here in japan it's 7:00 p.m. on a a monday. i'm james tengan. this is nhk "newsline." we start with news of how the coronavirus pandemic may cause the world's biggest sporting event to be poststponed. the ioc is looking at the possibility as some countries say they won't send athletes to the game this year. the ioc said it would begin talks with japan. the organizing committee, the tokyo metropolitan, and central governments on the best way to handle developments.

ioc president thomas bach says he is confident there would be a decision in four weeks. the government of the host city says there are a number of issues to tackle including the issue of the athlete's village. the facilities, changed into residential units. people expect to start living in them 2023. >> translator: there are many stake holders invololved in the tokyo 2016 games. so i think it would take four weeks toeaear from each o of th. i think the metropolitan government is the most important stake holder and we will express our opinions in the negotiations. >> meanwhile, the head of the tokyo olympic organizing committee also spoke after the ioc announcement saying he agrees the new coronavirus could force the games to be postponed.

>> t translatotor: the situatio with the virusus is growing mor severe a as itt spreads to new regions particularly in the u.s. and europe. and we are fully aware off the circumstances. we're considering a n number of opinions from different places and we're not foolish enough to say w we'll g go a ahead witith initial plan. >> mori says there will be a lot of things to cononsiderr if the games are delayed including costs and whether venues are available. he says it will be hard to work out all of the details in just four weeks. other countries are now calling for the games to be pushed to 2021. the olympic and paralympic committees of canada and australia say if the games go as scheduled, they will not send athletes. their u.s. counterparts have not made the same call saying they appreciate the ioioc is w workio address their concerns. earlier ai uchida spoke with our sports correspondent for more

analysis. >> so yuki, the prime minister is weighing in on a potential delay for the games. why is the ioc considering a possible postponement now? >> it seems to be rooted in the goal of maintaining an even playing field. fairness is the foundation o of spsports and the coronavirus ha disrupted that. many olympic qualifiers have been postponed or canceled. more than 40% of the expected 11,000 athletes haven't secured their spot yet. then there are logistical challenges of training. fa facilities are closed. pools are closed and some athletes are self-quarantining. pressure has been building on the ioc to do something with people calling for the postponement and criticizing the response so far. this athlete has said he will boycott the games.

his announcement carries weight because he competes for the same country that ioc president thomasas bach did in 1976 in th same sport too. and in the host nation, there the president of the boxing federation said itit would give them one yeaear to givive boxer equal shot at competing. >> now, all this sounds like a massive headache for everyone involved. so tell us about some of the other considerations that have to go into a decision like this. >> you are right. this is not an ideal situation for the ioc. if the games are postponed, it will be the first time in olympic history and i think that is highly likely to happen. there e are hugege financial st at play here. hotels have been booked. venues are being built. the interest of sponsors,

broadcasters, and more than 30 sports federations are intertwined in a complicated way. for the athletes there's the question of what do about the qualifications that have already taken place. and the upcoming sports calendar is almost through, as the world championships aquatic and swimming will be held next summer. so timing is an issue too. there are a lot of stake holders the ioc will need to coordinate with here. but with the four-week timeline the committee has given themselves, that could prove very difficult to do. italy has reported more than 650 deaths in one day bringing fatalities to 5,400. the government is tightening its lockdown measures in an attempt to stem the outbreak. the country also reported about

5,500 new infectionsns bringing the total to more than 59,000. the italian government ordered all businesses not producing essential goods and services to close as a way to keep more people off the streets. the death toll in spain jumped by about 30% in one day to top 1,700. the spanish prime minister is seeking to extend the current state of emergency until april 11th. people's movements will continue to be restricted. the government is converting a conference center in madrid into a makeshift hospital with more than 5,000 beds to meet surging demand. german chancellor angela merkel went into self-quarantine after the doctor who vaccinated her against pneumonia on friday tested positive. a government spokesperson says merkel will carry out her duties from home. and turn to the u.s. where the total number of infections surpassed 30,000 on sunday.

that is double the number the cdc released on friday. donald trump says he has approved new york and washington state's requests for major disaster declarations. the move paves the way for the two states to receive emergency federal funding. >> in addition to large quantities of supplies, i've directed fema to supply the following. four large federal medical stations with 1,000 beds for new york. eight large federal medical stations with 2,000 beds for california. >> trump added that he received the request from california and quickly approved it. in new york the governor says the number of cases is over 15,000, almost all residents are being asked to stay at home. police and medical workers are notable exceptions. globally thehere are more ththa 290,000 caseses with over 12,00 deaths attributeted to the new coronavirus. and in china, it's been exactly two months since the

