monday. welcome to nhk "newsline." japan's prime minister says his government spent half a year deciding to end a peacekeeping mission in south sudan. last friday shinzo abe announced japan will not send another self-defense force to replace the current one. >> translator: the national security council and secretariat have been discussing it since

last september. we decided to end the mission around may when it completes its main work. >> abe said japan will continue to send sdf personnel to headquarters of south sudan mission. he also said his country will continue to provide humanitarian assistance adding his government is making final arrangement to provide support worth $6 million. japan started sending peacekeepers in 2012 to help restore the newly established nation which has grappled with violence. personnel have constructed roads and other infrastructure. the scope of the mission did not include combat or other security enforcement work. that's because of strict limitations in japan's war renouncing constitution. the government has given expanded role allowing itt to come to the defefense if they ce under attack. some opposition lawmakers expect the worsening security situation is behind the decision to end the main mission.

they say the decision was made too late. last july they engaged in fighting despite a peace accord. more than 270 people, including civilians, died in a week. the situation has stabilized but clashes continue in northeastern and southern regions. they say 1.5 million people have fled south sudan in the last three years. it also says 5 million people or nearly half the country's population, face food shortages. major south korean newspapers have taken a swipe at park geun-hye over her reaction over leaving office. last week a court sealed her fate. a conservative said the country's future can only be announced if park announces her support of the decision.

questioned if park is trying to divide the country, calls her message as appalling and describes it as a declaration of war. they were reacting to this statement from a spokesperson for park on sunday. >> translator: i'm very sorry for failing to complete my mission as president. i really appreciate the people for believing in me and supported me of. i accept responsibility for the outcome. i believe the truth will be revealed but it will take time. it came after park returned to her home in the southern part of seoul. that was two days after she was dismissed by the constitutional court in relation to a political corruption scandal that upended the country but it was also four years after she moved into the presidential blue house where she used to live as a child. park suggested she was not

guilty of the allegations and dissatisfied with the ruling. legal experts say prosecutors will question her to determine whether she colluded with her long time friend in soliciting and receiving bribes but others think prosecutors will postpone the investigation until early may at the latest to avoid influencing the presidential election which her removal from office had triggered. while the latest polls suggest nearly 90% of people agree with the ruling there's a deep divide in the country. nhk world talked to an expert about the situation in the democracy and what challenges are ahead. >> kim chan-ju called it historic, created a new democracy. >> translator: the court's ruling suggest even a nation's top ruler cannot escape punishment by the constitution or the law. the decision proved the spirit

of democracy, that all people, whether ordinary citizens or powerful ones, are equal under the law. >> the scandal has come at a price. the country has been deeply divided between park's distracters and supporters. angry protests by those supporters lead to clashes with the police. three people have died. he points out that the country has seen various political confrontations in the recent past. they include the pro democracy movement against the government. one of the protests left over 200 people dead or missing. people in other protests lit themselves on fire. he says it's time for south korean's to learn to respect and tolerate people with different opinions.

>> park's supporters cannot accept the court's decision. so it's likely we'll see more unfortunate events for a while. even though park lost her post, it's important for her to play a role in reuniting the nation. but if that's not possible then lawmakers should also step in. >> not just because impeached but south korean politics. he demands politicians seriously reflect on their actions over recent months. he blames ruling party members for not a acting as a check against park's wrongdoing. he also criticizes the opposition for n not doing more than raising questions. >> translator: we need to think about the popower structure tha tolerated the e president's

criminal acts, and we have to consider bad habits like the corrupt relationship between politics and conglomerants. those that took to the streets every weekend call this a deep rooted evil. therefore the new president and his or her administration need to deal with this challenge. if they can't resolve the problem, people will again take to thehe streets and urge them fix it. >> he warns the next president and government cannot ignore that power of the people. but he said he's optimistic because he believes basic democracy has now been built in the country. nhk world, seoul.

