hello there. welcome back to "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. first a look at the headlines. japanese government officials are calling it a half step forward. they say north korea has promised it will keep looking into abductions of japanese nationals. israeli officials have sealed off all access to a holy site in jerusalem after fierce clashes between security forces and palestinians. and we'll show you how some

japanese engineers are gaining skills and knowledge by helping people in fiji with their water woes. japan's prime minister shinzo abe says north korea has pledged to investigate the abductions of japanese nationals. however, pyongyang has so far failed to provide detailed information on the missing. japan regards pyongyang's promise to hold investigations regardless of previous probes as a half step forward. top diplomat for asian affairs junichi ihara is leading the japanese delegation. they held talks in pyongyang with members of north korea's special investigation committee. it's tasked with investigating the fate of japanese missing in north korea including abductees. >> translator: the north korean committee members promised to carry out a thorough investigation. they agree to look at the issue from new angles without regard to the outcome of previous

prob probes. 9 committee said the scope of the probe will include a north korean agency that carries out special missions. >> in 2002 five abductees were returned to japan. however, the fates of the 12 japanese citizens whom the government recognizes as abductees are still unknown. pyongyang has so far insisted that its investigations indicate that eight abductees are dead and the four others have never entered north korea. a japanese government official says the north korean committee offered no specific information about the abductees. the official argues the committee will take more time to look into the fate of the abductees. the official notes the committee also failed to clarify when it will inform japan about the results of its investigations. the japanese government plans to provide details of the bilateral talks to families of the abductees on friday. the relatives of the abductees closely listened to prime

minister abe's explanation of the meetings in pyongyang. however, some are still doubtful about the results of the japanese delegation's visit. >> translator: the prime minister said that north korean officials would conduct thorough investigations without sticking to the results of past probes. but i don't know how we should interpret the meaning of this comment. the best result for us is that north korea will admit its mistakes in the previous report. it said the japanese abductees had died. >> he said he was hoping to listen to some detailed results on friday during an explanation by the chief cabinet secretary. he also said he wanted to ask government officials to decide quickly what their next steps will be. a group of iraqi kurdish peshmerga fighters have entered a syrian border town. they're the first ground troops from an outside country to enter syria. and they'll try to help push

back islamic state militants. officials in the kurdish autonomous region made the decision to dispatch 150 security troops to the town of kobani, or a glchlt al arab as it's known in arabic. many kurds are living there a nen contingent arrived on thursday at a turkish border town. they're equipped with artillery and machine guns and they plan to support syrian kurdish fighters. a syrian anti-government group says more than 800 people have been killed in battles in ayn al arab. islamic state militants have been trying to take control of the town. they've been intensifying their offensive despite repeated air attacks by a u.s.-led coalition. syrian government officials have condemned turkey for allowing fighters to enter. they say it's in violation of their sovereignty. >> we always wanted a political solution, and when we went to geneva we said that the only way to reach a political solution is to start with fighting terrorism because we know that terrorism

is the danger, is the threat not only for syria, for the region and for the entire world. >> turkey has been backing fighters in syria in an attempt to oust president bashar al assad. palestinians have criticized the israeli government for closing off a muslim administered holy site in the city of jerusalem. haram al shareef is also known as temple mount. both muslims and jews consider it sacred. muslims were angry when they heard a rumor that right-wing israeli politicians are planning to divide the site. palestinians and israeli security forces clashed. a gunman on wednesday wounded a far right jewish activist. the israeli government blocked access to the site on thursday. prime minister benjamin netanyahu says his administration denied the rumor. but palestinian president mahmoud abbas denounced the israeli government. he said splitting the site in two would be like a declaration of war.

