♪ glad to have you with us on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo with the headlines. covid-19 as the same category as seasonal flu from may 8th. >> translator: the disease will be reclassified as category 5 on may 8th unless specific circumstances arise. >> covid-19 is currently the

second most severe tier. cabinet members made the decision friday at a meet of the government's task force. they'll consult health experts before the reclassification is finalized. >> translator: covid-19 was unknown and scary when the pandemic started. but now i see it as not much different from regular flu. >> translator: i think it's too early to downgrade. the number of infections has yet to decrease enough. >> the government plans to continue covering medical expenses for coronavirus patients with public funds for a limited time to prevent the sharp jump in fees. it will provide details in early march. the government will allow individuals to decide for themselves whether to wear masks indoors and outdoors after the reclassification. the task force also decided immediately to scrape the 50% capacity cap on events in which

participants cheer in loud voices. next, a major break in a crime spree that's made headlines across japan. police plan to ask philippine authorities to extradite several. the crime spree spans multiple prefectures. at least one elderly victim dead. philippine justice secretary says the suspect has been here. japanese police say his name is watanabe. when he directed people to commit robberies he went by the name luf. a source who spent time in the facility said detainees can purchase prepaid phone cards to contact people outside.

police have arrested more than 30 people they suspect luffy may have recruited. in our next report, we delve into how investigators discovered the crime spree. >> reporter: investigating a robbery discovered it may have been a target. that turned out to be the case. police also found the body of the 90-year-old woman who lived there. her son spoke to nhk on condition of anonymity. >> i can't imagine how much pain my mother suffered. i'm so frustrated and angry. even if the suspect is arrested that will not bring her back. >> reporter: police say the case may be connected to a group responsible for several crimes in eight prefectures. that includes another robbery in tokyo that happened in october. police say several suspects broke into a home, assaulted a woman inside and tied up her and her family members with tape.

police arrested seven people and say things were carefully planned. police say luffy recruited members to the group through social media under the guise of part-time jobs and planned out the crimes. police also suspect that luffy psychologically controlled the suspects. investigative sources said he one suspect told police he made a deal with luffy to remain silent if he was arrested. the suspect said he was afraid he would be purged by luffy if he talked. the sources say luffy demanded and sought information on group members' families and other personal details. a suspicious person later visited some of the suspects. the sources also say some of the suspects have withdrawn their initial admission to the crime and are now denying it or keeping quiet. police say the group may be connected to 14 incidents. but suspect there are more.

the ukrainian youth and sports minister said his country may boycott next year's paris olympics if athletes from russia and belarus are allowed to take part in the games. he said on thursday athletes from either country should be barred from international competitions as long as the war in ukraine continues. his remark came a day after the international olympic committee said it will consider allowing individual russian and belarusian athletes to compete. no one should be stopped from participating because of their pass both. last february, the ioc recommended athletes from both countries should not be invited to international competitions. taiwanese president tsai ing-wen has appointed a close ally as her new premier.

the move comes as her ruling party tries to shake off a major setback in local elections. chen chien-jen will formally assume the role next week, becoming the leader of taiwan's cabinet. chen served as vice president during tsai's first time in office. he's an epidemiologist. he played an important role in shaping taiwan's response to covid-19. tsai believes he's the best person to unite taiwan as it emerges from the pandemic. >> translator: over the year ahead we must strengthen the resilience of taiwan's economy, environment and society. and place importance on people's lives. so that taiwan will remain united with 23 million people feeling content. >> chen only joined the ruling democratic progressive party last year, but he took on a high profile job before key local elections in november. tsai resigned as the head of the party after it suffered major

losses. recent polls suggest that support for her administration has been falling ahead of next year's presidential election. in other news, the international criminal court has cleared the way for prosecutors to resume a probe into the so-called war on drugs in the philippines. judges at the court have authorized a prosecutor to reactivate an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity between 2011 and 2019. the inquiry was suspended in 2021 after manila said it was already examing the crim and arguedhe court didn't have jurisdiction. government records show more than 6,200 drug suspects were killed. many of them were people who lived in poverty. but human rights advocates believe the actual death toll is much higher. philippines former president, rodrigo duterte, openly thatened drug suspects with death. but he's defended the crackdown