lockdown began for the worst-hit city of wuhan. some people are being allowed to leave their resesidential compounds to go shopping. ththe number oininfection cases increased by thousands per day at peak times, but for four coconsecutive days, no new infections have been reporteted. local media say that in areas where no new infections have been confirmed for more than 14 days, 1 person per househehd m y go out to shop. and some supermarkets and other stores have reopened. however, measures continue to limit the movement of people within their residential compounds. meanwhile, china hasas seen a spike in the number of new infections confirmed among arrivals from abroad. the governmement announced starting on monday it will land all international flflights to bebeijing and othedomeststic airportsts to quaranne passengegers. only thosese travelers not suspected of having the virus will be allowed to travel to the capital. meanwhile, china and the u.s. are battling it out on social media over their country's responses to the

coronavirus outbreak. the war of words between the two spokespersons broke out last week. chinese foreign ministry spokesperson first criticized the u.s. on twitter. she wrote, china has been updating the u.s. on the coronavirus and its response since january 3rd and now blamed china for delay? seriously? united states spokesperson mohr gone ortegas quoted her tweet and posted that chinese authorities had certainly ordered coronavirus samples destroyed, science wuhan doctors, and censored public concerns online by january 3rd. hua hit back. lying and slander won't make the u.s. great nor will it make up for the lost time. she claimed china has treated the new coronavirus has highly pathogenic. ortegas called that nonsense. she tweeted, you call it highly pathogenic now but last week your officials blocked a w.h.o. report from calling covid-19 a

dangerous pathogen. despite the uncertainty the coronavirus is bringing to the olympics and paralympics, athletes continue to train regardless. we took to the streets as a visually impaired running as she continues. >> reporter: milestone runner is looking to book her tickets to the olympics to her event. she suffered detached retina soon after graduating high school. she got into marathons about ten years ago with impressive results.

>> translator: many people feel sorry for anyone with a disability. but i want them to watch parasports and think, wow, that looks cool. >> reporter: aoki's support is called team ao. it's made up of some 30 volunteers all helping her make the 2020 team. one of the most important roles is the guide runner. the job involves being tethered together with a rope to keep the blind athlete on track and keep both runners safe. >> translator: i need the support of lots of people to keep going. so i want to return those favors by getting a good result.

zplr >> reporter: at the race, the 20 kilometer mark means it's time to switch guide runners. >> translator: i wasn't trying to make us go faster, but we seem to have caught up with the runner in front. >> reporter: the pace hit by the top athlete is faster than usual, but aoki is keeping up. at the water station, 31 kilometers into the race, aoki gets a special drink the team has made for her. and with her fans cheering her on, she moves up into second place. and there's a special supporter waiting near the finish line.

it's the wife of her former boss and inspiration. they had been close since vocation school and also went on holiday with their families. he'd been looking forward to seeing her try for a place at the paralympics but died two years ago. aoki still feels his support whenever she runs. she holds onto her place and crosses the finish line in second. it means she has a chance of being recommended for the

paralympics team by her sport's governing body. >> translator: we practiced every day with everyone cheering me on. that was the deciding factor. we were all focused on that finish line. >> reporter: aoki feels a strengthed resol eened rovl to h for the paralympics with her team by her side. nhk world. >> aoki had planned to run this year's london marathon to rubber stamp her ticket to the games but its postponement to october means she and thousands of other athletes will have to wait and see what happens next.

here in tokyo the sight of cherry blossoms is a comfort for many. to see what weather is awaiting the delicate petals, here's meteorologist jonathan oh. >> this week was on the warmer side. and then a bit on the chilly side for monday. but when it comes to the cherry blossoms in terms of the weather, we are looking at warmer temperatures as we go throughout this week. and we are already seeing that full bloom taking place in tokyo. other areasas you see the blosss popping up throughout the next few days. we did see that rain rolling through with the cold front pushing through.

temperatures making up into the low teens opposed to mid to upper teens. this weekend was definitely on the much warmer side, but you needed to bundle up today. now, as we go into tuesday, we will see temperatures starting to moderate. and by the time we go into the end of this week, highs around 20 degrees in tokyo. in many places around the pacific side of japan, also the temperatures on the warmer side. be ready to dress in layers. you'll see a swing in tempereratures as wee go throug the day. here's a look at the forecast here for the next few days. niigata, you're looking at snow. got some energy over the mountain there is. then notice by thursday and friday, we're looking at highs into the upper teens. 20s expects in places like tokyo and osaka. definitely on the warming trend as we go through the latter half of this week. we're going to be wrapping up the month of march pretty soon and see those warmer temperatures also in place. and speaking of those cherry

blossoms, notice the points here around march 23rd we had these first blossoms back towards the western areas. but that full bloom now in place. we'll see more popping up throughout the month and april. high pressure is helping to usher in some of the wet weather down though southern areas of china. so yeah we'll be seeing wet weather coming up as we go to tuesday. chongqing looking at thunderstorms. high of 24. taipei at 22. notice, warmth in beijing with high of 18 degrees into tuesday. meanwhile we are looking at some of the stormy actctivity to the southernrn areas of the low pressure. we'll be getting some of that momentum associated with it. strong thunderstorms possible with this particular system. cold air really sweeping through the northern areas of the united states into canada. but that will also moderate a bit and we'll see warmer

temperatures as we go later on this week. snow into chicago and toronto. showers in d.c. and atlanta for monday. that's a look at your forecast. hope you have a good day wherever you are.