a u.s. state department spokesman called for calm. >> we're extremely concerned by escalating tensions across jerusalem and particularly surrounding the haram al shareef, temple mount. it is absolutely critical that all sides exercise restraint. >> media sources say israeli authorities will reopen the site friday morning local time. japanese leaders are doing what they can to revive the economy. they're trying tone courage people to buy even though things are more expensive. ai uchida joins us now from the business desk. tell us what's happening here. >> catherine, as you know, officials raised the consumption tax earlier this year. so that means higher price tags for everything from a toothbrush to a car. but add to that a trend in japan for the past year and a half has been for prices to slowly rise. that's teem something officials at the bank of japan want. b.o.j. officials are on their way to achieving that goal. families, though, they are

struggling to keep up with the higher prices. interior officials ahave announced prices rose by 3% compared with the same month last year. the index increased for 16 months in a row, but it's a slight dip from the previous month's rise. that's mainly due to the fall in prices of gasoline and electricity. the index doesn't factor in the cost of fresh food. policy makers at the b.o.j. say the increase in the consumption tax is partly responsible for the latest figures. without the tax rise the cpi is believed to have gone up by about 1%. but government officials say household spending marked the sixth straight month of decline. they say households of two or more people sment an average of about $2,500. that's a fall of 5.6% in yen terms from the same month last year. to fishlz said people spent less on electricity and recreation due to bad weather. officials are painting a mixed picture for jobs too. they say the unemployment rate

worsened but they say the labor market is still strong. officials say the jobless rate rose by 0.1 point to 3.6%. the number of people with jobs increased by 430,000 from a year earlier. to more than 64 million. that figure has been climbing for 21 months. the number of people without jobs fell by 250,000 to about 2.3 million. that's been falling for 52 months. labor ministry officials say the ratio of job offers to seekers was slightly down at 1.09. that means there were 109 positions available for every 100 job seekers. it's the first time in three years and four months it has declined from the previous month. well, the jobless rate and consumer prices were in line with what most analysts had predicted. and investors are happy that there were no surprises. share prices in tokyo are rising strongly and that follows the

advance on wall street where investors in new york bought up stocks after u.s. economic growth came in better than expected. right now the nikkei is up by 1.7%. 15,930. currency traders for their part are waiting to see the outcome of a b.o.j. policy meeting which ends later today. the dollar-yen changing hands above 109. the euro, that is little changed against the dollar. traders are avoiding active moves ahead of the october inflation data for the euro zone. that will be released later in the day. and looking at some other asian markets, south korea's kospi trading higher by a quarter percent. in china shanghai's key index is trading higher by about the same percent. and in hong kong we are seeing the hang seng in positive territory up .75%. officials at the u.s. federal reserve have for years pumped billions of dollars into the markets. but policy makers decided this week to end it. people around the world are

wondering what the impact will be on them. those in china are keeping a close eye on their economy as it's already slowing. for more steven cheung joins us. he is the head of investment strategy at shk private in hong kong. hi, steven. now that the quantitative easing program is coming to a close, what does this mean for china? >> the fed has announced to end qe3. that is the end of all qe. they'll stop buying bonds literally tonight. after that we believe that when we look at the u.s. job market, look at the economic situation, and look at the inflation situation, the fed we believe they're not going to raise interest rates until at least the fourth quarter next year. or even in 2016. so what that means for china, is we do not believe that with this type of rate hike expectation, capital outflows that's going to cause a sharp drop in the chinese economy, that's not going to happen and we believe hot money flow into china should slow. what thaenz for the china central bank is they'll have

more room to ease their moptry policy to support the real estate market and support the broader economy. >> and what is the effect on the real estate market? >> well, there's not really a direct effect between the fed's policy and the chinese property market. especially in the past six months when you see the drop in the chinese property prices. but when you look at it, you see that beiging is pretty keen on supporting the chinese property market to prevent a hard landing in the real estate market, which may lead to a hard landing in the broader economic situation. they removed a lot of our mortgage restrictions and property purchase restrictions. so we can see beijing is pretty supportive on that. when the pboc, chinese central bank, has more room to ease monetary policy to go along with beijing's decision, that's going to help the chinese property market and the broader economy. >> steven, if there is an outflow of capital, some people say that could cause prices to drop and that some local governments could be swamped with non-performing loans. what are your thoughts on that? >> you look at the local

government debt problem in china right now, we see that the -- most of the problem is caused by mismatch between the local government's projects and urban development rate. a lot of these infrastructure facilities have been built way ahead of time, way ahead of the urban development rate. so this has led to pretty low utilization rate. this hurts the infrastructure projects and the local government's ability to repay their debt. there's only two ways out there. number one, speed up the urban development rate so you can raise the utilization rates on these infrastructure projects. or number two, extend your debt to these local governments for another cycle to allow time for urban development. recent decision by the national people's congress to reactivate the local bond market is a good start. >> all right, steven, thanks always for your time and insight. that was steven cheung, head of investment strategy at shk private in hong kong.