as being lawfully directed. duterte withdrew the country from the icc in 2019 after it opened the investigation. now current president, ferdinand marcos jr. has said it doesn't intend to rejoin the court. his government responded to the court's decision on friday in a statement, it said, its own domestic jurisdictions processes should take precedent. it called it a well-functioning system that yields positive results in its own time. japan's urging the u.n. security council to step up peace-building efforts. the call comes after a decade in which the u.n. refugee agency saw the number of people forced to flee conflict doubled. japan's ambassador to the u.n. hosted an open debate on peace-building on thursday. envoys from over 70 nations participated. >> we have recently witnessed how easily peace receded and the humanitarian situation deteriorated in some countries and regions despite strenuous

efforts over time. >> ishikane said investment in services including health care and education is essential for peace-building. many participants said all stakeholders, regardless of age or gender, need to be involved. the chinese ambassador said for many developing nations the ultimate solution is economic stability. a russian representative argued peace-building must not be used to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. ♪ people grieving the loss of a loved one can have a hard time letting go. a tailor here in japan is giving them something tangible to wrap their arms around. >> reporter: a hardworking father's favorite suit.

an apron worn by a mother who loved to cook. these are clothes for memories of deceased loved ones, now transformed into outfits for teddy bears. he owns a men's clothing store in k asharuzakawa. >> translator: unlike photographs people can hug and carry stuffed bears dressed in memorable items so they can part of the family again. >> reporter: he began making stuffed animals dressed as a hobby. a customer asked him to make teddy bear clothes from a dress belonging to her late daughter.

at that moment, he understood the emotional power of preserving clothes as memories. today his service is so popular that clients wait one year for orders to be completed. >> translator: clothes often carry memories of their owner. my priority is to preserve them. one couple hopes to soothe their grief by making such a teddy bears. three years ago they lost their 38-year-old daughter after a brain hemorrhage. the couple decided to use her high school uniform. >> translator: we like to keep the spirit close to us, we'll say good morning to our

daughter, eat meals together and say good night at the end of the day. >> reporter: moved by the couple's story and began tailoring a special outfit. he embroidered the name on the uniform, carefully sewn >> translator: i put my heart into sewing this because the love for their daughter is so special. >> reporter: after two weeks he finishes the teddy bear. today, he's hand delivering it. >> translator: i feel like my daughter has finally come back. >> translator: she may be in a different form but she's with us

now. i'm so glad we did this. >> translator: for them it's not just a teddy bear, it's part of the family. i hope they can begin a new chapter and live happily together. >> reporter: these per fact fektly tailored outfits filled with memories are giving families a new lease on life. nhk world. ♪ ♪ turning now to the weather. residents of oman are seeing a plunge in temperatures.

jonathan oh. >> hello, we don't usually talk about snow in the middle east that often but we are talking about some right now as we had snow rolling through oman. here's a look at some video of how people were taking in this winter phenomena. experienced rare snowfall on thursday. people throwing snowballs sometimes at the people recording the video here. some areas in the country had subzero temperatures as well. so definitely getting a taste of winter and we are expecting the precipitation to still be in place as we go through today on friday and so be othe lookout of seeing wet or even stormy weather. speaking of wet weather, down toward madagascar, this system continues to move down toward the south and west, a slow-moving system, areas

already dealing with some flooded areas you're going to see the possibility of seeing more precipitation. hopefully it won't compound the situation at this point. meanwhile, we're also got some serious rainfall continue down toward ita and the balkan peninsula. this stubborn low continues to stay in the area and bring in the rain and snow in the higher elevations. up toward the north, it's a bit on the cold side here, coming up on friday, single-digit highs from vienna up to berlin. but below freezing into places like stockholm as we go through the day. across japan, we are seeing a little bit of a break coming up next week. after seeing some really cold weather over the past few days. we are also seeing a little bit of a break in terms of winter precipitation toward the north. sea of japan side of the country is still dealing with more winter precipitation. tokyo, a high of 10 monday, close to average this time of year. snow picking back up as we go

through sunday. that's a look at your forecast. hope you have a good day wherever you are. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ that's all for now on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja bradman. coming up next is "newsline biz." so stay right there.

