♪ thank you for joining us. from our studio in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." we begin this hour in the united states. u.s. media outlets are reporting that the electoral college has formalized joe biden's victory over donald trump. the vote puts biden on track to be sworn in as the country's 46th president on january 20th.

the 538 members of the electoral college cast their ballots on monday. biden garnered over 300 votes, far more than the 270 needed to be declared the winner. congress is expected to certify the results at a joint session of both chambers on january 6th. the electoral college meeting is normally a formality but has taken on greater significance due to donald trump's refusato concede defeat. he and his team have launched a series of unsuccessful legal challenges trying to overturn the results. members of the electical college often serve to rubber stamp the election but many americans wonder whether that's changing. chairman of the department of politics and international relations at youngstown state university. nhk world's catherine kobayashi spoke with him earlier. >> americans take part in an exercise in democracy, a

prolonged one from the priermd to election day and beyond. how significant is the meeting of the electoral college? >> well, within the american presidential election system this is arguably the most important event. we talk a lot about our election dayn november, but technically this is election y. this is when the voters, the voters whoctually count under the u.s. constitution, are able to cast their vote. and if you think about it in terms of, again, a prime ministerial system, something i've talked about before when we've talked about the electoral college in e united states, this is when the lislature would actually elect the prime minister. so this is the day that we actually elect our president. votes aren't counted today, but this is the day the votes are cast in each state according to the constitution. >> yes, and americans will have to wait until january 6th when congress counts these votes. how confident are you in the integrity of the electoral college? >> ll, everything is actually

held together very well this year. if you sort of discount all the legal cases, all the rhetoric, all the tweets that have gone out there and look at how the process has funioned, everything has gone according to an as it generally does every four years. you kn, you have the eleions certified in the states and then the electoral votes are cast as they were supposed to today. and then they will be counted on january 6th. there could be a situation on january 6th, for example, that there's an objection to some of the electoral votes that are cast today. that is allowed under the constution a under feral w. it's happenedbefore most receny itappenedn 05 whe actuall membe of congss from my hom state, fr io, cllenge some ves th went teorge w.bush. ers a prosshey will go thugh. they'll review thechallenge. the is virtulyohance ccessf.e challges wld be

>> presint trumpnd his suorters a still questioning th legitacyf the electio despe reate rejections from the courts. what do these claims do to the electoral traditions ofhis countr well, we'vehad, you know, legal challenges before. rtainly we had more -- or equally severe legal challenges in000 tha in many ws mad electi than thisyear.e rt of sucssfu challees. for a certa merge of american ters who believe that e electionas ston from pridentrump thi does me a bi differce. in many wa wt's hapned is theraditi has bee as muc as predent tru has ied tefyhe aditio, out.otitution, u.s law won th supremeourt wassked to ay a role. using a vy standar u.s. legal

doctrine. soverying has functiod as uned stes.se to fction ithe thin in allhe etoriclit i for walking us through what for many can be a difficult traditioto understand. >> thank you. >> of course we'll be following all the developments in the transition and we'll bring you the latest. but for now let's hand it back to our studio in tokyo. now, staying in the country, coronavirus vaccinations have started across the united states. the government expects 40 million doses to be made available by year end. the initial shipment of 2.9 million inoculations of the vaccine developed by u.s. pharmaceutical giant pfizer and german firm biontech has begun. this came after the vaccine won emergency use approval from the food and drug administration. on monday morning doctors, nurses and other staff at a hospital in new york city started getting vaccinated. >> i feel hopeful today. relieved.

i feel like healing is coming. >> this vaccine is exciting because i believe it is the weapon that will end the war. it's the beginning of the last chapter of the book. >> there should be 25 million doses pfir vaccine distrited by t end of the ye. modea islso like to prove 15 milon shots. the fdaor emergen use no authorization. >> we have enough vaccines already purchased to ensure we can meet our goal of vaccinating every american who wants it by the end of the second quarter of 2021. >> the general public is expected to receive it after health care workers and nursing home residents get the shot. hospitals across the u.s. are struggling with surging numbers of patients. the death toll has surpassed 300,000.

here in japan the prime minister says a popular program that subsidizes domestic travel will be halted nationwide during what is normally a busy time of the year. >> translator: the government will temporarily suspend go to travel across the country from december 28th to january 11th in an effort to contain the spread of infections during the year-end and new year holidays. >> suga also says tokyo and nagoya will both be excluded as destinations before that time. the announcement followed a government task force meeting monday evening. the cities of osaka and sapporo had already been excluded from the subsidy due to rising infections there. suga says the government will expand financial support for doctors, nurses and medical institutions dealing with the coronavirus. the government has called for

greater efforts to combat the virus during what it says is a critical three-week period to contain the spread of the virus. but the surge in cases shows no signs of abating. the country confirmed nearly 17,700 new cases and over 240 deaths in the week ending sunday. both are record highs. nursing staff from the self-defense forces left on monday for osaka as the medical system there comes under strain. they are due to work there until december 28th. officials in tokyo and osaka plan to extend local requests for bars and restaurants to shorten their operating hours to help stem the infection. similar measures are also being considered in other parts of the country. nhk has learned the details of the japanese government's extra spending package.