delegates from around the world are worried about stocks of a fish those in japan call the diamond of the sea. they've agreed starting next year they'll slash the amount of bluefin tuna they take from the eastern pacific. officials from japan and mexico were among delegates from about 20 countries and regions at a meeting in california. they talked about what they can do to protect stocks of young bluefin in the eastern pacific region. the delegates agreed to cut their catch quota by 30% to 4,300 tons. they'll enforce the restriction as part of a two-year trial. they decide that out of the new quota they'll try to keep the haul of young fish to below half. representatives from pacific rim nations have also agreed to halve the catch of younger bluefin in the northwestern pacific. that's the latest in business for this hour. i'll leave you with a check on markets. ♪

♪ we'd like to update you on our lead story. japan's chief cabinet secretary says north korea's special investigation committee has reported no specific information about japanese abductees. yoshida suda says the committee will investigate the faft abductees without regard to the outcustom previous probes. he also says the investigation will be conducted from new angles and that it will cover special organizations that possibly carried out the

abductions. as we've been reporting, a japanese delegation held two weeks of talks in pyongyang with members of north korea's special investigation committee. in 2002 five abductees were returned to japan. however, the fates of 12 japanese citizens whom the committee recognizes as abductees are still unknown. engineers from a city in western japan have crossed an ocean to help tackle a shortage of water. they're showing people in fiji how to fix leaky pipes. and they're gaining experience that will also benefit people back home. more from nhk world's mia siyama. >> reporter: people in fiji can always depend on their water supply. half the water in the pipes leaks out. residents in some areas don't get any. some collect rainwater.

>> we have to wash our dishes like this. >> reporter: engineers from the japanese city of hukoka are helping to stop the leaks. they've suffered many water shortages back home. they figured out ways to avoid wasting a single drop. hiroto oda spearheaded those efforts. in the late 1970s oda worked night and day to deal with a severe water shortage that hit fukuoka for ten months. he carried on working after retirement, saying he spent two years in fiji as a volunteer for the japanese cooperation agency, or jca. >> translator: some people who live on high ground have no

running water. even though they have pipes. i wanted to help them. >> reporter: fijians were glad to have their expertise. they wanted more of his kind of help. so they asked his old employer. >> fukuoka city must have really done something right. so we want to learn, what did they do right? how did they go about it in steps? >> reporter: the japanese engineers are helping over three years. they began by showing locals how to pinpoint a leak. the trick they shared is to find where the water is making the most noise. >> we're very happy about having a good relationship with japan,

fukuoka city, in giving us the knowledge on how to improve our system. >> reporter: the japanese are doing more than just teach. some are also learning. fukuoka now has the lowest pipe leakage in the world. their work in fiji is a unique chance for younger engineers to gain skills and knowledge. >> translator: coming to a country with high leakage gave us our first chance to learn the basics. >> reporter: oda feels the project is producing results. >> translator: it's great to have the group here because we can achieve more than a single volunteer. >> reporter: fukuoka and fiji

are an ocean apart. but when it comes to water saving, it seems they could hardly be closer. people in both places are excited to know that even more cooperation is in the pipeline. mie suyama, nhk world, fiji. a u.s. research team has built the world's first mini stomach. they used ips cells which can turn into various types of body tissue. pe say their work will help them develop new drugs and potentially cure diseases. the group included scientists from the university of cincinnati. they cultured human ips cells in a special jet nous substance for about a month. the cells formed lumps measuring 2 to 4 millimeters in diameter. researchers found three-dimensional structures similar to gastric mucosa inside the lumps. they also confirmed the structures have many folds similar to ones in human

stomachs. and they discovered the folds have glands that secrete glaftric fluid. when they infected the structures with the bacteria they started to grow similar to the early stages of stomach cancer. university professor hiraok hiraoki okano says researchers have been able to observe stomach structures only after they've become diseased. >> translator: having been able to make a similar structure of the human stomach is a huge advantage. it will increase the progress of stomach cancer research. >> okano says their experiment will significantly contribute to developing new cures. people on the big island of hawaii are watching lava from an erupting volcano inch toward their homes. authorities are urging residents to evacuate as the molten rock closes in on one community. fresh lava flows at the kilauea volcano began in june. the molten rock has traveled 35

