people here in japan are grasping a new normal. many businesses can reopen but one southwestern city is dealing with a spike of new infections. officials confirmed just short of 100 cases over the past nine days. officials could not trace the root of infection for about one-third of them, but they linked one cluster to an

elementary school where five young classmates were infected. the schools have been temporarily closed. the central government says it's too early to consider reimposing. the businesses now limiting seating in the food court and installing more hand sanitizer dispensers. tokyo was among one of the last prefectures to have the declaration lifted. more than 5,200 people have tested positive for the virus in a city of about 14 million.

>> announcer: i wanted to come to school. >> the tokyo governmt is also easing requests for some businesses to remain closed. it will now allow theaters, gyms and retailstores,, including department stores to, reopen. >> translator: the business operators are taking measures to prevent the spread for infection. together with them i want all tokyo residents to continue efforts to contain the infection. >> officials plan to monitor the situation for a while before deciding whether to further ease the closure request, and the next phase will open karaoke bars. one of the key tourists attractions has reopened after a three-month closure.

the sky tree is the tallest building, and temperatures are recorded at the entrance and admission to the observation deck is open to about 20% of the capacity of 2,000. >> translator: i wanted to come to celebrate the reopening, but you can't see anything because of the unfortunate weather. >> as domestic flights increase, one airline is a asking all passengers to wear face masks. flight attendants are donning masks, and thopassengers that refuse to wear masks could b be denied boarding. >> translator: i want to follow the rules to make it safe for all passengers onboard. >> they are reporting air is replaced every couple of minutes. the operator of tokyo disneyland

and disney sea has announced it will further extend their closures. the theme parks have been closed since the end of february. the company says it will decide on a reopening date later. and health officials have begun checking people for antibodies. they tested about 10,000 people by the end of june across three prefectures. it will estimate how wide the coronavirus has spread in those locations and will require the possibility of having a herd immunity. and they are taking workers at ama for making medical gowns, and workers have been making them by hand. there's a need to produce

medical supplplies in japan instead of relying on china. >> translator: we need to make supply plans broad and robust by increasing domestic production. ♪

the islamic state m militan group claimed responsibility for bombing a mini bus over the weekend of kabul. six people have been wounded and two dead. islamic state militants say they targeted the tv's bus on saturday because the station has shown loyalty t to the afghanan government. afghan journalists have been repeatedly targeted by the islamic state grououp and the taliban. they said a terror attack against freedom of speech should never be tolerated. next, countries in southeast and south asia are beginning to ease restrictions on travel and economic activities even though coronavirus numbers are still rising. the philippines is resuming some

public transportation in the capital manila and surrounding areas but its taking precaution. officials are covering some seats to cut occupancy by more than half. cases there continue to rise even after a lockdown of two and a half months. india is easing its stay-at-home order that has been in place since late march,h, and infectis have yet to incline. the daily number of new cases is more than 8,000. for areas of high rates of infection, the government will keep its stay-at-home order in place and subways closed. thailand is continunuing to eas restrictions in phases on monday. it's allowing movie theaters and other indoor facilities to reopen. physical and massage therapist will be able to operate as well. nhk reports on how people in thailand are seeing unprecedented changes to everyday life.

>> daily prayer is a common ritual to most thais, but chancing it behind protective barriers is something new to get used to. bangkok is slowly coming back to life after several months of being at a standstill but with several changes. shop something not the same, customers are required to keep a safe distance to each other and do what this robot says. >> please wear mask. >> customers have to check in by scanning a code, and the system allows to count heads, and if there's an infection on site,

the authorities can alert people right away. this wedding dress designer created somethingng to reflect e times by releasing elegant face masks to match the bridal ware. >> translator: wearing masks on a wedding day, i need to create something that compliments the look. >> these newlyweds know about incorporating such adjustments to their big day, and planned a grand wedding in a grand mall but wound up getting married at a home when their venue was ordered shut, and first they had to get permission from the authorities, and everybody had to undergo a checkup before the

ceremony and the guest list had to be reduced from 500 to just 30. >> translator: this is not what we planned but we just have to embrace it. life goes on. >> hospitals are also aiming to reduce the number of people gathering at their facility. this one has come up with a t l telemedicine app. from the safety of their home, patients can see doctors and pharmacists by online video call. medicines are later mailed to their doorstep. the app is particularly popular among the e elderly. >> translatotor: it's good to b able to see doctors like e thiso i won't have to worry too much about getting infected.

