, pregnant women in this village have been receiving a handbook to help them care for themselves and their babies. it has information on the different stages of pregnancy, delivery, and post natal childcare and advice on when to visit a clinic for professional medical support.

>> translator: the handbook helps me manage my health, so i'm glad to have it. >> translator: i can check my child's weight and physicacal condition. >> reporter: this woman works for an international nonprofit organizatatn based in tokyo, which is promoting the handbook. she first introduced it in vietnam 18 years ago and regularly goes back to monitor how it's being used. >> translator: to prevent infant death, mothers have to take care of t themselves and ththeir children. >> reporter: the regional japanese handbook came out in 1948, just after world w i ii. at t t time,ore e th 200,0,0 babies aeaear we dyiyingefore e theifirst bihday. the handbook helped the mothers

monitor their baby's health, diagnose problems, and treat themem before and after childbirth. today vietnam is just one of many countries outside japan where the handbook is being used. on this day, she visits a woman and her 5-month-old girl. the handbook came in useful when the ininfant was runnining a hi fever. it suggested ways to treat the fever and recommended going to the doctor when it persisted. >> translator: i took her to the hospital immediately. >> reporter: the girl was diagnosed with bronchitis. without prompt treatment, the outcome could have been serious.

>> translator: the handbook tells us when to get a checkup. mothers can feel reassured. >> reporter: she also sees room for r improvemement. pages where parents should note their children's growth are often left blank. she explains the importance of keeping a careful eye out for early signs of illness. >> translator: each handbook costs less than a dollar. if mothers in villagages around the country were to use it, it would be an enormous international contribution. i hope to continue providing support not only to vietnam but other countries too. >> reporter: bando is determined to overcome differences of language and culture to help save the lives of mother and children around the world. hiroko date, nhk world, vietnam.

getting back to our meet -- meteorologist, sayaka mori, a as we have been reporting powerful strong impacting central and northern japan. farther south dry and hot t conditions. sayaka, give us the details. >> yes, it's a mixed bag here in japan.n. we're lookoking at quite stormy conditionsns across the east, b western areas of japan are experiencing extremely high temperatures. a severe tropical storm is making its way towards the north, dropping heheavy rainfal in central japan and also northern japan. at the same time, the system is actually strengthening the high-pressure area covering the west. we saw scorching hot conditions in the west. for example, kagoshima city, you had a high of 37.4 degrees, making it the all-time record for the city. hot and dry conditions will likely continue into the next several days. meanwhile, a high-pressure system is causing dry weather across the korean peninsula as well. dry conditions will continue at least into youfrfriday.

but a low pressure system m over the beijing area will cause some thunderstorms, and that will cool temperatures down. now, in the south of china, you'll see some scattered rainfall, but hong kong will stay dry with a high of 33 degrees. taipei up 33 with partly sunny conditions. beijing down to 28 degrees. it could go down 15 degrees in the next couple of days. now let's go to north america. it has been dry y and hohot acr the western portions of the ununited states. wildfires occurring in the west, especially california, as well as oregon. now, there's a low-pressure system which could cause some scattered showers and thunderstorms across the four corners region. then there's's a low ovever the north, and that will cause some stormy conditions across alberta and also the western portions of canada heavy rain i is not expected, bu sosome rain is expecd fofor the deep south, which is definitely not good news cause people in lolouisiana anand texas are dea withth one of the worsrst flood u.s. h history. additional rain is definitely not good news. now, temperatures are expected

to be as follows. 29 in washington, d.c., where there's sunny conditions. chicago, 25 degrees. denver at 32 degrees. seattle, you had extremely high temperatures last week, but things are getting milder. only 22 degrees on your monday. here's the extended forecast.

a group of university students from malaysia has reason to celebrate. that's because they've won a robot contest that pits universities from the asia pacific region against each other. teams from 16 countries and regions took part in the robocon competition in bangkok. each team had to build two robots. team members used one of them to guide the other through a series of slopes and curves. the goal was to get their robot to a pole at the end of the route and install a propeller on top of it as quickly as possible. the malaysian team defeated the chinese, whose robot stumbled as it attempted to attach the propeller. next year's contest will be held here in tokyo. the asia pacific broadcasting union is made up of more than 280 regional broadcasters. congratulations to the malaysian team and kudos to all who participated.

i'm james tengan. thanks for watching this hour's nhk "newsline." úññ

time for 60 minutes live around the world. these are the headlines. the olympics come to any ndp. at leeds overshadowing the scandals with an exceptional summer games. criminalk case at the court. a man linked to al qaeda pleads guilty to attacking the asian -- the ancient world heritage site of timbuktu.