welcome to nhk "newsline". hour. friday marks the 10 year anniversary of the indian ocean tsunami. people have been praying at disaster sites in thailand, indonesia, sri lanka and elsewhere. nhk world roselyn debhavalya is in kalak, one of the hardest hit parts of southern thailand. the tsunami killed more than

8,000 people in southern thailand. people attended an official ceremony on friday. the area is one of southeast asia's most popular resorts. officials and visitors as well as families of victims prayed for those whose lives were cut short. the ocean swept away not just locals, but foreign tourists on their christmas holidays. one in three victims was a foreigner. the deluge followed a massive earthquake off the indonesian island of sumatra. it hit many coastal communities from southeast asia to eastern africa. the waters obliterated the indonesian province of aceh. close to the quake's epicenter. more than 160,000 people were killed. the passing of a decade seems to have done little to ease the grief of many people at an official ceremony on friday.

>> translator: i'll never forget what happened ten years ago today. i'll pray for everyone who died in the tsunami. >> physically, there are many signs of recovery. in aceh province, international aid has helped rebuild 140,000 homes and construct over 3,500 kilometers of road. but many challenges remain. i recently took a firsthand look. banda aceh has made a marked recovery, but traces of the tsunami can still be seen, especially along the coastal areas. memories of december 26, 2004, seem vivid in people's minds. the atmosphere here at the biggest graveyard in aceh remains quiet and solemn. more than 46,000 people were buried here when the tsunami struck. there were so many victims that

burials were conducted too quickly for bodies to be identified. items believed to belong to the tsunami victims are kept in a red cross office. >> translator: these are the identification cards used to identify the victims of the tsunami. >> reporter: staff say people still turn up, hoping for clues to their missing loved ones. of course, each of the casualties had a name and a family. but with so many victims, it's too easy to lose sight of this fact. people in aceh tried to preserve evidence of the tsunami to prevent their experiences from fading. a fishing boat stranded on top of a house is one such remnant. tourists come here to learn about the disaster. >> translator: this place has become a memorial site for banda aceh. people on the ship waited for more than eight hours for the waters to go down. >> translator: i came to see

what really happened in aceh. now i can see rapid development and that reconstruction has been quick. >> we don't mean that to commercialize the sufferings, the pain of the aceh people, but it has been ten years. you know, we cannot always cry. we cannot always have a teardrop. but now it must shift from tragedy into opportunities. one of them is tsunami tourism. >> reporter: after the disaster, aceh received significant foreign assistance. this village in a suburb of banda aceh was rebuilt with aid from turkey. many houses were erected. people's lives are said to be even better than before the tsunami. the governor says international aid has been crucial in aceh's reconstruction. >> translator: we are grateful for the assistance, but the

region has not yet fully recovered. we still have a host of issues to overcome. it's now time for the aceh people to really break our backs for reconstruction. >> reporter: a decade after the disaster, it seems the people of aceh have recovered some calm. just days after the disaster in 2004, nhk world met a man whose story over the past ten years echoes aceh's ruin and recovery. he tells us how the province was able to rebuild. >> i walked around banda aceh a few days after the tsunami. the devastated city stank of sea water and dead bodies. i met an acehnese man, he was

desperate with grief. he told me his name was muhammad anshar. he was looking for his missing wife and baby boy, who was less than 1 month old. >> translator: neighbors told me my family tried to get in a car and escape from the tsunami but everything was swept away. nothing was left. >> reporter: he had ambitions to be a photographer. he told me all he could do at the time was document what had happened with his small camera. now ten years have passed and he's a cameraman for aceh's largest newspaper. he has shot more than 20,000 pictures over ten years since the disaster. he says he often looks over his tsunami images. these pictures are from a

ceremony commemorating the disaster victims. so many people lost friends and family. he says that's why there's so much crying at every ceremony. >> translator: it was a great tragedy. lots of people were killed. many others lost their loved ones. i wasn't the only one who suffered. >> reporter: aceh's destruction was so complete that almost everything seemed lost. but signs of hope appeared from early 2005 in the form of foreign relief. he took this photograph of u.s. helicopters landing. >> translator: the help that volunteers and troops brought us was very valuable because at that time the people of aceh were still completely traumatized. we couldn't do anything. >> reporter: shortly after the disaster, the decades long civil

conflict ended. photos from 2006 shows aceh's past elections since the central government and armed separatists made the deal for peace. anshar says the tsunami created momentum for people to work together. >> translator: during the civil conflict, we had no freedom and nobody would help the people of aceh. but now our opinions are heard by the local government. i can say democracy is being practiced here. >> reporter: for the tenth anniversary of the disaster, ann has planned an exhibiting with local photographers. the theme is recovery. he is one of the survivors. he fought to overcome the tsunami scars, in his case with a new family. >> translator: now is the time for people in aceh to rise.

