welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm ramin mellegard in tokyo. tokyo's governor asked people in the capital to spend the new year holidays at home. she made the plea as 944 new cases of the coronavirus infection were reported, the second highest number on record. >> translator: we're facing a third wave of infections, unprecedented in size. an expositive growth of the

infection can happen at anytime. please do not hold parties with friends or getting together with groups of relatives. >> 85 patients in tokyo are in serious condition, and that's the most since the national state of emergency was lifted in may. experts joined the meeting with the tokyo government and warned the capital's medical system is under severe strain and is entering a critical stage. >> translator: tokyo's medical system is on the brink of exceeding the capacity. if the current situation continue the sysm could face serious disruption. >> there's concern the capital may soon out of beds for coronavirus patients. tokyo's government asked hospitals to secure an extra 4,000 beds. the experts say those beds may be full in two weeks at the current rate. across japan over 2,100 cases have been confirmed so far on wednesday. more than 229,000 people tested

positive since the pandemic began, and over 3,400 have died. and the airport, usually japan is heading for a subdued new year. and the airport usually bustling at this time of year is eerily quiet. only a few travelers could be seen in the terminal. airlines say there were vacant seats on all flights on wednesday. the suspension of the tourism campaign has added to cancellations of flight reservations. >> translator: my mother has been hospitalized, so i'm going to my hometown to see her. we cannot meet face-to-face. i can only see her from a distance. >> translator: i am working in tokyo away from my family.

i'm not worried, but my family has fears about the infection. >> the airline says some 450,000 people have reserved seats on flights between december 25th and january 3rd, and that's only about 40% of the number a year ago. the japanese government is moving to contain the spread of the contagious variants of the coronavirus. it stepped up quarantine efforts where variants have been confirmed. >> officials at the airport near tokyo are carefully checking passenger papers. the country's health ministry announced on monday a new covid strain has been found from a woman that arrived from south africa on december 19th. japanese nationals and nonjapanese with residence

status in japan must have documentation. eight more countries were added to the list. france rngs israel, italy, belgium and the netherlands. they must provide proof they tested negative sometime within 72 hours of departure. if they are unable to produce the certificate they will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine in designated lodging. >> translator: i think tighter measures are necessary out of consideration for medical workers. >> the government is set to add six more countries to the list, and they are sweden, spain, norway, switzerland and the canadian provence of ontario.

in britain officials are struggling to get a new variant of the coronavirus under control. on tuesday, a record number of cases, topping 50,000, was reported in the country. much of southeast england, including london, remains under tight restrictions. the measures require nonessential retail outlets to remain closed and ban people from meeting in person. the british government reported 53,135 new cases on tuesday, up more than 10,000 from the previous day. the number of new deaths rose to 414, bringing the total number of fatalities since the start of the pandemic to more than 71,000. in london and other areas, more than 20,000 patients are hospitalized, surpassing the

number recorded in the spring. health minister matt hancock commented on social media that the national health service is facing unprecedented pressures. local media outlets report that the government is likely to expand areas subject to tougher restrictions. meanwhile, in the united states, the first case of the covid-19 variant has been discovered in colorado. the governor announced on tuesday that the variant was found in a man in his 20s. he said the man is recovering in isolation. data compiled by johns hopkins university in the u.s. shows the global tally for confirmed coronavirus cases has topped 81 million. the global death toll has reached over 1.7 million. u.s. president-elect joe biden says he will seek cooperation from the private sector and others to speed up efforts to ensure that more americans get vaccinated quickly. >> in ensuring that 100 million shots have been administered by the end of the first 100 days. congress provides the funding, we'd be able to meet this incredible goal. it would take ramping up five to six times the current pace to 1

million shots a day. >> biden criticized the trump administration's plan to distribute the vaccine. the current government aims to vaccinate 20 million amerins by the end of december, but so far only about 2 million people have received shots. biden warns that at current rates it could take years for most americans to be vaccinated. biden says he plans to use his power in order to accelerate production of vaccine materials. in washington, vice president-elect kamala harris received her vaccination on television, to boost confidence in the inoculation. >> i urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated. it's about saving your life, the life of your family members, and the life of your community. >> the biden team has emphasized the importance of inoculation in non-white groups that have been especially hard hit by the virus.