>> translator: in the future, telemedicinene can assist paties and doctors from hospitals in rural areas, and iff it's widel successful i think telemedicine will become the new norm. >> the legacy could be the creative way society is adopting to the new normal. now let's get a check on the weather with our meteorologist. people here in tokyo kicked off a new workweek and new month with showers. we entered june and does that mean the rainy season already arrived? >> in some places in japan we entered the rainy season, and here in tokyo we felt wet as the clouds rolled through with a system passing nearby.

and we had rain on saturday and on sunday, and we are expecting that now we're in june to see this map getting colored in a bit more when it comes to seeing the rainy season begin. we have this low moving near tokyo, and that's the reason we saw some of the showers and it's going to actually clear out for tokyo with a few clouds as we go through tuesday and wednesday, and another system up north will bring showers but it will be on the hot side as highs in the 20s, and yeah, that's not typical so we will see showers there. down towards the south and west, we will see showers developing in places like okinawa. and 28 for tokyo tuesday and wednesday, and clouds increasing for thursday with a high of around 35.

and showers returning to fukusta. be on the lookout as we go through monday to tuesday as these low pressure systems are nearby, and another low in france, and unstable weather. heat up towards the high pressure, and keeping things high and dry in the scandinavian areas and europe as we go through tuesday, so again, take it easy out there. that's a look at your forecast. hope you have a good day wherever you are.

♪ ♪ ♪ that wraps up this edition of nhk "newsline." there's much more to come here

so please stay with us. welcome to "newsline in depth." we come to you from tokyo. behind me, japan's capital is slowly coming back to life after the lifting of the state of emergency. the world has become a strangely different place since covid-19 arrived on the scene. working from home, wearing face masks and supermarket queues are just part of a new n normal we e living today. acknowledging the new reality,

the newsline has come out looking a at the big pictuture. at this time of great anxietyty and uncertainty, questions are being askeded about how we shou all transition to the post pandndemic world. he's the best-selling author, and speaking to me in skype interview in april, he warned that the pandemic poses a threat to democracy, leaving us with some important choices to make. >> we know that the democracies collllapse usually not in norma timemes, t they alwayss collaps emergencies, b but emergencies the timee when we most need democracy. governments are now handing out billions and trillions of dollars or yen, and we need a democratatic supervision,

otherwise a single person can decide to let businesses fall, so we need emergency measures defininitely, but even in emergencies we need checks and balances and supervision to make sure thehe government is really serving the interests of everybody and not just of those connected to power. >> but isn't it often the case when during the time of emergency the people tend to prefer stability over disruption, and they are bound to even support some draconian measures. what will this mean stphaor that -- >> that's the danger in the time of emergency, and people are afraid for their lives because

of the pandemic itself, and economic fears, a lot off peopl because they aree so afraiaid t just want somebody w wise and powerful to take over like some kind of father figure, and decide everything for us and tatake care of us. >> yes. >> and this isis, again, very dangerous because if you give so much power to jusust one person and that person makes a mistake, the consequences are far, far worse. >> he says citizens can and should speak out on what direction the government should take at t this uncertain time. he believes peoples' voices can carry weight in this increasingly fragmented world. >> in the absence of viable leadership, who would you think,

like, businesses, or the grass root cititizens be able to fill part of f the void? >> yes, part of the v void can filled by bususinesses, organizations and ordinary citizens, by, foror instance, sharingg information, and also thin b by asserting political pressure on their own government. if the p public tells the government we don't carare abou anybody else, we just want you to get as many ventilators as possibible for our country, andf you have toto fight other countries for it, we don't care, then the government will dodo i. if on the o other h hand the pu is more responsible and shows greater global feeleling, look, this is an emergency and w need medical equipment and we know other countries are even in a worse situation, and we want to

be more responsnsible and to sh greater solidarity, so please help the other countries, we e e willing to carry the burdens of it, then governments, at least in some countries, will respond to it. i hope that we will see this greater global solidarityty, no just because i it's essssential dealing with this crisis, but alalso becauause it will affect world after t the crisis. if in this crisis countries a a just fighting eacach other, it will poison international relations for years to come. >> the specter of countries fighting each other in a crisis is all too familiar to us. we have already witnessed china blocking taiwan from a attendin the w.h.o. emergency meetings and the u.s. blaming china for the spread of what it sometimes calls the wuhan virus.

