glad to have you with us on this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm raja pradhan in tokyo with the latest at this hour. we start here in japan. it's been a day since a ground self-defense force helicopter

disappeared. they've now uncovered apparent pieces of the aircraft. >> translator: we're strengthening our readiness by significantly increasing the number of ground troops for the search from the initial 20 to more than 200. >> the coast guard ship conducting the search has returned to a port in the city. a bent helicopter door lay on the ship's deck along with a broken rotor blade. they were pulled out of the sea. >> translator: we will work closely with the self-defense forces to find the missing as soon as possible. >> the helicopter took off at 3:46 p.m. on thursday. about ten minutes later it disappeared from radar. search crews have also found life boats and window frames apparently from the helicopter. it may have been communicating with an air-traffic controller

at an airport two minutes before it vanished. when the helicopter was inspected in late march no abnormalities were found. the missing include the head of the eight defense force division sugimoto prefecture. israel has launched air strikes on the gaza strip. this comes after a rocket attack from lebanon reportedly wounded one person. israeli forces struck targets early friday in gaza and southern lebanon in retaliation. in an address the prime minister benjamin netanyahu said israel's enemies will pay for their aggression. militants in gaza have been hitting back at israel with rockets. saying they are ready to respond to any attack. tensions between israel and the palestinians have been rising. on wednesday, israeli security forces raided a mosque in jerusalem. palestinian worshippers had

barricaded themselves inside al-aqsa mosque to prevent jewish extremists from sacrificing a goat at the holy site. the mosque in the old city is known to jews at the temple mount. it's considered one of inholiest sites in both religions. >> two months have passed since earthquakes devastated parts of turkey and syria. 52,000 people were killed when homes and buildings collapsed in southern turkey, and around 6,000 in neighboring syria. millions of survivors are still struggling with nowhere to go and little in the way of support. earlier kanako sachno spoke with sano about the latest situation. >> what have you been seeing and hearing on the ground?

>> reporter: yes. here behind me, heavy machinery is still being used to remove the rubble from a destroyed building. it will be a long time before they can consider rebuilding. yesterday i went to one of the hardest hit areas. the infrastructure was also devastated. the water supply is cut off, and residents have been pumping from a portable supply to wash their dishes and keep themselves clean. meanwhile, heavy rain has led to severe flooding, killing around 20 people. that includes a person who survived the quakes and was living in a temporary shelter. >> what is the biggest problem people are facing right now? >> reporter: housing is a big issue. temperatures dropped right after the quakes, leaving many out in the cold. about 2.5 million people are

still living in tents, but now it's getting warmer and tents absorb heat. i have seen many choose to stay outside because it's too hot. it will only get worse during the summer. temperature can reach 40 degrees celsius. temporary housing has been made available but only for about 70,000 people. i spoke to a pregnant woman who was living in a tent and says she's not optimistic she'll be moved to something better. the temporary units are assigned randomly, and the odds are against her. she said all she thinks about is how to live through the day. >> and where does turkey go from here? >> reporter: the country will hold its presidential and parliamentary elections next month. survivors say they hope

candidates prioritize reconstruction. in the meantime, many are just trying to survive and hope help is coming soon. >> now nhk world looked into how children in syria have been suffering due to the trauma. she spoke to the deputy representative of the unicef syria country office. >> children cannot sleep well at night or are bedwetting. >> reporter: this 6-year-old continues to have nitmares about the earthquakes. >> reporter: the disaster killed about 6,000 people in syria. more than 12,000 were injured. many children are still living in shelters. that includes this-year-old.

>> reporter: her story highlights another big issue. many children weren't going to school before the disaster and that number has only increased. unicef says the quakes damaged more than 2,500 schools in the country. several are being used as shelters. the organization has set up learning spaces in them. >> the best way to support children after the disasters like the earthquake is bring them back to normalcy. bring them bk what they us to do when they used to play and then learn in schools with other students and their friends. >> reporter: he says also crucial is what they learn. japan can play a big role in that. >> as a japanese, it's quite normal.

everybody understands that you know what to do in the case of earthquakes. for example, you cover your heads, we go under the tables. >> reporter: he urges the international community to continue providing support. he says on top of the immediate problems, larger ones that will take years to fix. nhk world. beijing and pyeongyang appear to be pursuing a closer relationship as china'sew ambassador to north korea begins his job. the ruling workers party newspaper reports he met with a top north korean official thursday. it describes their talks as amicable and says he presented a message to kim jong-un on behalf of the chinese president xi jinping. he's believed to be the first new diplomat the country has accepted since tightening border

