hello and welcome to nhk newsline. we begin on the korean peninsula. tensions are drawing once again. the vice president of the united states has capped off a visit to the region with a tour of the demilitarized zone. the united states is watching the anger grow for weeks.

now kamala harris has viewed the north's territory up close. when this visit was announced, they sent two short ranged ballistic missiles flying towards the sea of japan. hours later, harris was sitting down with south korea's president. >> translator: we want to develop the u.s.-south korea alliance as a strong support system to protect the freedom, security, and prosperity of the south korean people. >> for seven decades the alliance between the united states and the republic of korea has been a lifrnl pin of security and prosperity. on the korean peninsula and in the endough pacific and throughout the globe. >> the white house says harris told them the u.s. condemns north korea's latest missile launch as a threat to peace and security in the endough pacific. >> the jap maritime

self-defense force says it is preparing to take part in drills on friday with the navys of the united states and south korea. defense officials appear to want to highlight their trilateral cooperation at a time of concern over north korea, china and russia. japanese defense officials say the drills will take place in the sea of japan as part of efforts to ensure a free and open indo-pacific. they say a destroyer from japan will take part alongside a destroyer from south korea and five vessels from the united states. the american vessels will include a submarine and the aircraft carrier uss ronald reagan.

the japanese officials say one drill will target submarines navigating under water. the u.s. and south korea held separate joint exercises from monday through thursday also in the sea of japan. north korea condemned those drills and launched ballistic missiles on sunday and wednesday. also this week, the japanese defense ministry said russian and chinese navy ships were spotted monday and tuesday in the pacific near japan's izu islands. officials say they were staged on the alert. >> nations leaders are reflecting on 50 years of normalized ties and looking towards the future. the japanese prime minister sent a message to chinese president xi jinping on thursday. their nations now face many challenges, he hopes to work with the chinese president to ensure peace and prosperity between their people and the world in the next half century. president xi sent his own message. he said he hopes they can work

together. president xi sent his own message. he said five decades ago past leaders made the important political decision to open a new chapter and he, likewise, wants to strengthen ties. he wants to create a bilateral relationship that suits the needs of the next era. thousands of war displaced japanese moved to their homeland as adults after ties were normalized. they face numerous barriers. one woman is trying to alleviate the challenges they face as they age. nhk world's has the story. >> reporter: this care home is located in japan, but a visit here is like a trip to china. people speak mandarin. majong is a big draw and the

menu includes the classics. >> translator: how many dumplings did you eat? >> i ate ten. >> reporter: this woman runs the facility. she caters to war displaced japanese, people who came to the country as adults. like her father, he came with his family in 1995 when he was 57. like many of the others, mitshko struggles to integrate because he doesn't speak the language. the challenges they face inspired them to create this facility. it used to be her own home. >> translator: i spoke with my husband. i said, we need to do this quickly. everyone is in their late 70s or 80s and you don't know when they might die.

it can't wait. >> reporter: a child during the war and placed with a foster family. >> translator: bad times, they would only give me one meal a day and they often beat me. >> reporter: he built a life in china but his dream of moving to japan endured. >> translator: i don't even know my birth name. can you imagine how hard it is living your whole life like that. >> reporter: his wish came true in 1988. in japan, he worked at a factory. after retiring, he spent most days lying in bed.

he needs help getting around but it's hard it for him to get care at regular facilities. his life changed when he met kamijo. let's go. >> translator: there's conversation and laughter. i really like coming here. i get sad when i'm at home. >> reporter: while he finds comfort here, many war displaced japanese don't have access to this specialized service. their challenges continue, requiring different solutions for each stage of their life. nhk world. nnchts nnchts the latest surrounding the killing of shinzo abe. the speaker of the lower house admitted he attended gatherings host bid a group that is controversial. he released aid comment through his office. he has been quiet on his dealings with the former unification church despite calls from the opposition to explain

himself. they conducted an internal review into the relationships with the group. he was exempted because he is serving as speaker. his role means he is not currently a member of the caucus even though he was elected as a they've been accused of demanding large sums of money from the followers. in a statement, he said he attended four events in 2018 and 2019. he also said he was interviewed by a group related to the controversial organization in 2019. regarding campaign related support from the former unification church, he acknowledged that another related group and the constituency had expressed interest in backing him. he said that as far as he knows, the people involved were ordinary citizens and were not engaged in any illegal activities. he promised that he'll avoid

