welcome back to "nhk newsline." we start in the united states where joe biden is getting to work after declaring victory in presidential election over the weekend. as he hits the ground running, president trump remaining quiet in public while behind the scenes busy mounting legal challenges. biden plans to name members to his coronavirus task force on monday. the world ease highest number of

infections and deaths. more than 9.9 million americans have been infected and over 230,000 have died, according to a survey by johns hopkins university. this media report that he's considering candidates for top cabinet posts. but biden may face legislative road blocks. after last week's election, the democrat cans are still three seats short of a senate majority. if the party can win two heated contests in january, there will be a tie. meaning the vice president could break potential stalemates. former republican president george w. bush and economic council director under president trump has extended congratulations to biden. other prominent republicans like mitt romney have also joined in. but the most powerful republican, trump himself, has not followed custom and congratulated biden or acknowledged defeat.

they demand ed a recount in several states. but many of them have been dismissed on the ground that those claims lack concrete fd. u.s. media reports a say some of trump's closest aids and family members have approached him to concede. outside the white house, booide supporters celebrated his victory on sunday. but some trump supporters have not given up. with their backing trump's legal team to continue what could prove a messy legal battle at home. one of the major challenges biden face when is he becomes president is the growing rivalry between the u.s. and china. which has intensified during trump's time in office. to find out more, our colleague spoke to nhk world's senior

correspondent from beijing. >> what does china make of the election results. >> the chinese government hasn't issued an official comment yet, but we do have some indications how top leaders may feel. on monday, china's communist party affiliated newspaper, "global times," published an editorial about the results. ch it said beijing shouldn't have any illusions that biden's election will dramatically ease china/u.s. tensions. but it also said the outcome shouldn't weaken the prospect of improving bilateral ties. it added that the fundamental way for china to cope with the u.s. challenges is to empower itself, something it says washington can't suppress. here's what some people here in beijing had to say about the results. >> translator: i think china/u.s. relations will be better to some extent under a biden administration. the two countries should develop

together, which would bring happiness to the world. >> translator: the situation with the coronavirus is disastrous in the u.s. i hope biden will place more importance on controlling and containing the virus in the country. >> well, how do you think biden will handle china, compared to trump? >> it's still early to tell, but he'll likely take a more pragmatic approach for the past four years, the trump administration has pressured china over everything from trade and technology to territorial claims. most experts think biden will maintain a hard line stance, but they expect biden will put more overt priority on dialogue. he also says his administration may cooperate with beijing on climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, but will likely take a tougher stance on china's human rights issues, notably its crackdown in hong

kong and its treatment of uighurs and other muslim minorities. another expert i spoke to also expects that the u.s./china rivalry will evolve, as biden will likely try to reengage key allies to counter beijing's growing influence. >> biden will try to mend relations with western and pacific countries by engaging them as partners. and he will likely try to promote more of a united front against china. >> the focus right now is whether the two countries can find some common fwround and use it as an opportunity to prevent ties from spiraling further. >> biden's victory likely means the united states diplomatic agenda will shift and could have a profound impact on the rest of asia. in taiwan, a preelection opinion

poll showed people were hoping donald trump would be re-elected. likely due to his administration's recent attempts to develop a stronger relationship, but there are hopes biden won't impede that momentum. >> some people say he is pro-beijing, but i think he has a good relationship with president nguyen, so i feel relations will not be immediately affected. >> people are also welcoming biden's election in indi where vice president-elect kamala harris' mother was born. >> the new president and vice president kamala harris. >> in afghanistan, citizens in the capital hope biden could help ensure stability and security amid a recent resurgence in violence. >> translator: i'm very glad to hear that biden won the u.s.

presidential election. president donald trump did not have much interest in our country, so i hope biden will have some interest in afghanistan. >> a peace deal signed between the u.s. and taliban earlier this year includes the u.s. withdrawing troops from the country by the middle of next year, but some citizens have expressed concerns what may happen if the u.s. pulls out too quickly. in japan the northern prefurture reported 200 new cases of coronavirus infections on monday. a new daily record. the tally exceeded 100 for the past several days it's reached 200 on monday for the first time. the government on saturday raised its coronavirus alert to

level three on a scale of five. officials are asking bars and nightclubs in the entertainment district of the capitol of saparo to close early. they are also calling on residents to take precautions against the virus. 64 vietnamese who work as nurses or care givers arrived in japan on monday. they will spent 14 days in self-isolation before undergoing training and then they will work at hospitals and nursing care facilities while studying for national license exams. they accept based on a partnership agreement, but the deal was put on hold amid the pandem pandemic. the government plans to resume accepting trainees from indonesia and philippines as well. more than 109,000 cases have been report sod far across japan. 1,800 people have died.