the news is not all gloomy. the w.h.o. is considering a new mission to investigate the source of the coronavirus in china and says it is in discussions with beijing. which rogue nations decide to take a corporation or conflict to fight this global challenge will have an enduring impact on thee future. if humuman kindsds leaearns the lessons of history, then getting our act together is the only way forward. >> in previous prepandemics in the middle ages, the biggest problem of human kind was we didn't know what we were facing. people are dying in the millions and nobody knew why or what could be done about it. in the facase of the coronaviru it took us two weeks to identify the virus causing the new disease, and sequence the, so

therere's no questionn we will defeat this virus provided that humans all over the world cooperate effectively. >> some say that the key lies in deglobalization if this pandemic was the result outcome of globalization. obviously you do o not agree? >> no. whwhen pandemics occurredd long before globalization, in the middle ages thehere were no airplanes, no big cruruise ship and still the panandemics were mumuch woworse, like thehe blac dedeath, if y you think you can prevent the panandemic by isolation you need to go all the

way back to the stone age and obviously we can't go back k there, so the real antntidotee ththe pandemic is not isolatioi it's cooperation and information. our biggest advantage over the virus is that humans can cooperatate in wayss thehe viru cannotot. a virirus in china cannot givee informrmation t to a virus in t usa about how to infect or how to avoid the immmmune system. but a a doctor in china can giv advice too a doctor in the u.s. the government of china can help the government o of the u.s. they can come a and form and commonon plain off how to figige virus glally, and this is our biggest advantage over the virus and if wee don't usese the advantage the crisis w will be far, far worse and, again, people should realize as long as the epidemic spreads in any

country, it endangers the whole of human kind. the problem is the invisible enememy, and it's hard to know when the battle is over, and this explains why governments are so cautious about lockdown exit plans, but he says successfully navigating the pandemic requires a new mind-set, and that includes dropping the metaphors of war. >> if you could define a victory how would you define it? >> first, i think we shouldn't think about i it as a war. it's a a metaphor. in a war you have soldiers with guns killing each other, and this is a very different kind of situation. i mean, the heroes off this situation is a nurse in the hospital changing bed sheets,

and the whole crisis is about taking care of people, not about killing and winning. yes, we need to win against the viru butut n human being shoul be seen a emy. i think we should leave aside the metaphoric of war and battle and victory, and success, i think, wouould bee if we take c of all humumans around the worl. if we protect humans all over the w world from the spread of e virus, and if we protect humuma all over the world f from the economic consequences of the crisisis, and if we protect peoe just in our countryry and other countries comompletely collapsei would not define that as a success. >> and in the long history of human beings, in the entire history, what is the significance off this corona pandemic?

>> welell, h human kind will obviously s survive it.. we are much stronger than this virus and we have survivived mu more serious epidemics in the past, so there's no question about it. ultimately the impact of this epidemic is n not predetermined. it's up to us. we choose how this willl end. if we choose wrongly, iff wee choose nationalilistic isolatio if wee choose dictctators, if w chchoose t to distrust t scienc belief conspiracy theories, the result wouould be millionons of people dying and econonomic cris and if wee choose wisely, if w choose global solidarity and democratic responsibility, if we choose to believe in scientific authority, then despite the

death and despite the suffering, this would actually in hindsight look like a good momoment for humann kind, a moment when we overcame not just the virus but aa m momentt w when we overcame own internal demons,, the momen when we o overcame hahatred, th moment when we overcame illusions and delusions and crosses of the truth and camame out as m much stronger and a mo unified species. >> he reminds us that the post coronavirus world is not about eradicating covid-19, because the virus is not going to go away. we have no choice but to learn to live with it, wherever that takes us. but we do have other choices and we need to make them wisely because they are going to define a way of life for many years to come.. that's it for today.

thank you foror watchining and you next time. anchor: tensions tensions remain

high across the united states as protesters demand justice and change, sweeping across the country. curfews have been imposed across several cities, including minneapolis. the u.s. president blames extreme left groups for sparking the violence. donald trump wants to design