. live from tokyo, this is nhk "newsline," i'm james tengan and we start off with a quick look at the hour's top stories. be a sec rating abenomics, shinzo abe vows to speed up his economic policy. >> preventing extinction, an

international conference on wildlife protection has adopted proposal to launch a study on the global eel trade. and a documentary on fukushima, its director was killed in the brussels terror attack, but final work was completed, thanks to special help. japan's prime minister addressed lawmakers with a policy speech at the start of a new session of the diet on monday. shinzo abe spoke about the need to speed up his economic growth plan. and called for the quick approval of the trans-pacific partnership free trade agreement. >> translator: japan's exports of agricultural forestry and fishery products have been at record levels for three years in a row. this year, its pace is even faster than last year. we aim to attain our $10 billion target, using the great opportunity of an early start of the tpp.

the prime minister touched on the emperor's wish to abdicate. the emperor expressed concern it may become difficult for him to carry out official duties. the reason he mentioned was the gradual decline in his physical condition. >> we will ask experts to state how the emperor's deuce should be. we will seek public understanding for those discussions. >> abe expressed hope that lawmakers would deepen their discussions on possible constitutional amendments. >> translator: it is not the government, but the people that decide how our constitution should be. and how japan should be in the future. and we, members of the diet, have the responsibility to present that proposal to the people.

>> the ruling liberal democratic party is calling for changes to the supreme law, which has never been revised since it came into effect in 1947, an approval of two-thirds majority of both houses of the diet is required to put an amendment proposal to a national referendum. the the ruling coalition and lawmakers in favor of revising the constitution make up the two-thirds majority in both chambers. as a result, seven upper house election in july. the leader of the ldp's coalition partner komeito said proper communication about policies is important. >> translator: we need to explain thoroughly to the public why it is important for japan to conclude the tpp at this time. considering various global factors. such as the presidential election in the united states. >> opposition party leaders criticized abe for not referring to important issues.

>> translator: his speech does not touch the issue of child poverty. i don't think he is paying enough attention to the matter. there was no mention of administrative reform, either. >> translator: it's been a year since new security laws were rammed through, they're being actually implemented. new missions may be added to those engaged in u.n. peace-keeping activities in south sudan based on the new laws, but the speech didn't refer to the issue at all. >> the current diet session is scheduled to run for 66 days. >> japan sent out the jets after eight chinese planes passed between okinawa's main island and miako island. the planes didn't vioiolate japan's air space, but officials say it was enough to cause concern. >> translator: we will defend our land, seas and air. to that end, we will keep closely monitoring the situation and take stetern measures again any violations based on

international and self-defense forces laws. >> japan sent out the jets after eight chinese plans passed between okinawa's main island and miako island. the chinese aircraft included two fighter jets. suga says it's the first time beijing's fighthter jets have flown in the area. chinese aircraft officials say they were on their way to drills in the western pacific. >> here in japan, eels are highly valued as a popular dish. a problem is protecting their numbers. the issue is being discussed at the international conference on wildlife conservation in south africa. iako sasa reports. relationship experts are raising the alarm over the future of eels. they say their numbers are dwindling and fear the species will become extinct if something isn't done to help.

japan is the biggest consumer of eels in the world. farmers there are increasingly concerned. >> translator: japan will suffer the most, that's why we must earnestly work on this issue, no matter what. >> reporter: at a conservation conference, eu officials said part of the problem is a lack of transparency regarding the international eel trade. they say that results in over-fishing. baby eels caught in rivers and coastal areas are raised to maturity before they are sold. but where exactctly they are caught is not always known. an university research group has been conducting a study to determine the origin of impor d ed eels soled at rust raunts and

superparts. they found that five species including japanese eel are being traded. in 2014, about 70% were other species like european and american eel. the group members think the study will help conservation efforts by detailing which species is consumed more. >> translator: it's difficult to classify them by species, just by their appearance. and cooked eels are even more difficult to determine. we need public institutions to analyze their dna in order to be able to clarify the situation. on the global eel trade. >> reporter: at the conference, eel officials proposed a studyd on the global catch and shipment of the eel. it was unanimously adopted. and backed by japan. >> japan is highly responsible for the japanese stock as both a