. . this is "newsline biz." now consumer prices in japan's capital continue to rise at their fastest pace in more than four decades. soaring electricity, gas and food costs are hitting tokyo residents especially hard. the internal affairs ministry said the consumer price index for january in the city's 23 wards is up 4.3% from a year ago. that's the quickest pace since may 1981.

prices of nonfresh food have shot up 7.4%. that reading excludes fresh items because weather conditions caused their prices to fluctuate widely. energy is seeing double-digit rises on more expensive raw materials. gas bills are more than 40%. tokyo's cpi is considered a leading indicator of inflation nationwide. now, the international monetary fund has given its views on japan's economy. it says the country's policy challenge is to ensure inflation is reached in a sustainable manner. it held consultations with the japanese government. >> our discussions focused on the policies to ensure that the 2% inflation target is met without overshooting significantly. >> the imf projects the economy

will grow 1.8% this year, citing pent-up demand from the pandemic and the government's fiscal support. that's up two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous jot look in october. the imf views the japan's policy stance as appropriate but it's needed for the target to be hit sustainably. recommends efforts to improve productivity and real wages. imf says more flexibility in controlling long-term yields would help better manage risks. to bring down the fiscal debt the fund said moves must be growth-friendly and credible. now, japan's suzuki motors is embarking a new growth strategy. rolling out electric vehicles in domestic market and abroad.

suzuki's first ev will be used for commercial use. the plan is to expand the domestic lineup by fiscal 2030 with more models including passenger mini-vehicles and compact suvs. in europe, they'll focus on medium-size passenger vehicles. as well as suvs. it hopes to offers its first ev there in fiscal year 2024 and have five models by fiscal 2030. india, the goal of having six electric models on sale by fiscal 2030. the largest share of india's passenger vehicle market. suzuki announced its investment plans through 2030. with a total of $34 billion.

the company will spend about $50 billion on research and development. a transportation company in japan is working on a vehicle that operates both as a bus and a street car. as the first step in the development a safety test was conducted this week in the western city of oki yshg ama. the city street car wasn't in service. it used a special dump truck that can run on streets as well as railway tracks when inspecting lines. it focused on the ability to handle tight turns. the group offers transport services in the city. >> translator: our main goal is for the new vehicle to be used for daily commuting.

but because it's so fun to ride in the streetcar that turns into a bus we believe it can also attract tourists. the company plans t used data collected from the test to identify technical and financial challenges. prices of kocondominium uni in tokyo hit a record high for the second consecutive year in 2022. now strong housing demand and more expensive construction materials helped push prices higher. the average price of a new unit put up for sale in tokyo and its three neighboring prefectures last year was nearly $63 yen. around $485,000. marked an increase of 0.4% in yen terms from the year before. the 2021 figure exceeded the

previous record set in 1990 during japan's asset price bubble. now officials at the research firm predict prices will rise this year as well. construction costs continue to rise as well. okay, let's see what's happening in the week ahead. now, first, we start with china, which will release a key gauge of business sentiments. now on tuesday, beijing will announce the country's purchasing managers index for the month of january. the survey of manufacturers showed a deepening contraction in december falling to the lowest level in almost three years. more people went shopping and out to eat as china reopened its economy but this led to an explosion of covid cases.

about 80% of the population had been infected. there are looming fears that the situation could get even worse as throngs of people travel during the lunar new year holiday. also on tuesday, we had the euro zone gdp numbers for the fourth quarter coming out, the figures from last year just barely showed growth. the european central bank expects the region's economy to have shrunk from the october to december period. they believes a contraction will continue into the first quarter of 2023 due to the energy crisis andeakening global economic activity. now the next day we kick off february with central banks around the world announcing their latest decisions on interest rates. . the u.s. federal reserve is expected to further slow the pace of rate hikes on wednesday to a quarter of a percent. the country's soaring inflation has been easing in recent months. then on thursday the ecb and the bank of england are likely to

keep the pace of increases unchanged to combat higher prices. and we finish off the week with a slew of company earnings for the last quarter of 2022. including some of the biggest global firms. google's parent alphabet will announce its results on thursday the firm expects growing headwinds from a stronger dollar. there's also been a pullback in advertising as businesses weather a slowing economy. last week, alphabet said it would cut about 6 .of its global workforce. e-commerce giant amazon is also slashing costs. investors will have a close eye on whether the firm expects things to turn around as inflation starts easing in parts of the world. analysts will be looking at how apple faired when it gives it

results on the same for japanese electronics group sony group, whether the company will change its outlook on thursday. in november the company raised its profit forecast for the full year ending in march buoyed by a strong music and entertainment business as well as a weak yen. but the japanese currency has since strengthened significantly. okay, let's get a check of the markets. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

and that's it for newsline biz from tokyo. i'm ramin mellegard. thank you very much for watching. ówówóoc■j?

♪ order this is al jazeera. ukraine has received a major boost from western allies. germany has said it will provide 14 of its leopard two battle tanks for defense against russia. the u.s. has announced it is sending 31 abrams combat vehicles. pres. biden: secretary austin has recommended this step because it will enhance ukraine's capacity to defend its territory and achieve its strategic objectives. the abrams tanks for the most capable in the world.