to see how the pandemic is affecting business and finance, ramin mellegard is up next.

an expert says the bill for delaying the olympics for one year could hit $5.8 billllion. the professor emeritus at kansai university is an expert in sports economics. he says maintaining and repairing facilities like stadiums and preparing for the games all over again will require $3.8 billion. he says hosting the games has benefitted like formation of international business hubs, promotion of businesses, and expansion of the robotics

university. he says without them he ceaeasen economomic loss o of $2 billion. he says reduced tours in the consumer spending means the economic will likely take an even bigger hit than he projects. this is "newsline biz," i'm ramin mellegard. they've taken a step to deal with investor worries about a global shortage of u.s. dollars due to market jitters over the coronavirus. now, boj officials say they have begun supplying the key currency to the financial markets on a daily basis instead of weekly. the boj lent nearly $35 billion with seven-day maturity to financial institutions on monday. this is a part of coordinated action with five other banks including the european central bank. the boj says the o operation wi continue every day at least until the end of apapril. recent vatility andd global

financial markets has p prompte investorors to sell tirir stock government bobonds, and other securities in order to acquire u.s. dollars. in another liquidity boosting measure, they're buying japanese government bonds worth 800 billion yen or about $7.3 billion. softbank group is selling assets worth up to 4.5 trillion yen or $41 billion. the japanese i.t. giant will use the money to buy back its shares and reduce debt over the next 12 months. now, this comes after the coronavirus pandemic caused the group's share price to fall by half in the past month. the chairman and ceo says she move will strengthen the balance sheet while s significacantly reducing debt. softbanknk says it will buy bac up to about $18 billion worth of its stock. the company will also increase its cash reserves. softbank group is japan's biggest investor in high profile

starters. softbank also holds a stake in chinese e-commerce alibaba group. they did not say which assets it plans to sell. toyota motor has suspended operations at one of its plants in central japan after two workers tested positive for the coronavirus. toyota says the two faced each other while on the job at one of the two assembly lines at the plant in toyota city. the lines have been idled. the entire factory building has been shut down for three days starting monday for disinfection. the automaker also decided to extend its suspension of operations in north america. all its 14 factories in the united states, canada, and mexico will be idled from monday until april 5th. india used to enjoy annual economic growth of more than 8%, but recently the pace of

expansion has fallen to about half of that. now, while the government is counting on foreign direct investment to revive growth, not everyone is on board. prime minister nararendra modi leaning on from abroad. >> come to india. >> reporter: u.s. tech giant amazon.com has answered his call. ceo jeff bezos visited india in january and announced a massive investment plan to expand online retetail services. >> i predict that the 211st century i is going to be the indianan century. today we're now seeing that we're g going to invest in

incremental $1 billion u.s. >> reporter: amazon says the additional investment will be spent to incncrease the number large logistic hubs to 50 and to provide busininesses with know-w to digitize their operations. but there is some fierce resistance. small shops lining the streets of daily supplies, food, and anything else you might need. there are set to be 15 million of them across india. they account for about 90% of all retail sales. their owners worry that shopping sites like amazon will take away business. and they're putting pressure on

the government of retail giants. rallies were held across the country to coincide with the visit by bezos. >> translator: we've already lost 40% to 50% of sales due to online shores. >> we cannot compete and we have to shut down the shop and in that way people are losing their jobs. >> reporter: foreign investment is also essential to the government's goal of turnining india into the world's manufacturing hub. an expert says that means investment from abroad will be needed across all industries. >> there wilill be some amount investment. we need investment from all possible sources. >> reporter: an influx of foreign money would upend

industries and ratchet up tensions, but it's a risk prime minister modi may be willing to take. that's because the alternative allowing growth to slow would make it more and more difficult to go on. nhk world, new delhi. okay, , let's get a check o the markets.

and that's it for "newsline bibiz." from our tokyo studios, i'm rami ♪

of emergency. this is the total number of the --ories that climb fidelity's that climb in n just4 hours. prime minister pedro sanchez says the worst still to come. the covid-19 death toll in