contact with problematic organizations in the future. japan's defense ministry apologized to a former female member of a self-defense force unit who accused other members of sexually assaulting her. ministry officials say they'll punish those involved. >> translator: we as the defense ministry and the self-defense forces offer our sincere apology to ms. ganoi who suffered for a long time. we're very sorry. >> the former defense member said she was sexually saulted at a unit in fukushima prefecture. last month she called on the

defense ministry to investigate the incidents and punish those involved. the muinistry said they confirmd multiple sexual harassment cases at her interviewing about 100 members. it says that in the unit sexual remarks and unwanted physical contact occurred in public on a dailybasis. it says multiple female members were sexually harassed. the report says members touched and pushed her down during training and other activities from autumn in 2020 to august last year. it says the units company commander did not report the incidents to his boss after hearing the cplaint. >> translator: i think it's really late to be recognized like this. i want the people who have sexually harassed me to

apologize directly >> the muinistry will further investigate the matter and punish those involved. the defense ministry is conducting a insction o all organizations to investigate the actual situation of harassment and plans to take turning to ukraine where russia is expected to begin annexing several regions in the coming days. kyiv is calling for more support to retake territory before it's absorbed by moscow. president volodymyr zelenskyy spoke with foreign leaders after russia claimed that people in the areas it occupies voted to join its territory. >> translator: thank you all for your clear and unequivocal support and for understanding our position. ukrae cannot and will not

tolerate any attempt by ruia to seize any part of our ld. >> the u.s. and its allies have condemned the votes as illegitimate. >> we expect russia to use these shams referenda as a false pretext to try and annex ukrainian territory in flagrant violation of international law and the united nations charter >> the u.s. has pledged over a billion dollars in additional aid to kyiv. it includes money for more radar, antiwar weapons as well as the himars system. the mobile rocket launcher has been credited for helping to turn the tide for ukraine on the battlefield. russian presidential spesperson dmitry peskov says

it's far from over and plan to take all of the donetsk region. 99% of people in donetsk voted to join russia. armed soldiers went door to door to collect ballots. on monday, russia's lower house is expected to hold a session to discuss the referendum results. the upper house will deliberate legislation for potential annexation the next day. iran's president will further crack down on protesters who cross the line into rioting. 41 people have died in clashes between security forces and those demonstrating against the death of a woman in police custody. ebrahim raisi made the remark on wednesday on state-run television. he said a forensic report on the death of young woman who was arrested over how she wore her hijab head scarf would come within days, but raisi said the government must protect public

security. he warned those who participated or ignited the chaos in riots will be held accountable noting that no one should be afraid to express their views. the nationwide unrest was sparked by outrage over 22-year-old mahsa amini's death. police say she died of a heart attack, but protesters believe she had been beaten by police. in iran, it is mandatory for women to cover their hair in public. over the past two weeks, protests have evolved to become anti-government. they have also spread far beyond iran's borders. here in tokyo, more than 100 iranians that traveled from around japan to have their

voices heard. >> translator: i want to tell everyone about amini's death. i am extremely angry. i think that the world must know. >> translator: i watched the news from iran every day. my friends who are living there you are suffering so much. every morning my heart aches for them. >> they tried to reach the front of the iranian embassy but were pushed back by the police. on land we saw lot of reports of heavy rainfall and several tornadoes. people coming out of florida and the satellite imagery of ian. it came on shore wednesday afternoon making land fall in florida's southwest coast.

the category 4 storm brought life threatening storm surge and catastrophic winds and rain into places like ft. myers, submerging entirety communities under water. more than 2.5 million residents were told to evacuate ahead of the storm. we saw nearly 200 kilometer per hour wind gusts in many places including punta gorda. this area was battered by hurricane charlie 18 years ago too. we saw more than 360 millimeters of rainfall and the system is now on the weakening trend and should reach the water by friday. don't let your guard down yet because it's likely to make another landfall in the carolinas by saturday and then

moving towards the north into tennessee or kentucky into the weekend. now, we will see the total rainfall of nearly 750 millimeters in parts of central florida. so it looks like flooding will likely continue for the time being. let's go to the northwestern pacific. we have a newly formed tropical system named roke. it has been hitting the islands, the system will likely stay over the water. that's good news, however, it will likely stay over the water for days, so conditions will continue along the pacific coast of japan. cooler conditions expected to affect many places in mongolia on sunday. look at this, the daytime high will be only 3 degrees with show. that's it for me. stay safe. ♪ ♪ that is all for this edition of nhk "newsline."