the third supplementary budget draft is aimed in part at tackling the coronavirus pandemic. it's worth more than 19 trillion yen, or $184 billion and covers the current fiscal year that ends march 31st. the government plans to finalize the draft on tuesday. the package earmarks $42 billion for preventing a further spread of coronavirus infections. $112 billion will fund to achieve a virtuous cycle in the post-pandemic economy. $34 billion will be spent on zafd preparedness. in a related development government officials say tax revenue for fiscal 2020 is expected to fall by $77 billion from the initial forecast. the shortfall is due largely to worsening corporate earnings. the government plans to issue additional deficit covering bonds to secure enough funding that would raise the total issuance of new government debt

this fiscal year to a level topping $1 trillion for the first time ever. the chinese government has fined two domestic tech companies for alleged breaches of the anti-monopoly law. beijing has been tightening its control over i.t. firms expanding their influence. the government announce td had fined alibaba -- and tencent holdings $76,000 each. it said the firms failed to seek approval before proceeding with some acquisitions. chinese authorities say the punishment is a sign of greater scrutiny of monopolistic behavior by internet companies. last month the initial public offering of alibaba's affiliate ant group, a mobile payment provider, was suspended a. a meeting between chinese regulators and company executives. the move derailed what was set

to be the world's largest ever stock market debut. and now we turn to world weather with our meteorologist yoko komagata. yoko, we've seen lots of snow in the northwestern part of japan. how much snow are we talking about? >> we've had the first major snowfall from hokkaido all the way down. a few centimeters of snowfall on tuesday morning. snow showers will continue to impact the northwestern side of japan through the earlier part of the week. we saw 71 centimeters of snowfall in fijiori yamagata prefecture for the last 24 hours. the heavy snowfall has been affecting morning commuters. let's take a look at this video. cold air is causing heavy snowfall in northwestern japan on tuesday. 62 centimeters of snow has been reported in iwate prefecture, which is the record for

december. people should expect traffic due to heavy snowfall on some major roads. snow on the roads will further intensify especially in the tohoku and hokuriku regions as we go into wednesday morning. between 140 and 190 centimeters of additional snowfall is expected in these areas through the next 48 hours. that could damage power lines, causing widespread power outages. blizzard-like conditions. always a possibility of avalanches. temperatures will drop significant significantly. tokyo will have a high of 10 degrees on tuesday. morning lows will be well below freezing in beijing and seoul for the next couple of days. in the tropics we have a tropical cyclone over the south pacific. it will be a category 5 storm as it moves toward fiji by friday

morning local time. downpours and storm surges may trigger coastal floods. widespread power outages may be possible. people in these areas have had severe droughts and bush fires for the last couple of months. conditions have improved in some areas during to the recent rainfall. at the same time sudden bursts of downpours could cse flash flooding and falling debris. that's it for now. stay safe. ♪

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that's all for this hour. thank you for watching nhk "newsline." hope you'll join us again. ♪ welcome to "newsline in depth." this year opened with a crippling worldwide pandemic, and it comes to a close without any resolution of a long-standing international human rights issue. in november for the 16th year in a row the u.n. general assembly

adopted a resolution calling on north korea to address its record on human rights. one of the country's several transgressions is its abduction of foreign nationals. however, north korea continues to reject the accusations of human rights abuses, calling them politically motivated. the abductees are known to include people from japan, south korea, thailand, romania, and lebanon. today we look at the situation facing the families of the japanese victims who have become frail while waiting for the return of their loved ones. japan has officially identified 17 people who were abducted to north korea during the 1970s and '80s. in 2002 north korea allowed five of them to return and apologi apologized. but it insists the other 12 are either dead or never entered the country. some four decades have passed since the abductioned. now as of the start of this year

only four of the parents of the still missing 12 abductees were still alive. and since then two of them have died without being able to see their children again. >> reporter: arimoto keiko was abducted by north korea in 1983. her mother ka yoko has celebrated keiko's birthday with a cake every year since then and vowed to rescue here. kayoko's heart disease worsened a few years ago. even as she went in and out of hospital, she spoke of her determination.

kayoko died of heart failure on february 3rd at the age of 94. she left behind her husband, akihiro, who has been fighting for their daughter as much as his wife has. the families of the victims of abduction including akihiro called on then prime minister abe shinzo to resolve the abduction issue. >> translator: we need to solve this problem as soon as possible. i renew that resolve. >> translator: we are all aging. we'll be watching closely and expect results.