more than 19 million cases have been confirmed in the u.s. while over 330,000 people have died, the highest figure in the world. a chinese court handed down prison terms to hong kong prisoners for their attempt to flee to taiwan. they were detained by china's coast guard in august. they were later charged with navigating in waters illegally. most of the 12 activist were on bail at that time of the escape attempt after being indicted in connection to anti-protests in hong kong. the court said all 12 suspects pleaded guilty and the court failed to provide details of the proceeding. two teenagers were handed over

to police in hong kong for questioning. families of the suspects criticized the government for not being able to attend the trial. a powerful earthquake in central croatia left many dead and injured. search efforts are under way. the quake occurred on tuesday around noon local time. the u.s. geological survey said it had an estimated magnitude of 6.4 and struck at a depth of 20 kilometers. many buildings collapsed. the government says a 12-year-old girl was killed.

five other people died near the town. the prime minister rushed to the disaster site. he said army troops have been dispatched to help with the search and rescue operation. the quake was felt 50 kilometers away from the epicenter. the city is still recovering from an earthquake in march that also caused casualties. 50 reporters were killed worldwide this year, two-thirds of them in countries without war. the report says more journalists are being killed in countries considered to be at peace. these reporters had connections between politicians and organized crime, such as drug smuggling. the report says 42 journalist were knowingly targeted and

deliberately murdered and 387 journalists are being detained in connection with their work including 14 who were arrested during their coverage of the covid-19. the golden temple has a brand new roof as the shik thes were renovated for the first time in 18 years. it was open to the media on tuesday after the four-month refurbishment was completed. it's a heritage site. workers replaced 100,000 wooden shingles covering on area of 320

square meters. the brown color of the roof appeared brighter after the work. a total of 10,000 gold leaves were used to repair the ornaments of the rooftop and other parts of the temple. the current structure was rebuilt in 1955. the roof has since been renovated once every 20 years. there's hope the coronavirus will end as soon as possible and people will come and see the rejuvenated temple. weather officials in japan are urging people to stay alert for heavy snowfall and blizzards through new year's day. the snow is expected to intensify along the sea of japan. one of the strongest cold air

masses in several years is expected to flow into japan. a winter pressure pattern is expected to strengthen. snow may accumulate even in lowland areas from western to northern japan. these areas include kyushu and shikoku, which usually see little snow. up to 80 centimeters of snow is expected in the mountains of niigata prefecture in the 24 hours through thursday morning. weather officials say snowfalls will continue through saturday in northern and eastern areas. they're also warning of strong winds in some areas of eastern and western japan, and the seas are expected to becomextremely rough. e officials are calling for caution over possible traffic disruptions. they say people should be careful about frozen roads, snow sliding off roofs, power blackouts, and avalanches. and here's a three-day forecast for selected cities.

and that's a wrap for this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm ramin mellegard. thank you very much for joining us and dealing with covid-19 and weather, please stay safe.

hi, i am shaula vogue. welcome to our "biz stream." >> martin schultz is our guest. it is nice to have you again. >> i am so happy to be here. >> let's look at today's featured story. >> consumer goods drastically improved our daily lives. during the research and

development process, break throughs are made for using different products. work on lcd improvement game the basis of control technology perfectly suited for cold storage. today's report shows how research and development work can lead to unexpected applications and entirely new product. >> let's start by taking a look at how much money the world's top economy are putting in rnd. if you look at this graph here, you can see of course number one is the u.s. and second is china and japan and germany. so currently japan is spending about $170 billion when it comes to research and for a long time they were second behind the u.s., 2009 china came into the game and this is the results of that. what do you make of these

numbers here? >> well, it is still a strong position. japan is investing a lot. the government has become quite more stingy and major companies are still at the top of the world in terms of putting money in the r&d. >> you can see it is not a huge gap there but not so much? >> a bigger problem for japanese companies, it is much more application, getting the brilliant ideas into the market, this is where we are seeing the bigger ones. >> research and development in this field led to some cooler products. let's find out more. >> in company delivers food and household goods in and around the metropolitan area. in july of this year, they made a major change in the way they package food deliveries.