the turkish flag was briefly raised at the dutch consulate in istanbul as tensions rise between the countries. it started when two turkish ministers were banned from entering the netherlands. a man climbed onto the roof of the consulate and replaced the dutch flag with the turkish one. on sunday protests were held against dutch government in ankara and istanbul. a constitutional referendum scheduled for april in turkey. it's increasing powers of president regime ere erdogan. netherlands has the largest number of eligible voters among foreign countries. the dutch government blocked entry of the officials citing security reasons. erdogan accused for not suppressing freedom of speech

but ditch prime minister harshly reacted saying the accusation is totally unacceptable. the diplomatic row companies ahead of elections this week in a country long known for its tolerance, ultraright wing party islamists riding high in the polls. nhk has the details. >> he spear heads the far right party for freedom. he's expected to make major gain in this week's parliamentary electi election. he founded the party. his plalatform is anti-islam. >> look at anti-islamization. there's a lot of scum that makes the street unsafe. >> reporter: immigrants are 6%. even though crime is low and the economy is good, many feel

immigration numbers are growing too high and that they are under siege. also, terrorist attacks in neighboring european cities have stirred fear and reinforced suppo support. nhk was one to get there. >> want to be strong again, our own country again. >> reporter: says islam is a dangerous faith that denies european liberal values such as sexual equality, freedom of speech, and the separation of state and religion. his party wants to shut mosques, ban the koran and stop immigration from mostly muslim countries. >> islam is not a race, it's a religion, and i see it as an ideology and i see it as a a totally terror ideology like communism or fascism. i believe islam and freedom are not compatible.

we should stop islamization of free societies. >> also against the european union. he wants to follow the uk's brexit with an exit. >> you don't need to be part of this super national institution called european union, which is in a way like the old roman empire that is fading away to protect our people, to take netherlands first in interest. that is what i want. >> his rhetoric is similar to that used by donald trump in the u.s. with elections coming up in france and germany, the ditch election is being looked as a bellwether of what might come in europe. nhk world, the hague, net hands.

business and labor leaders close to a final agreement on limiting workers overtime hours. gene otani has more on that and other headlines. >> the japan business federation keidanren and largest labor organization still negotiating the wording of an agreement. their discussions are in response to government plan to strengthen rules on overtime work and penalize companies who violate them. they reported to prime minister shinzo abe on monday. abe made it clear he wants to limit overtime to less than 100 hours per month during peak periods. that was originally proposed by labor unions. the two sides have broadly agreed to limit total annnnual overtime to 720 hours. the limit o of 100 hours is in line for determining working hours as a cause of death. death from overwork is a continuing problem in japan.

the recent suicide of a young woman from overwowork has broug it to the forefront. but keidanren has not agreed to a limimit of less than 10000 ho citing the effect on company management. prime minister abe has asked keidanreren to reconsider its position. he says he wants to clearly show hihis resolve to tackle the problem of excessive working hours. >> transnslator: puts overtime standard of at 100 hours. i asked both sides to make it less than 100 hours. >> reporter: sources say keidanren plans to accept the government request at issue on friday. a panel of investigators has filed its report on questionable website run by japanese firm dena. accused of not adequately verifying articles on some of

its sites. they include medical and health care called welq. dena shut down sites in september. company executives apologized at a news conference. >> translator: we will sincerely accept the probe result and what the report pointed out. >> reporter: investigatorsrs sa they f found incidents of potetential copy right infringementnt. they are urgrging the company t ststep up p preventive measures. ththe report citeses 740,000 im on dena webebsis that may have been reproduced without permission. that's about 15% of the images examinined. it also states thahat 10 out of9 articles on the welq site may be in violation. the report focused on quantity rather than quality. trying to attract market value