>> reporter: the families have continued to campaign for the release of the abducted for decades and are running out of time as they grow old. but this year they faced another tough obstacle. this is ichikawa kenichi. his younger brother was abducted 42 years ago. the coronavirus pandemic is making it difficult for kenichi to petition on the streets, and he feels a sense of crisis. k kenichi and other abductees' family members regularly send radio messages to their loved ones in north korea.

kenichi's message to his brother this year has extra significance. >> reporter: this photo of yokota megumi was take when she entered middle school half a year before she was abducted in 1977. it was later widely released and became an iconic image of the cruelty of the abductions.

her father, shigeru, took the photo. he spent 43 years of his life working to resolve the abduction issue before passing away on june 5th. after it became clear that north korea had taken megumi, shigeru created an association for families of the abducted in 1987. at first the japanese public were skeptical of their claims and media interest was neglect legible. even so shigeru and his wife gave over 1,400 speechd all around the country to raise awareness and demand resolution of the abduction issue. here shigeru is recording a message for megumi. it was sent over the radio.

as he battled to get his daughter back, shigeru aged and time became an enemy. his legs got weaker and he had difficulty recalling words. shigeru had been hospitalized since april 2018. after visiting shigeru, one of his supporters had this to say about him. >> translator: i remember that there were photos of megumi in his hospital room. while speaking to me, his eyes kept glancing at megumi's face. >> reporter: shigeru passed away at age 87.

sakiye said she placed a photo of megumi on his chest in the casket. shigeru was a national symbol of the rescue activities of the families. top japanese government officials attended his memorial service. >> translator: the north korean abduction issue is very important for the suga administration. as prime minister i will take the lead and grasp any opportunity to move forward on this issue. >> reporter: sakie continues to pray and hopes to meet her daughter.

>> with us in the studio is fujis hichlt ma atsumi who has been covering the abduction issue. >> translator: it's heartbreaking for anyone to see the family members of abductees die without being reunited with their loved ones. >> translator: innocent families have been torn apart and have suffered for more than 40 years. that's longer than i have been alive. the parents of the abduction victims are around the same age as my grandparents. as i interviewed them, i felt strongly that the issue must be resolved as quickly as possible.

among those abducted are a 13-year-old girl on her way home from school and a mother whose two infants were left behind. a true resolution of the abduction issue requires not only that the abductees are returned but that the families can come together and make up for lost time. i think it can be said that this human rights problem intensifies as time goes on and victims' parents get closer to the end of their lives. >> translator: as time passes the solution to the problem grows even more distant. negotiations between japan and north korea are deadlocked. what is north korea's current stance? >> translator: north korea insists the victims who have not returned are dead or never came to the country. but its accounts are riddled with inconsistencies and

contradictions. north korea returned the remains of what it said were abductees, but dna testing showed they were not. later the country indicated it would hold another investigation. but this was suspended and its relationship with japan is stuck at a standstill. the abductees' families believe north korea's suspicious behavior suggests that it wants to close the issue by continuing to hide the fact that the remaining victims are still alive. >> translator: the suga administration has been installed in japan, and biden is expected to become u.s. president in january. japan and the u.s. share recognition of this human rights issue. but how might they cooperate to deal with north korea? what needs to be done to resolve the situation? >> translator: the new administrations have the opportunity to break the deadlock. to do that it's essential for them to make pyongyang understand that if the victims'

family members die before the abduction is resolved it will become a problem that will remain unsolved forever. bear in mind, north korea is not only pressed by u.n. security council sanctions but also faces economic pressure due to the coronavirus and cases of flooding. it's essential for the jnapanes government to look closely at the north korea situation and conduct talks through channels saying it is important you take steps and receive support. this is your last chance. the solution to the problem lies in the hands of kim jong un, and i think a carrot and stick approach will be necessary to get the results we want. >> thank you, atsumi. the u.n. general assembly has called on north korea to return all the abductees immediately. alongside the families of the

victims the international community will be watching closely to see if there is any change in north korea's relations with the new administrations in japan and the u.s. and if that might lead to the resolution of the abduction issue. thank you for watching and see

♪ >> joe biden secures a majority has members of the electoral college vote to verify the presidential poll. this is the u.s. attorney general, william barr, is resigning amid tension with president trump over his baseless claims of election fraud. you are watching al jazeera nive . coming up in the next 30