for yuko yamaguchi, designing hello kitty is her life.hi started working after graduating from art school. hello kitty had made her debut six years earlier, but sales were stagnating. in 1980 yamaguchi was given the task of breathing new life into the character. yamaguchi felt that 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 talked to her every day. >> reporter: yamaguchi finds that interacting with fans is the best way to get a feel for what they want. so she's 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 featuring hello kitty, and they're said to bring in several billion yen every year. and international sales are higher than sales within japan. t

dollars bid for these assets, had no money in their bank account but were worded the assets in yukos.within a week they emerged with yost has been the shell company and we get into the details of who controls the shale company we can all figure out who it was. interestingly enough it passed with no problems. so what about the individuals who agree to putin's plan? rome in a brahma the owner of the football club chelsea is net worth increased but he had to agree to putin's plan. the wealthiest oligarch in russia today was born in -- uzbek ethnic. he is not even born in russia but he's a muslim set to putin is very pragmatic. it doesn't matter what religion you are or where you are bored if you play with putin's rule to let you keep what you have. then we get into the great game of the 20 century. let's first take a look at the 19th century. there were 321 global conflicts in the 19th century. 73 of those britain was involved in and 50, france. britain was a world superpower the time. 52 of those major global conflicts were in europe only and in the 20 century 53 major global conflicts

yuko has more on that. tell us what's the story here. >> people who run manufacturing firms had seen their work pick up, but in november, that changed because government officials say industrial output fell for the first time in three months. the economy ministry officials say production was down 0.6% in october. output decreased this eight of the 15 sectors they surveyed. they say the decline was particularly strong for semiconductor and battery modul modules. they expect things to be better in the months ahead. 5.7% in january. internal affairs ministry officials say prices for every day goods and services rose by 2.7% in november compared with last year. the price index has been climbing for 18 months. officials don't factor in the cost of fresh food because it tends to distort the result. the increase in the con supgs tax in april is partly responsible. they estimate that without the tax hike, the consumer price index would have about .7%. officials say as prices went up, many people in japan tightened

when masked men arrested him at gunpoint ino three, he was russia's richest man and the chairman of yukos oil. he and his partner platon lebdev were convicted on charges of tax fraud and embezzlement in two widely publicized trials. they were trapped in a judicial vortex that answers to political not legal considerations, it was said. his story has come to symbolize russia's return to authoritarianism. in his second trial, he told the judge, your honor, much more than our two face are in your hands. here and now the fate of every citizen in our country is being decided. he's lived in self-imposed exile in switzerland since his release. he launched his open russia foundation to challenge putin's grip on power. i am pleased to have mikhail khodorkovsky at this table pore the first time. welcome. >> hello. >> charlie: i looked forward to this conversation as you know since you and i met maybe six or seven months ago. tell me where you are today in your life as you see it. >> i have tried in the past few months to deal with some of the main tasks that i had to deal with in my family. unfortun

i'm yuko aotani in tokyo. first the headlines for this hour. the u.n. general assembly has voted in favor of taking north korea to the international criminal court for human rights abuses. >>> u.s. president barack obama has signed legislation authorizing new sanctions on russia but said he doesn't plan to impose them for now. >>> suspected boko haram militants have attacked another village in northeastern nigeria, killing dozens of people and kidnapping more than 100. >>> and residents of a town in northeastern japan are switching to renewable energy by tapping a power source beneath their feet. >>> members of the united nations want pyongyang in international court for human rights abuses. the u.n. general assembly approved a draft resolution denouncing north korea's rights report. it's the harshest of attacks submitted by japan and the european union over the last ten years. the draft says north korean officials have carried out wide-ranging abuses including torture and public executions and it urges the u.n. security council to refer the issue to th

i'm yuko aotani in tokyo. first the headlines for this hour. >>> north koreans are mark the third anniversary of the death of their former leader, kim jong-il. >>> a pakistani government is promising to crack down on terrorists after militants unleashed a deadly attack on a school. >>> investors are watching to see if oil prices will take another drop after hitting the lowest level in more than five years. >>> those are the headlines for this hour, but first, chinese leaders look set to increase investment in central and eastern europe. li keqiang has announced the financing of a high speed rail link in budapest. >> translator: cooperation will help reach our goal to achieve better growth. >> li taken heads of 16 countries gathered in serbia's capital for their annual summit. many expressed hope about china's investment in the region. >> translator: this region could become an engine to move stagnant european economies. potential for partnership is big especially in the areas of transport, infrastructure, and

i'm yuko fukushima. we're covering a lot of grounds today, but we start with the big picture. the global economy. it's a subject that has got a lot of people worried. falling oil prices, turmoil and grief and stalling growth rate are keeping

yuko fukushima has more. what is going on?> japan has no energy sources, especially after utilities shut down nuclear reactors, but that could be changing. government researchers are probing the floor for a type of natural gas called methane hydrate. now they say they have managed to collect soil samples containing the gas. they drilled in three locations off the sea of japan coast. they found samples containing methane hydrate at all three sites. the gas occurs in a frozen state. researchers have used a state-of-the-art ship to look for the deposits. they drilled the seabed to a depth of about 100 meters. some deposits were up to 1 meter thick. they plan to continue their survey in the sea of japan. they want to determine how much gas is there with the goal of starting commercial production. officials say their studies suggest nearly 1,000 sites contain deposits of methane hydrate. >>> japan's prime minister shinzo abe has delivered a message to business leaders and says that continuing to raise the salary of the workers is t

i'm yuko fukushima. they used to call it black gold. not so much these days. crude oil at the commodity has lost much of its glitter. the price of oildropped to its five years.

i'm yuko fukushima. they used to call it black gold. not so much these days. crude oil at the commodity has lost much of its glitter. the price of oil this week dropped to its lowest level in five years. in an energy region like asia, there are a lot of people

yuko, a festive mood over there at the stock market. what's going on? >> cheerful moods are spilling into the stock markets. you can see massive buy orders in new york on tuesday. and the dow jones industrial average closed above 18,000 for the first time ever. many data including the revised gdp said it was because of the strength of the u.s. economy. up 3.6%. u.s. share prices have gone up nearly three times since march 2009. that's when index had plunged to 6,547. analysts say investors are convinced that the u.s. economy is growing steadily with the revised gdp. the july-september period grew by an annualized 5%. the strongest growth in 11 years. the rally on wall street and the strong gdp figures are also fueling a positive mood here in tokyo. the nikkei index was higher by more than 200 points, and it is still up by 1.2%. investors are buying stocks almost across the board. especially major exporter shares due to a weaker yen, and talking about the currencies, traders are buying the dollar against the major currency. the euro is falling after the

. >> reporter: yuko matsumoto is a journalist who has reported from disaster areas around the world. on a visit to fukushima she became intrigued by paintings on the walls of temporary housing. >> translator: the paintings really helped me. they make me happy, and give me energy, and ease my mind. i'm grateful for that. >> reporter: matsumoto learned the artists were members of a high school club. she asked if one of the students could draw a manga or comic to help people prepare for disasters. shun's dream is to become manga artist, and he was already working on a comic about how people can protect themselves during disasters. >> translator: how did you come up with the story? >> translator: it's based on my own experience. i was at a friend's house when the earthquake hit. >> reporter: on march 11th, 2011 he felt the jolt of a quake and he panicked as he tried to escape. he says a passerby saved his life with a simple piece of advice. the person pointed out a power line that had fallen near a puddle. if he had stepped in the water he might have been electrocuted. >> translator: thi