range statement and consumer stake. >> experts think international trade regulations could be put on the eel industry unless concrete and effective measures are taken. that would mean japan has a big role to play. iako sasa, nhk world. okay here on nhk "newsline" we turn to business news, investors are paying close to attention to remarks by japan's central bank chief after the shift in monetary policy. gene otani has details. >> the bank of japan altered its policy framework to include a focus on long-term interest rates. the governor said the bank may cut rates further into negative territory if needed, to achieve its inflation goalal. he was speaking at a meeeeting with business leaders in osaka. >> we will make policy adjustments without hesitation, if jududged necessary for japan economy as a whole. the main policy tool of possible

options s for additioional easi will be further cuts in the negative short-term interest rate and lowering the target level of the long-term interest rate. >> kuroda said the focus will enable bank to purchase government bonds in a more effective manner. he said the bank will be better prepared to address chapgs in circumstances making its policy more sustainable. tokyo share prices finished lower after kuroda's speech. the financial sector fell. as investors are worried that the further negative interest rates he suggested would reduce their profits. cheaper oil and a stronger yen also weighed on sentiment. we report from the tokyo stock exchange. >> yen remained strong against the dollar during trading hours, weighing on sentntent. it surged last week after the federal reserve kept key interest rate unchanged. while analysts say traders are holding back ahead of the u.s. presidential debate. let's look at the closing levels for this monday, september 26th. the nikkei ended down, 1.25% at

16,544. the broader topix fell 1%. looking at individual stocks, the relatively lower oil prices saw the energy sector weighing heavily on the benchmark. impex dropped 2.3% and refiner showa shell was down 2.8%. the strong yen hit export-related shares, electronics manufacturers were trading lower. tdk down 6%, alps electric fell 4%. these apple suppliers are lower after a report said sales of the iphone 7 are weaker than previous model. the u.s. presidential debate will be held monday evening, tuesday morning in asia. analysts say the outcome could move currency and stock markets even in tokyo. i downward momentum spilled over to other börses in the asia-pacific region. the kospi fell by 0.3%.

hong kong, hang seng index down by 1.5%. the shanghai composite tumbled by 1.8%. closing below the 3,000 mark for the first time in two months. property shares after the nanji nanjing. singapore straits times index declining to finish at 2849. weaker-than-expected industrial output for august weighed on sentiment. people in japan hold less in financial assets compared to a year ago. a bank of japan shows individual holdings for the april through june period shrunk from a year earlier, falling for the second straight quarter. the report put total holdings at about $17 trillion, at current exchange rates. that's down 1.7% from last year. and it's the first consecutive

quarterly decline in seven years. the breakdown shows individual cash and deposits rose 1.2%. but stocks and other investments fell 16.6%, mutual funds were down by 11.7%, in line with a drop in share prices since the beginning of the year. the report shows that the bank of japan held about $3.9 trillion in government bonds. that's up nearly 35% from a year earlier. and accounts for 36% of all outstanding government bonds. the central bank has been buying a significant amount of government debt under its largest scale monetary easing program. blowfish or puffer is an expensive winter delicacy in japan. it's served as sashimi and soup and bids are coming in on the

season's catch in western japan. more than three tons of both wild and farmed tiger puffer wenten the market monday morning, blowfish harvesting is under way. buyers and sellers have a special way of fitting, they give hand signals in a bag so others can't see. one wholesaler said the catch is good this year for the wild tiger puffer. due to stable weather in the sea of japan. the fish auction will be shipped mainly to tokyo and osaka in the west. high season continues until december. here's a look at other business stories we're following. storms and heavy rainfall this summer in japan have affected sales across several sectors of the economy. officials at the japan food service association say restaurant sales fell 1.7% in august from a year ago. the first year-on-year decline in nine months. sales at family restaurant chains and pubs also fell. fast food chains saw a slight rise as customers opted for