they added a new type of cold pack allowing more precise storage. this can keep cool up to 14 hours and a temperature near 12 degrees celsius. careful control of what food are kept at are important. certain foods can be damaged when stored temperatures are too cold. this new type of cold storage pack allows them to deliver products at the precise temperatures needed to keep them fresh. >> we strive to deliver the wonderful produce at the freshest condition as possible. making this change has helped us to have a better reputation with our clients. >> the key additives that make these storage pack so special was created by sharp. after launching the world's first calculator in 1973, the

company introduced a variety of electronics and became a leader in lcd. the company looks for a way to stabilize crystals. this led to the creation of additives that allowed lcd. control method was really important to us. >> how do temperature control technology for liquid crystal screen flies its way into storage? >> after some thought, the maker realized they could apply the knowledge gain while working on lcd temperature control to create cold storage packs to keep the food cool during extended hours. on the left is an ice cube treated with additives designe

the keep it solid until it reaches 12 degrees celsius. the normalized cube begins to melt as the temperature goes above zero. the one with additives remaining solid. by changing the amount that's used, cold pack sets for specific temperatures could be created by ranging of minus 20 degrees all the way to 20 degrees celsius. after the break-through, the technology is being used in a variety of products. for example, in body jackets in keeping wine and sake at the

right temperature. and even in special goods like these cooling gloves designed to help people manage the body temperature on hot days or playing sports. >> like medicines or transport >> like medicines or transport sensitive pharmaceutical. we feel there is a lot of use for this technology remaining >> developing smartphone screens and keeping vegetables fresh, what did you make of this? >> cooling solutions are really important for the future of global warming, global warming becomes a bigger challenge at delivering products at just the right temperature. this is something that

technology companies have to deal with. this is exactly what sharp is doing here. >> absolutely. >> now with covid-19 and the vaccines coming out, this could be helpful with that, perhaps. >> that's one of the biggest. the other day i was talking to a friend of mine of a mind boggling problem to get all the vaccines at the right time and right temperature and at the right place. >> we see the importance of thinking outside the box here. >> this is what the company is going. there are so many r&d and technology, the application is the issue and they have been thinking really hard and didn't let the opportunity pass by. >> next an innovative product created from a simple renewable resource. >> this black substance created by sony and its history line in a company's historic 1991 relief to make use of rechargeable ion

battery. as the batteries became more, the electronic maker increasing capacity and shorter charging times. >> but after a lot of searching, we came to find that rice sauce offering a lot of characteristics that could help improve the performance of our batteries. by switching to rice, the company will have a cheap and assessable materials. it transform into a poor material. initially researchers hoped the materials could increase battery capacity. testing shows the material would not be durable enough to be used in the electrodes. >> although we could not use in our batteries, we discovered it had an amazing absorption property so we took it in a new direction.

>> this allows for it to be able to absorb viruses and allergens and odor causing molecules. the corporation is using the material to create new types of threads and fabrics. to show the effectiveness of the new material, they put on a demonstration for us. first they prepare a solution containing 500 parts of the compound responsible forgiving sweat of its foul odor. it was placed in flask a. the flask b is another type of odor absorbed material. after it was applied to each flask, we waited five minutes. the odor absorbing material in flask b removing half of a

measurement of 33. >> it not only quickly absorbs odor but its effects are long lasting. we are confident in the quality of materials, we are working on a wide range of clothing and other products to use it in. >> clothing items made using the new odor materials put on display. during the event, the booth was visited by representatives and different companies to talk

about both the technology and their products. >> what sony can do by itself, can be done from a variety of companies working together. we look for feedback so we can produce more products and hope to expand on this cooperative development cycle. >> yeah, from electronics and entertainment and clothing now. >> for me this odor issue is the most important one. >> odor issue. >> i am a runner. anything that can help to get odor out, i am sure will be a big, big move. >> were you surprised that sony is making clothing now? >> that's surprising but what we are seeing here is basic technologies are being used and they are looking at what they have at their hands and they

have a big ecosystem that makes it possible to use even outside ideas and bring it in when it makes sense. >> definitely. >> what's really amazing is they're using rice husks. about 700,000 get thrown out. it is put in great use. >> we have been talking about the circulate economy, reusing it is very important and all these textiles and these plastic shirts being used. combining that seems to be a very good idea. >> i mean do you see more ideas like this coming into japan? >> absolutely. >> companies have so many ideas and now are digitalization, many of the traditional technologies and old ideas can be reused in a completely different setting with digital development. i think a lot is coming.

>> all right, that's all the time we have today, martin, thank you very much for being with us again. >> thank you for rg me. >> i am shaula vogue, this is "biz stream." we'll see you next time. ♪>ñ@aaa qqqwrmumu ♪

>> the headlines on al jazeera, u.s. president-elect joe biden criticized the trump administration for falling behind in its rollout of covid-19 vaccines. biden warned if it doesn't pick up the pace, it could take years before the american population is fully vaccinated. >> the trump administration's plan to distribute vaccines is falling far behind. we are grateful to the companies, the doctors and scientists and researchers, clinical trial participants, and operation warp speed for developing the vaccines