rules over covid-19. china appears to be growing closer to north korea despite its accelerating nuclear and missile programs. earlier this week beijing accused japan, the united states, and south korea of fueling tensions in and around the peninsula after they held a series of joint drills. we move now to china's response to the meeting between taiwan's president and the u.s. house speaker. beijing is imposing new sanctions on a key taiwanese official. it's seen as retaliation to the sensitive meeting on wednesday. the sanctions affect the head of taiwan's representative office in the u.s. she and her family members are barred from entering china including hong kong and chinese officials accuse her of intentionally provoking

confrontations in the taiwan strait. tsai says meeting with american officials in person will help improve peace and stability in the region. nhk has learned details about a suspected phone scam based in cambodia that targeted people here in japan. tokyo police have obtained arrest warrants for 19 japanese nationals believed to be involved. investigative sources say cambodian authorities searched a hotel room in the southern city. they discovered a list of japanese citizens they believe were targets of fraud. the sources say one victim was a tokyo resident who lost about $1,900. they say she received a phone call and was told she was behind on payments for an online service. the suspects are expected to be extradited to japan where they would be arrested. police think they carried out the scam overseas because they believed it would be harder for them to be caught.

japan is grappling with the growing issue of children who are shunning school. during the 2021 academic year nearly 245,000 elementary and junior high school students were absent for at least 30 days, that's the highest on record. but new approaches are being explored making use of virtual learning spaces on the metaverse. >> reporter: in the city north of tokyo children are exploring the metaverse.

from elementary to high schoolers these students are immersing themselves in a virtual reality world. using their avatars they move freely around this online space interacting with others they meet there. compared to real life situations there's less pressure the children find it easier to talk to each other. >> translator: i like it because we can communicate with our friends. it's a virtual world but it feels like it's real. >> reporter: six months ago he

launched a program on the metaverse. he found that learning became easier for students using avatars who are not comfortable with one-on-one situations. >> translator: for children who have cut themselves off from the rest of society, just coming to participate in these virtual classes represents a step forward. >> reporter: because the metaverse is online, children can attend from anywhere in the country. on this day a child logs into the program at around 8:00 p.m. she's living in the okinawa prefecture. she comes to study in the metaverse almost every day. he says he takes great care when interacting with children even through h avatars so he can recognize subtle changes in their behavior.

since joining this student has also gained a diploma in typing. there are times she's becoming more positive in her outlook. >> translator: we can provide a certain level of education for children who are shunning school as they can connect to the metaverse from anywhere in the country or even >> he's hopeful his virtual classroom will help students take the first step in helping connect to the people around them. nhk world. next in weather people here in the greater tokyo area faced powerful gusts once again on friday and it seems much of the cherry blossoms were blown away. our jonathan oh has more on the weekend in our world weather report. >> hello. we've been dealing with some

strong winds. the cold front has been trying to make its way through japan. and along that front with the strong winds we also some heavier rain. we also 450 millimeters of rainfall in 48 hours, which is a record for the month of april. along that front extending from hokkaido seeing plenty of rain, some heavy at times. we will be talking about this front continuing to push slowly towards the east and so places like tokyo picking up on more rainfall as you go into saturday, and the winds are going to stay relatively strong until that front clears japan, and may be looking at more moisture behind it. looking at the forecast for saturday niigata into tokyo, but elsewhere relatively dry. 19 osaka and fukuoka looking at sunny skies with a high of 17 as we go through the day. meanwhile, we've been talking about this heavy rainfall that's been impacting the northern areas of peru and causing some real problems. i want to show you some video coming out from that region. torrential rain caused mud slide

and flooding in parts of peru wednesday with homes and schools and parts of the area destroyed by subsequent floods. local media reporting that several people have been killed by a mud slide. and we're looking at the rain to continue through at least sunday. here's a look at the forecast in terms of the rain we're looking more of that precipitation continuing on for a good portion of the country. and we're looking at some locations anywhere from 100 to 150 millimeters of additional rainfall. areas already dealing with flooding issues we're likely to see even more problems here. be on the lookout for that as we go through the day on friday. quick note in north america a cold front slowly trying to make its way out from the south. hope you have a good friday wherever you are.

that concludes this edition of nhk "newsline."

i'm raja pradhan in tokyo. coming up next is "newsline biz" with ramin mellegard, so don't go away. ♪ this is "newsline biz." i'm ramin mellegard. now, the man who led the bank of japan during an era of ultra loose policy has spoken to the media for the last time as the central bank's governor. c he steps down on saturday says

although he couldn't achieve the inflation target the trends appear to be moving in the right direction. >> translator: i can say that we have made steady progress towards the sustainable and stable realization of the price stability target. in this way, large scale monetary easing has had various effects, and i think our policy management was appropriate. >> kuroda announced a bold monetary stimulus program in 2014 which he said would lift the inflation rate to 2%. the boj stepped up purchases of japanese government bonds and pumped in liquidity into the system. that continues to prove elusive. >> tralator: it's regrettable that the boj couldn't achieve its 2% price stability target in a sustainable and stable manner. >> kuroda also expressed