an operator of of nuclear energy facilities in japan is making arrangements to resume bring back high-level radioactive waste that has been processed in britain. accepting the waste is a part of the country's nuclear recycle policy. nhk has learned that japan aims to restart the shipment of the highly radioactive waste beginning in the next fiscal year in april. the operator has been in charge of transporting spent nuclear fuels to britain and france to extract plutonium and reprocess them into reusable fuels. under the contract, highly radioactive by-products are shipped back to japan, along with the reprocessed fuel. but there is no permanent place yet to dispose the waste once it's back in japan. france has already completed sending such waste back here, but shipments of britain have been suspended since 2016, while the company's interim storage facility in amwoody prefecture

was going through safety checks. it recently gothe greelight after the fukushima nuclear accident. the search is still on for a final disposal center. skrae south korea's intelligence chief is visiting japan. sources familiar with japan and south korea relations say the national intelligence service director arrived in japan on sunday. he met with the success tear gerl general with who he has long-time ties. he has ties wh government officials. they are expected to discuss sensitive pend iing the bilater

issues including south korean b court rulings object extentation for wartime labor. any right to claims in 1965 when the two countries normalize ties. last year when he was a uotri lawmaker, as an envoy of the national assembly speaker, the agenda was a meeting with others to discuss ways to improve bilateral relations. south korean president is key to host a summit with japan and china by the end of the year. no date has been decided yet and the japanese government's view is that it would be difficult to visit until seoul resolves the wartime labor issues. he's confident that the party will retain its majority in parliament after sunday's

election fpz they told nhk the party has enough seats to retain power. they are protected landslide victories in the dominated areas including major cities. it accounts for 70% of the country's population. nearly 500 seats in the upper and lower chambers are being contested. the election commission has not released preliminary results and vote counting will take time. four astronauts have arrived at nasa's kennedy space center in florida for the launch of a private manned spacecraft later this week. the astronauts arrived on sunday from the johnson space center in texas where they trained for the mission. this will be the first operational flight of the crew dragon vessel developed by the

u.s. company spacex. the crew will be transported to the international space station or iss and stay there for about six months. the crew of four includes three american astronauts and japanese space veteran. >> translator: it's a tough time on earth, but i will do my best to live up to the expectations of my supporters. >> noguchi has been on two other space vessels, making this his third space mission. he's due to carry out scientific experiments on the iss, including one involvinstem ces, which may pay the wave for humans to regrow body parts. he's exit polls expected to appear from a studio inside the lab. the launch of the spacecraft is scheduled for 7:49 p.m. local

time on november 14th. people in japan are spoornsing the first snowfall of the season as winter-like cold air is gripping the area. our meteorologist joins us now with the te tails.

>> the coldest air of the season is battering parts of northern japan. we have seen it even in low lying areas. and we saw 16 centimeters in just 3 hours. that was the record for the who of november. winter pretty powerful. gusts were reported over the past 24 hours and this looks like a winter wonderland. the extreme cold weather will grip northern japan at least into wednesday. the daytime highs on tuesday and wednesday will be only 5 degrees. they will continue for the next couple days. it's about 5 degrees colder than average for this time of year, but it's going to be jumping up

to double digits on thursday. tokyo will be seeing temperatures, but conditions will be pretty dry so be careful. we have a couple new storms over the western pacific. it's expected to make landfall on tuesday and this system will likely significantly intensify for the next several days. it could become a typhoon and it could hit by another tropical system is a week ago. it could become the fourth named storm to track the philippines in just one month. frigid air is gripping parts of the western united states. we have visdeo out of reno. parts of nevada had the first snowfall of the season on sunday as arctic cold air came in. it received 10 vent meters

centimeters of snow. a winter weather advisory is in effect for western parts of the united states. we have very frigid air across western united states. this light blue indicates precipitation will turn to snow and the cool weather will continue to head towards the great lakes region as well. we'll see low temperatures later this week in the great lakes region. chicago, 2 degrees for the morning low. calgary, minus 9 degrees in the morning hours of wednesday and thursday. so do bundle up. that's it for me. have a nice day. ♪