please stay with us for more. this is newsline biz. the head of japan's largest lobby renewed his call to further deepen relations with china on the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties with the asian neighbor. entities promoting friend swhp china joined with companies to organize the gathering in tokyo on thursday. about 850 people took part.

tokyo's relationship with beijing is one of the country's most important bilateral ties. >> translator: the international circumstances have become more complex and less transparent amid the coronavirus pandemic. the situation calls for high level dialogue including those between the two countries top leaders. i strongly hope that clear communication will enhance mutual thursday ace event looked back on half a century of footage highlighting bilateral economic exchanges. japan's food production industry is looking at some major changes due to a government drive to reduce food waste and keep prices under control.

agriculture minister asked firms to review an industry practice at least a large amount of food loss and raised the one-third rule at a meeting with food makers, retail aernz food bank operators. retailers traditionally ask them to deliver only products that are within the first third of a period between the production and expiration dates. revising the rule expected to help reduce waste, push down production costs and keep a lid on price >> before expiration dates, i would like to ask supply chain officials to tackle the issue, including reviewing delivery deadlines. he also asked firms more food to

banks. >> a survey by the tax authority shows the average pay of private sector workers returned to a level seen before the coronavirus pandemic. the average annual wage in 2021 was $4.4 million yen, $31,000. that is 2.4% higher in yen terms than the previous year. it is also the first increase in three years and exceeds the level in 2018. it was a year before the pandemic. it covered 53 million full and part time company workers employed throughout the year. workers in 10 of 15 sectors receive higher bonuses especially those hit hard about it pandemic. bonus payouts rose by 14% in the hospitality industry and 15% in the services sector.

u.s. regulators have impose fines on 11 financial firms for failing to keep businesses and business related communication records of their employees. the securities and exchange commission and the commodity futures trading commission announced the penalties on tuesday. it includes gdman sachs and the local unit of japan' securities. the commissions say moez exchange text messages on their person devices and did not preserve the as technology changes, it's even more important than trej strants conduct their communications about business matters within only official channels. a research group has developed a robot that is a lot

more socialable than the average android. it appears to understand humor and can lava long with the human companions. the group of it the university's graduate school of information showed off the creation. the researchers added artificial intelligence to an existing human robot capable of simp conversations. the robot tunes into human voice and laugh as long naturally to suit the volume and content of the conversation. >> translator: first time i heard the robot laugh at the righ time, it felt like we could really communicate with each other. >> you know, he says he hopes more natural sounding robots like this one can be valued companions particularly as society ages. the team plans in the next stage to look at the effects of this robot on

online learning has become a business opportunity in the pandemic. one school in japan has taken advantage of the situation to improve the services enabling students to attend as avatars from homest we have more from nhk world. >> this is a high school. last year it began using the online classes to third year high school students. they are at the chalk board. they present each of the students. i also explored the school. walking around outside there are spaces designed for relaxation.

this is where students can take a break and socialize. >> translator: my classroom avatars are here, too. i like the metaverse. we can have fun here. >> metaverse classes offer unique experices. in math class, for example, the teacher spins the spes so illustrate a point. surprisingly, students are also in front of the question group. >> nice to meet you. >> translator: i'm very shy. and i fupd it hard to ask questions in front of others. it'sizer in the metaverse. >> school principal was behind the idea of virtual classrooms and has seen a positive shift in the attitudes of the students. >> translator: the students' ability to concentrate has changed completely.

and they speak up here unlike in real classes. >> the school held an event in july to attract more students. students were invited from all over the country. about 80 applied from different regions. the event was a success. but there are some technical issues. some students couldn't enter the space because their computers didn't have the required specifications. >> translator: there is no sound and the video is frozen. >> about two-thirds of those attended couldn't participate. but he is hopeful this technology will become a tool in education. >> translator: the metaverse will be commonplace in a few years. i want to develop classes in the virtual space to adapt to the future. >> the metaverse is already

attracting attention in many fields. it may n be time for the education sector to take its place in the virtual spotlight. nhk world. >> all right. let's have a look at the markets.

and from the team in tokyo, thank you for being with us. ñl

>> you're watching al jazeera. the headlines this hour. referendums in occupied areas of ukraine have ended, with pro-russian separatists declaring victory. they claim most people border to join russia, and keep allies say the road is a sham. the u.n. security council discussed the referendums in ukraine. the political affairs chief says the paternal legitimacy in international law. ukrainian president said the world must take action against