to $2 billion n by march 2019. dena officials plan to focus on corporate governance. they said they are focusing on whether to continue their website operations. checking market, phoebe am rosa has more from tokyo stock exchange. >> there wasn't a lot of movements in the marketing trading ahead of central policy meetings in both u.s. and japan. nikkei 225 closed 0.15 closing 19,633. upside profit taking after 1.5% gain on friday. the broader topix rose 0.2%. individual stocks, rose 3% on rereports struggling company toshiba may sell subsidiaries as part of restructuring process. continued to rally closing 4%

higher on speculation it will reenter fir tier of the tokyo stock exchange. that follows restructuring since its takeovever by taiwiwan's precision industry. but lower crude oil prices hit related shares, petroleum exploration and oil refiner jx holdings both closed holder. many investors have a wait and see attitude before the upcoming meeting. some remain bullish as nikkei maintains highest left in months. asia-pacific region also ended in positive. hong kong advanced more than 1% and hit a two-week high. sydney bucked the trend, s&p down on declining oil prices. south korea investor sentiment improved after dismissal of former president park. the kospi climbed 2117, highest

in two years. shanghai composite rose for the first time in four days with the sharpest one-day gain in three weeks. investors were cheered by comments by senior government officials for steady growth outlook this year. finishing number up .7, 3237 the closing number there. officials in japan released a couple of pieces of economic data the first number is machinery orders. it shows managers at japanese companies have spent less on upgrading their facilities. the figure for january fell for the first tile in two months. government officials say this is partly due to a reversal from the previous month when there were large orders for components used in nuclear power facilities. officials at the cabinetet offi sayy orders down 3.2% in yen terms from december. figures include power which includes fluctuations. maintaining assessment of the

economy saying it remains at a standstill. meanwhile companies continue to pay for more materials. index for prices on goods traded among businesses rose for a second straight month in february. officials at the bank of japan say producer index up 1% from a year earlier. th's the fastest pace increase in two years after consumption tax hike. officials say the rise is mainly due to higher energy cost. petroleum and coal products up 27.1%. that's as crude oil prices rose after opec members agreed to reduce output. nonferrous metals up 8.2, iron, ore, copper cost more due to expectations of increased infrastructure investment in the u.s. and china. boj officials say they expect producer prices to continue their upward trend. let's now check global business

calder. tuesday deadline for toshiba to release financial results for april through december period. managers delayed on earlier planned release saying they need more time to review the books at subsidiary westinghouse. on wednesday netherlands hold elections. markets watching to see what it means for european union with far right parties tipped to do well. same day policymakers at u.s. federal reserve announce their decision on key interest rate. another decision follows thursday when bank of japan winds up policy meeting. friday g20 gather in bgermany fr two days of discussion. at the start of each week we ask specialists to share their perspective on what's ahead. in today's expert view we hear from chief researcher. he expects a rate hike from the fed but not the boj.

>> in light of the series of bullish comments made by member, it's very probable, i think, that the fed will make the rate hike by 25 points, fmoc also make the upward revision of the economic outlook taking into account better prospects of domestic and international economy. in contrast to the fed, the boj is surely going to maintain their stimulus. the boboj will be cautious, largely because the measures of expectations have not shown substatantial impremement at al. >> inoue says markets are already looking ahead, fishing for clues on future rate hikes. he says the key thing to watch out for is donald trump's economic package.

>> i think that the economic stimulus by trump administration is outstandingly important. in addition to a scale of economic stimulus itself, i think the timing of execution is very important in terms of tax reform as well as infrastructure investment. these developments, if theorized, i think, could provide larger breathing space for the boj's monetary policy. the boj would prioritize to make the most of the better prospects of the u.s. economy in achieving its own inflation target by not hasting its normalization process monetary policy. >> you can catch our report again online together with a full transcript. just look for nhk world and business wrap. that's a look at business news. i'm going to leave you with the markets.