the future has to be better than life before the tsunami. >> reporter: there are tens of thousands here like anshar. the recovery tells us life must go on. nhk world, banda aceh. nature has been harsh on the asia-pacific region in the decade since the indian ocean tsunami. another catastrophe struck in 2011 in the form of the great east japan earthquake. you could say such tragedies are a sort of reminder that we need to be better prepared. we should be able to bounce back from disaster. we must build communities that are stronger and more resilient than what we had before. it's the best way to ensure these sudden and irrational deaths have not been in vain. roselyn debhavalya, nhk world. chinese leaders are urging americans and north koreans to settle their differences over a

movie calmly. "the interview" is a comedy that shows the fictional assassination of kim jong-un. officials in beijing don't want it causing any more animosity. >> translator: this movie is stirring controversy. china hopes all parties concerned will show restraint and handle the matter calmly. >> russian officials sided with north korea. foreign ministry spokesperson said the idea behind the film is aggressive and scandalous. he said the way officials in pyongyang have reacted is understandable. he questioned the u.s. government's claim that a cyber attack on sony pictures came from north korea. he said the americans have not shown any direct evidence. north korean officials denied any involvement. executives at sony pictures cancelled the film's release and was accused of giving into intimidation. they reversed their decision and

put the movie out this week. intelligence officials are joining hands, agreeing to share classified information to better deal with threats from north korea. a south korean defense ministry source says they'll pull intelligence on the missiles and nuclear programs. the information will likely come from satellites, radar systems and human agents. none of the three governments may give data to outside parties without written consent from the other two. the japanese, u.s. and south korean defense chiefs agreed in may they needed to share information on north korean threats. the japanese and south koreans were planning on signing a bilateral deal two years ago but officials in seoul pulled out at the last minute. opposition leaders criticized them for negotiating behind closed doors. leaders in washington later persuaded the south koreans to cooperate. officials in seoul will share information with the japanese via the americans and avoid more

public criticism. representatives of the three governments say they'll sign the deal this coming monday. members of a group who help asylum seekers say more people have applied than ever before. they are pushing the government to allocate more resources. representatives of the japan association for refugees say the number of applicants topped 4500. they say that's an increase of 1200 from last year. and they say it's the highest number since japan adopted a refugee recognition law in 1982. applicants in financial difficulty can get government help with living and housing expenses but the screening process is so slow that some run out of money and end up homeless. they are pushing the government to help more quickly and

comprehensively. i want the government to create a system that covers applicants from the time they arrive in japan to the time they get the final decision, without any holdup people can fall through. >> group members run a shelter and say it's always full of asylum seekers who run out of money and lost their homes. japan post group has officially announced a plan to list its holding company on the tokyo stock exchange. it could take place as early as next autumn. >> translator: we've decided to list the three entities simultaneously because the group needs to quickly secure freedom of management. we also need to establish an independent management system. >> the government has a 100% stake in japan post holdings, which owns all the shares of the two financial units, japan post bank and japan post insurance. japan will sell their in

phrases, initially aiming to load off half. selling one-half would allow them to launch new businesses without government approval. the government plans to use revenues from the listing to rebuild the region hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. japan post says it will reveal next summer the scale of shares to be put on sale. a major newspaper has declared to regain trust following an uproar over the misreporting. earlier a report was issued on the issue of those known as comfort women. the paper's president and two executives held a news conference on friday. >> translator: we are deeply

remorseful for falling into an inward looking attitude of acting in self-defense when we came under criticism. we pledge to carry out reforms to win back public trust. >> in august the paper retracted a series 1980s and 1990s and based on an acts of a man and the judge ruled his story as false. they failed to apologize when they made retractions because then the president objected. they indicated that editors also decided not to publish a freelance journalism column on the issue afs reservations were pressed. the new executives will respect editorial independence and not interfere with the content of articles and commentaries except

if the content may endanger the paper. when management sees a pressing need to intervene, it will do so based on rules that clarify who is responsible and consult a standing panel of experts. the paper's editorial division will continue to check articles after they are published and promptly correct any inaccuracies and will launch a mechanism to take in leader perspectives. the countdown of the remaining days in 2014 has started and the "newsline" team has been working throughout the year to keep you up to date on what's happening in japan and around the world. we now look back at some of the year's top domestic stories. >> prime minister abe said 2014 would bring about a big improvement in the country's economy. despite his optimism, the