confidence in his successor. >> translator: i expect the next governor will demonstrate his ability to stabilize prices and the system, which is the bank of japan's mission. >> he'll take the top post on sunday. he's a former boj policy board member and will be the first post war central governor to come from academ u. real wages in japan have fallen for the 11th straight month as consumer prices continue to eat into workers earnings. preliminary figures from the labor ministry show that wages were down 2.6% from a year earlier after being adjusted for inflation. the decrease was smaller than in january which saw a 4.1% draw. but in february government measures to cut utility bills helped put a damper on consumer price rises. workers earned an average of nearly 272,000 yen or around $2,000 including overtime last month. that's up 1.1% in yen terms from

the same time in 2022. labor ministry officials note more major companies than usual raised wages in this year's pay negotiations. they say they'll monitor the trend to see if it results in higher real wages. and toyota motor has unveiled its new strategy for electric vehicle. the auto giant says it now aims to introduce ten new models by 2026 and sell 1.5 million units a year. the new president unveiled the plan on friday alongside other toyota executives. he just took office this month. the company says it'll also setup a new specialized unit for the development and production of next generation evs. toyota has already announced plans to introduce 30 ev models worldwide and to sell 3.5 million ev units annually by 2030. 7 and i holdings have become the first japanese retailer to

book annual consolidated sales of over 10 trillion yen. the operator of 7-eleven convenience stores and the super market chain says it's consolidated sales came in at nearly 12 trillion yen or about $90 billion for the year through february. that's up 35% in yen terms from the same period a year earlier. the convenience store business was brisk during the period. it expanded its overseas operations and rebranded its products domestically. group met profit also hit a record, 280 billion yen or about $2 billion, that's up 33% from a year earlier. but it posted a net loss for the third straight year due to higher cost of materials and energy. its department store units also logged a net loss, falling into the red if the fourth straight year. 7 and i has already decided to sell the unit to concentrate

managerial resources on its convenience store businesses. it's also revealing its group strategies. one idea is to significantly cut the number of stores to concentrate on the food business. now, japan's biggest travel agency says the number of people visiting domestic destinations during the upcoming spring holiday will be at pre-pandemic levels, but it expects figures for international travel to remain down. jtb conducted a survey of holiday plans from late april through early may. it found about 24.5 million people will visit domestic destinations during the period. that's up 53% from last year, and it's roughly the same as the figure from 2019. the survey also found that many people have opted to take shorter trips. 39% plan to travel for two days, and 33% for three days. but outbound international travel still hasn't recovered

completely. 200,000 people plan to go overseas, about one fifth the figure from 2019. jtb says it's because people are choosing to visit closer destinations amid higher travel prices. now, next yanaka marie is here with biz picks. >> every friday nhk world will bring you the latest in business with biz picks. let's kick things off with a wrap of the markets this week. the nikkei average ended at 27,518 this friday, april 7th. the index started the week off strong, closing at the highest in about a month on tuesday, but midweek a string of weak economic data out of the u.s. dampened sentiment. towards the end investors were cautious ahead of u.s. jobs data due later on friday.

for the week, the nikkei lost 1.9%. next, a look at what's happening in the week ahead. the bank of japan will welcome a new chief from sunday. the incoming governor first news conference on monday will be closely watched. and wednesday brings japan's used vehicle sales figures for march, an important indicator for the auto industry and the economy. that's why the used car market is our feature biz pick this week. sales of secondhand cars were in a long rut. this blue line had not broken above zero for 20 consecutive months through january. this bump was drawn out as auto makers cut production of new cars due to the global chip shortage and the coronavirus pandemic. but the question with new cars is fewer used car sales means

fewer trade ins and eventually drives down the number of used vehicles on the market. but things may be turning around. new car sales have been recovering since last september, so if we extend this graph on used car sales to february, we see the lines finally breaking above zero. with supplies returning, prices of secondhand cars on the auction block are dropping according to major used vehicle auction house. figures shows secondhand vehicle prices in february fell for the first time in about 2 1/2 years. one expert says the falling prices may not only be due to the supply side but also weak demand. potential used car buyers may be struggling with the cost of living. >> translator: the impact of higher prices on people with relatively low incomes will first appear in demand for many

vehicles. trading at auction sites for used cars has been declining recently. >> fukao also sees overseas demand for used cars falling. >> translator: i believe the global economic slow down will reduce exports and ease demand for used cars. >> the used car market has long been considered a barometer of economic conditions. that's why the march sales figures due wednesday should give us a clue about japan's business outlook. i'm yanaka marie, and that was this week's biz picks. okay, let's get a check on the markets.

that's it for "newsline biz" from

>> donald trump defended in court, defiant on stage. the former president called the case a political witchhunt. what does it mean for his presidential bid and america's credit system? this is "inside story". >> welcome to "inside story". tuesday was