>> one last story. local people have begun seasonal production of a traditional japanese dell icacy in western japan's prefecture. it gave rise to the modern sushi known and love d around the world. fermented fish is stuffed with rice and ginger, vinegar to make

the dish. it's not refrigerated and was once an important way to ensure that fish could be eaten long after it was caught. a group of eight people gathered on sunday to prepare it for the year end period. they plan to prepare 1,800 servings of the dish to feature in many people's traditional new years. >> the flavor had begin to reach perfection after the temperature drops in two or three days. we're determined to make it tasty. >> the group expects strong demand this year as people are spending more time at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. that's all for this addition of "newsline." thank you for joining us and do stay tuned for more.

this is "newsline biz." i'm gene otani. japan's soft beijing bank group says the net profit jumped four and a halftimes from a year ago. that's as its investments in tech stocks jumped and sold off assets to shore up its finances. the company said on monday that net profit came to about 1. trilon yen. softn bank report ed a net loss

of $9 billion last fiscal year. the company transformed itself from a telecon company to a tech firm. it holds stakes in a range of startups through its $100 billion vision fupd. >> we will lead in mobile technology. we will win asia. we push forward in these two key areas. i expect the sbrnt business to evolve into one ai tech nolgs. i want to invest actively to lead the revolution. >> the company has been selling asset ises to buy back shes and repay debt. so. >> a key gauge of business conditions in squa pan has improved for the fourth month in a row. potentially fanning hopes of

economic recovery even as the pandemic continues. in particular it shows sectors such as the auto industry could be shifting back into gear. the government's coin dent index rose in september from the month before. output of vehicles and auto parts picked up. but the picture wasn't all rosy. retail sales remain sluggish and the job market worsened. tokyo's benchmark stock surged on monday to its high nest nearly three decades. that's after ub certancertainty who will lead the world economy. it's up from friday. it rose more than 600 points at one stage to touch its highest since 1991. the index has now gained for five straight days boosted by signs of a pickup in earnings at japanese firms in the wake of

the coronavirus. the bullish mood extended to other markets. shanghai and sydney both ended up around 1.8%. mumbai claimed 1.7%. markets are eager to see that what direction u.s. policy will take with biden on course for the white house. in particular, energy in the environment are are expected to be heading for a majkeover. we spoke to a senior analyst at glal research to hear what that could mean for businesses in japan and the rest of asia. >> biden has touted active informsment in development of energy and environmental technologies. so progress in the field is highly likely accelerate both in europe and the u.s. the japanese government needs to make sure they are not left behind.

>> bidens to get more electric vehicles on the road to push more car makers to rev up production. meanwhile, u.s./china ties will ay under the spotlight. biden is likely to maintain a tough stance towards beijing amid simmering tensions over technology but the new president is set to be more predictable than trump. >> translator: since biden is promising to brief allies before unveiling new policies, predictability is likely to improve. but that would be a double-edged sword. there's a potential that japan will be consulted by the new administration on china-related policies that are hard to swal low. >> it seems japan and other countries need to tread a fine li line. >> more than 70,000 people have

lost their jobs or about to lose them because of the covid-19 outbreak. they have bye-bye keep iing tra of cases workers laid off or whose contracts were not renewed because employers are losing business. officials found that 70,242 people became unemployed between the end of january and early november. the manufacturing sec tofrs the hardest hit with nearly 13,000 jobs lost. pubs and restaurants were next with over 10,000 workers let go. about 9,400 people in the region were laid off while 8,600 hotel workers lost jobs. ministry officials are urging businesses to maintain jobs through the use of government subsidy programs. they are also providing support to help unemployed people find new jobs. japanese companies are streamlining their offices as they embrace working from home. some even see the change becoming a more permanent solution.

nhk has learned that mitsubishi chemicals planning to reduce offices to a single site next april. the leading chemical products maker has 2,000 people working at its head offices. but only around 20 to 30% of them currently commute. company managers no longer a return to the pre-pandemic norm. >> i hope the changes will had foster communication and a sense unity among workers and lead to further innovation. >> bridgestone and a housing maker are also streamlining their offices. the japanese government is considering extending tax breaks for fuel efficient vehicles it wants to support auto makers hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. officials plan to take up the idea as part of tax reforms for

fiscal 2021. the tax breaks are currently due to expire at the end of april, bu lan extension may be more senator owe in scope targeting electronic vehicles and models to encourage the adoption of vehicles. such a change would mean some gasoline-powered cars and low emission vehicles could be excluded or have tax cuts reduced. let's have a look at the markets.

from the "newsline biz" team in tokyo, i'm gene otani. thanks very much for joining us.