kilometers east and is now approaching the 800 residents of pahoa village. officials say the lava flow is advancing at an average speed of 10 meters per hour. earth barriers are being erected along utility poles to prevent outages. evacuation centers are being set up. local authorities are contacting residents whose homes may be at risk. >> i think it's pretty scary. the anxiety is building up. and it's like a slow torture. >> we're moving out. we're actually spending the next couple days -- >> evacuating. >> -- probably to move completely out. >> it is time now for a check of the weather. people in tokyo are dealing with wet weather conditions. mai shoji joins us with more. >> we have a three-day weekend coming up here in japan. looks like drizzles will be on and off on our friday across the eastern locations. we have a high pressure system sitting east of japan.

and the pacific coast will still see the wet rainy weather. but as that pulls out to the water we have another system which is a very heavy rainmaker. it is now bringing about 80 millimeters to hunan province. and that's going to be stretching into the korean peninsula. so along the yangtze river around 70 millimeters of additional rain before it moves into the korean peninsula and covering much of japan. a tropical depression east of the philippines not directly affecting land masses but we're seeing very messy conditions across the philippines and also the indo-o'china peninsula where flooding is occurring. there are chances of on and off heavy showers. on toward northern locations, hazy conditions are going to be dissipating due to the rain coming in in and around beijing. the air pollution level will be improving. ulan bator looking at some snow very much like winter out there. as for our three-day weekend

forecast, this is halloween day. people out here in sapporo will be able to enjoy the foliage. beautiful trees coloring out there. and down toward naha, i know a lot of foreign residents are here. we'll be seeing some clear skies and then partly sunny, partly cloudy skies into monday. but take a look at this. rainy weather will be ongoing in much of the three-day weekend for us here in japan. out here in the americas the remnant low of ana is still lingering here and impacting the pacific northwest. we're likely to see about 50 millimeters of widespread rainfall and higher elevations. we'll see it turn white. it's offering covering much of california as well as washington. washington will be the heaviest bulk of that, dampen spirits there. while it's likely to pour about 110 millimeters of rainfall and then bone dry across much of the rest of the area. freeze warnings are in place

stretching from colorado and into the lower great lakes region. due to this system pulling that cold air. higher elevations in ontario, we'll see possibly 15 centimeters of snowfall and even down toward the south about the same amount piling up. to the east we're looking at some cooler temperatures. new york at 14. d.c. at 15. chicago just 6 for your high and we have a winter halloween there for you on our friday. out here in europe, similar picture here. again, hasn't really changed since the beginning of this week. another system will be pulling in, bringing wet and windy conditions to the british isles. ireland, you'll see about 40 millimeters of rainfall, and then gusty conditions as well as on and off showers. so they're continuing to pound the flood area in western norway. the system is swinging a cold front that is quite potent and that's likely to pull into southwestern portugal, so you have a risk of large hail. but out here across much of the central locations gorgeous

weather for you in paris at 20 degrees. do enjoy that weather while you can. in madrid at 22 with sunshine because that cold front will leave coming into you by saturday. i'll leave you now with our extended forecast. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ and we'd like to show you one more story before we go. a hidden garden at an ancient palace in kyoto is now revealing its changing colors of autumn. the home of generations of the japanese imperial family has been opened to the public for a brief period. the main gate is usually reserved for the emperor, empress, and state guests. it's now open so that visitors

can enjoy the view of kyoto streets from inside the palace compound. this ox cart was used by aristocrats. the annual festival dates back 1,000 years and features a re-enactment of a procession using the ox cart. a replica of a palanquin used by the meiji empress is also on display. she moved to tokyo in 1869 during the transfer of the capital. >> translator: i can imagine when this palace was home of former emperors. i wish i could live in a place like this too. >> translator: i was impressed that everything here is so well taken care of. even the moss in the garden. >> imperial household agency officials say foliage is changing color earlier than usual this year. and that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in

tokyo. thanks for joining us.

. good evening, i'm tavis smiley. what the consequences might be if the grand jury convened in the missouri city shooting death of michael brown does not call for an indictment against the officer. it galvanized activists across the nation to see excessive force by police at some point come to an end. we're glad you joined us. that conversation coming up right now.