opera legend placido domingo has come to japan to cheer up those affected by earthquake and tsunami six years ago. the spanish tenor arrived saturday anniversary of the march 2011 disaster and spoke with nhk. >> in moments of really a a tragedy and sad time, you can make a bit happier the people that were coming to the concert. >> at the time of the disaster many foreign musicians canceled their performanceces due to concerns over the nuclear accidents. domingo was one of the few to perform as scheduled.

he sang japanese songs to lift the spirits of those affected and two months later made a financial donation. >> we just have to have hope and faith. hope and faith and continue with life. >> now, time for weather. mostly cloudy is the forecast for us in tokyo with the current temperature reading of 11 degrees celsius or 52 fahrenheit. jonathan oh joins us with the world weather starting with the u.s. . at least for the next couple of days it looks like winter will still try to hang around for a little bit longer in both locations around the world. we are still seeing those colder temperatures and the precipitation hanging around the area, and that's going to lead to talk of winter weather in meteorological springtime.

let me take you over into the tibet autonomous region to show you what took place during that weekend time period. look at that snowfall, as police officers and road maintenance workers had to deal with rescue operations because of significant snow hitting parts of the area starting last friday. dozens of vehicles were stranded and heavy snow. while common during the springtime in this area, it is a great challenge for those to take care of these types of issues every year. and that's quite significant snow there. that truck getting stuck into the area. and in other parts on the roadways, cars are backed up because of it. we are looking at the moisture focus to shift a little bit further to the east, looking at some rain toward the southeastern portions of china as we go forward throughout the day on tuesday. meanwhile, we do have a little interruption in the winter pressure pattern near japan, but we are still talking about some unstable weather. we have like a triple threat here.

we have one, two, three areas of low pressure in the area, all of them creating a bit of instability. so we're looking at the possibility of seeing some thunderstorms as we go into the day onuesdsdaynd m maybe dealing with a little bit of snowfall. but because of the warm air surging in, that's going to change that typical sea-effect snow pattern. looking at a few flakes in places like chichibu into tuesday. in thursday, getting action. look at warm weather relatively speaking on tuesday in tokyo,o, 14 on t tuesday but ran the forecast through wednesday. and look at this, naha staying bebelow the 20-degree mark with the high a bit cool. looking at a high of 15 in beijing, 1 12 shanghai, 16 taip with some rain as we go through tuesday. speaking of winter not going away, take a look at what's happening over in north america. we do have a couple of systems that we're watching closely. we have a low pressure system moving over the midwest, and that's going to bring in some additional moisture, and then we do have a couple areas of low pressure also from the gulf into

the atlantic ocean, and this is going to usher in a period of some significant snowfall. and new york city late monday into tuesday, we're looking at potential blizzard-type conditions, near zero with gusts up to 80 kilometers per hour, snow from 30 to 40 centimeters, and we're talking about this corridor from washington, d.c., into new york city seeing the heaviest of the snow, even into baltimore and also into delaware, you're going to be dealing with this possibility as well. and snow all the w t through t e great lakes. so winter not over yet. we're goining to see the combmbination of these two area of low pressure from the atlantic and a also out from th great lakes, and that's going to bring plenty of snowfall, so definitely want to be preparing now because you're not going to have much time once we get past that. snow into d.c., chicago, toronto. new york has to wait until later before you see the snowfall, but it's really going to come down once it comes to the area. quick note, pacific northwest looking at some wet weather. wrapping things up with a look at europe. relatively calmer to the balkans, still seeing some rain, but no more really unstable

weather as the cutoff low has finally moved off the area. looking at showers, though, into the iberian peninsula on monday with a high of 15. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook. for updates and special reports come your way for "newsroom tokyo."

from all of us on nhk "newsline," thanks for watching. p

♪ >> you are watching "france 24." time now for 60 minutes around the world. these are the headlines. turkey refusing to back down on its growing field with the netherlands. the turkish president says nazism is alive in the west after the netherlands blocked turkish ministers from holding rallies. brexit could be triggered as early as tomorrow.