lower prices. home appliance makers were also hit by bad weather. shipments in august fell 4.2% from a year earlier to a total value of about 1.7 billion. sales of air conditioners dropped 12%, refrigerators down 6%. industry officials pin hopes on new products to be shipped out soon. time to take a look at our global economic calendar for this week. officials from oil producing and consumer countries will hold talks in algeria monday on the sidelines of that meeting opec ministers plan to discuss ways to stabilize oil prices. tuesday, we learn china's industrial profits for august. on friday, officials will release japan's consumer price index and industrial production data, both for last month. on saturday, china's purchasing managers index comes out, a leading indicator of factory activity. every monday we ask specialists to share their

perspective on the coming week. in this edition of "expert view" we hear from a senior economist at mitsubishi ufj research and consulting. opec members have tried many times to set limits on production and push up the price of oil. we asked akuta about the likelihood of a deal being worked out at this week's meeting? >> translator: i think it may be difficult for opec members to reach an agreement on a collective output quote. but there's no question all producing countries want the price of crude oil to be higher than it is at the moment.. for that reason, they will be striving hard to insure the negotiations do not fail. so i think they will be making some concessions.s. for example, they may try to persuade iran to agree to some degree of output controrol. >> the price of oil has stabilized under the $50 level. akuta says this price could rise

if producers reach a deal, but it's likely to be temporary. >> translator: if member countries strike a deal that will raise hopes that coordinated oil production will continue for some time, leading to a rise in crude oil pricess p abovee the mid 50s per barrel. but at the same time, even if there is an agreement to put quotas on production, not everyone expects this to lead to an actual declees in oil output. if saudi arabia and russia continue their current levels of output, it will not be easy to tighten global supply and demand in that case, we expect the price to fall back again to around $50 a barrel. akuta says he sees the prices rising, but shale oil stands in the way of a sharp rally. >> i think crude oil prices will rise further after 2017. but this will spark increased production by u.s. shale oil producers, putting a cap on

prices. many people are coming to the view that crude oil prices will hit a ceiling at around $60 a barrel. >> you can catch our report again online, together with the full transcript. look for nhk world and business wrap. that's a look at business news, i leave you with the markets.

colleagues of diseased belgian filmmake ver helped realize his dream. jill laurent was working on a documentary about the fukushima nuclear disaster when he was killed in brussels in a terror attack. his fellow movie makers came together to help make his final cuts. nhk world's nagao has the story. >> the citity of marseille in southern france hosted a film festival this july. one of the works featured was abandoned land. the documentary looks into the fate of a town called tomioka in the shadow of the nuclear power plant in fukushima. >> repeporter: the film combibi images of a nearly abandoned town undergoing decontamination work, with conversations and

natural sounds. it was directed by belgian filmmaker jill laurent. he was married to a japanese woman and lived in tokyo. laurent began working on the film in 2015, he wanted to depict the unfair situation of the people who suddenly lost everything to the nuclear accident. but laurent himself became a victim of another tragedy. he was back in brussels for editing of the film and here, in this subway station, he was caught in a terrorist attack on march 22. laurent's wife, reiko udo, stood by her husband as he dedicated himself to making the film. >> translator: he could have survived with a difference of a

mere few seconds. his work took him to nearly 40 countries. i have no words for my husband's sudden death on a quiet, peaceful morning in a belglgian subway. >> reporter: laurent's long-time collaborators in belgium have succeeded in c carrying out his intentions. cyril bibas was working as a producer on the film and has now taken command. >> translator: we must complete all the unfinished films laurent had put his heart into. >> "abandoned land" was finally completed after five months of editing. at the film festival, bibas greeted the audience on behalf of laurent.