economy turned worse. in april, the sales tax was increased from 5 to 8%, causing many consumers to reign in spending, which led to a drop in japan's gdp. but it wasn't all bad news, monetary easing by the bank of japan led to a drastic fall in the yen's value. the strengthening of the u.s. economy attributed to the downward trend. for the first time in seven years the yen reached the 120 level against the dollar. the weaker yen boost d stock prices and nikkei average has been hovering around 18,000 yen for the past month. the highest level in more than seven years. 2014 also brought changes on the diplomatic front. north korea promised to carry

out fresh investigation into the whereabouts of abducted missing japanese. chinese ships entered japan's exclusive economic zone to poach coral. elsewhere, chinese vessels continue to intrude in japan's territorial waters. but last month the two countries finally held summit talks for the first time since 2012. >> abe had a busy year strengthening diplomatic relationships around the world and visited 25 countries. >> people around japan had a chance to celebrate the country's contribution to scientific advancement. three japanese born scientists received the nobel prize in physics for blue light emit diodes, l.e.d.s. >> it's my duty to continue with

my work toward the next new breakthrough. >> another hero emerged in the world of sports. nishikori became the first japanese tennis player to win the single final at the u.s. open. >> translator: i felt if i could play at my highest level i could beat the top players. that's the way i felt throughout this tournament and that has boosted my confidence. >> congratulations japan. >> unesco recognized two japanese heritage sites, first the first state run silk mill. it helped with the country's

industrialization. another was japan's traditional washi paper making technique. >> there were also controversies. scientist obukata claimed her team produced cells that could be developed in any type of tissue. it turns out some of the results were fabricated. >> a video of a news conference of a local politician became an unlikely internet sensation. he was prosecuted for misusing public funds. >> the japanese archipelago was hit we natural disasters. more than 70 people were killed

in deadly landslides caused by heavy rain. >> huge amounts of debris, including piles of lumber from crushed houses are covering the whole area i can see. >> on mount ontake, another 57 people died following a volcanic erupti eruption. >> pipes are going to be inserted into the soil. >> the news line team continued to cover the aftermath of the 2011 fukushima daiichi nuclear accident. workers at the crippled plant are in a decades long path towards decommissioning the facility but been struggling to contain tainted water. towards the end of this year, prime minister abe tested voter's support for his

policies. the december election turned out to be a landslide victory for the ruling party. people in japan are watching to see whether the economy will be revitalized in 2015 and beyond. people around the world can find hello kitty on everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs. the popular character was created in japan 40 years ago and current designer believes the pop culture icon shows no signs of slowing down. >> los angeles, california, usa. 25,000 fans gathered at a venue in little tokyo in october to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the birth of hello kitty. >> i love hello kitty!

>> i'm a fan since 1978. and my daughter is a fan too. been a fan for 40 years. >> with her red bow and little dots for eyes, she's adored by children and adults everywhere. the world famous pop star lady gaga is known to be an ardent fan and hit the headlines for wearing this dress. designing hello kitty is her life. after graduating from art school, hello kitty made her debut six years earlier but sales were stagnating, she was given the task of breathing new life into the character. she felt what hello kitty needed was a story that young girls

could identify with. >> translator: i felt that i wouldn't be able to create a story for hello kitty if i didn't become friends with her. and walk alongside her. so i talk to her every day. >> yamaguchi finds interacting with fans is the best way to get a feel for what they want. she held more than 1,000 signing parties in japan and other countries. >> hello kitty is currently sold in 130 countries and regions. she's been made into luxury jewelry and is coveted by wealthy older customers as well as the young. there are now more than 50,000 products feet you'ring hello kitty. and they are said to bring in several billion yen every year. international sales are higher than sales within japan.

this is the design room of a clothing grand in los angeles. ever since several thousand hello kitty products are made here. they asked for permission to make changes such as adding a beard. designs are tailored to the tastes of each region. the success of this method of doing business explains why the international sales exceed those in japan. this past september, they launched a new project to expand the customer base yet further. it's called hello kitty men. the line features men's fashion items incorporating hello kitty, intended to counteract the idea that the character is only for girls. >> it looks cool. i'm not embarrassed to have

hello kitty products. i think they are great. iconic fashion pieces. >> yamaguchi said hello kitty is like a blank canvas. >> translator: i think she's the only character who can take on so many different roles. hello kitty can be reborn as a result of me wondering what people want me to do with the blank canvas. >> as yamaguchi draws on changing times to reinvent hello kitty, she's looks to inspire in fans in new generations and nationalities. >> here's the weekend weather forecast.

that's all we have this hour on "newsline." thank you for watching and have a good day.

good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with peter yarrow and noel "paul" stookey, the two surviving members of peter, paul, and mary about the publication of their new text titled "peter, paul, and mary :50 years in music and life," which chronicles the decades at the epicenter of music and the fight for social justice in this country. we're glad you can join us. a conversation about the life and legacy of peter, paul, and mary coming up right now. ♪