>> translator: gilles laurent, who should be standing in my place, is no longer here with us as he became a victim of terrorism. i'm honored that his film is being showcased here. >> r reporter: t the film shows people striving for happiness amid theheir troubles. >> translator: i was really moved by the survivors. >> translator: seeing them trying to get back on their feet was inspiring. >> reporter: the film isis set be released in belgium and france and there are negotiations to included in an international film festival in kyoto. the message of the film will be shared with more of the world.

nhk world, brussels. one of japan's shinkansen bullet trains made an emergency stop on monday after a passenger's slithery discovery. there was a 30-centimeter-long snake on the train. it's not known how it got on board and officials are looking into whether it's native to japan or someone's pet. after the emergency stop, police were called in to get the serpent off the train. there are no reports of injuries. the operator's central japan railway says the train was put back into service several minutes later and did not cause any major delays. another storm system is about to threaten lives and property in taiwan and eastern china as jonathan oh from our weather desk tess us. it looks like a lot of rainfall and strong storms will be happening through the next couple o of daysys. the storm is categorized as a

large storm as well as a strong typhoon. megi is moving towards taiwan and it's going to be likely one of the fifth storm to make impact on it. the fourth one to land it if it continues on its trek. at least for the season. here's a look at what's happening now. moving to the west-northwest at 24 kilometers per hour. the powerful system is expected tacontinue tamove over the island as we go throughout the day tuesday. by wednesday this is expected to fall apart. you may remember what happened to baranti. that storm was south of taiwan. as these systems move over the island, very wet, especially along the eastern side of taiwan. because of the mountains and how high they are, it's going to really cause some issues when it's rotating as it moves over the areas. it's going to bring the storm in terms of its falling apart likely to happen. i mentioned earlier with these other storm tracks, we have these systems move over during the season and we are expecting it to also take similar tracks

over the islands. hopefuy y residentnts are able brace for this system as we go forwarinin time. a lot of rainfall, especially for those living along the eastern side through tuesday and possibly into wednesday as it starts to move away, moving into the mainland portion of china. toward the north we have rain taking place into northeastern areas of china. that rain will continue to move toward the east. we had a little bit more sunshine in tokyo. we do have this stationary front that's over the area so we're going to still see instability and some cloud in the area. but sunshine more a part of the forecast and a bit warm as well. a high of 29 coming up on tuesday. rain down into shanghai and taipei as we see influences from both the low pressure system up north and the typhoon down toward the south. meanwhile, i want to show you what's happenining in australia where we had a few systems roll through the area that brought heavier rainfall to now south wales. here's video on the ground level in the region where we had heavy rainfall during the weekend

causing serious flooding on sunday. so an evacuation order had to be issued for about 1,000 people. 50 properties were flooded and e state emergency service had to take e care of more than 2,3 calls that came in for help. a major flood warning still in place for areas downstream. we have instability moving forward in time. the first low pressure system moving out. another low developing back toward the west. a cold froront developing down toward the southwest. alall of these facto wilill increa t the precicipitation ase go forward tuesday into wednesdaday. ththose of you located down towd adelaide, melbourne, be on the lookout as we're dealing with additional rainfall. wrapping it up with north america, we do have a long cold front extending from canada down toward texas. tetexas also has a low pressure system over the area. look out for the possibility of heavy y rainfall, maybflash h flooding as we go throughout the morning hours on monday. and then as this system pushes toward the east, we are going to see cooler temperatures to the northeast. so be on the lookout for some chilly conditions. morning temperatures may be down

to as low as zero degrees celsius in new england as we go through the morning hours on monday. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook. ♪

over 10,000 people in the russian far east have marched to raise awareness about an endangered animal the amur tiger. >> thehe m mchers gathered in cecentral have a l lad v voss sn sunday f f a 150000 meter trek, amur ters li i i rurussia's far east. the e internatationa union f fo conservatition of naturere liste species s as facing thehe r ris exextinction. the tiger population plummeted during the soviet era. poaching was largely to blame. >> translator: amur tigers are strong and beautiful. we must protect them. >> a survey by the russian government last year estimated the population had recovered to between 480 and 540. the government credits the

creation of wildlife reserves and tougher penalties on poaching for the recovery.

>> you're watching france 24 alive. more arguments between the u.s. and russia over syria but as discussions go on at the u.n. syrian regime airstrikes continue to kill civilians in aleppo. the french president says the massive migrant account known as the jungle must be completely