the government wants to set up disposal facilities in five prefectures near fukushima, but it is facingong local opposition. the ministry officials say the sites should have thorough security measures in place, including roofs, concrete walls and floors to prevent any leakage of radioactive substances. >>> "newsline" come to you live in tokyo starting with the weather update and a powerful storm system battling the pacific northwest. >> a series of lows moving into the area on tuesday severe floods occurred because of a powerful storm system. we have some video coming out of seattle. heavy rainfall continued in seattle wednesday and that brought flooding to the big city. at least three people were killed in washington state on tuesday and more than 360,000 homes were without power in the seattle area. storms packed gusts close to 80 kilometers per hour which toppled trees and power lines. it also left debris on many roads. now the system has pulled away but a new system is moving into the pacific northwest. more heavy rain is expected across the coastal areas including seattle on your t

. >>> following the disaster at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, many of the surroundings communities had to be evacuated with no people around wild animals took over and even though evacuation orders are being lifted, people are thinking twice about returning to their homes. >> reporter: hunter visits his home almost every day. since he had to move to an evacuation shelter in 2011, the town has changed unimaginably. his home now has new occupants, a family of wild boars and they show no fear of people. >> they are good at opening the door. they got in the house through a small gap between the wooden boards and destroyed the interior. they ate our rice bread. >>> more than four years have passed since residents were forced to evacuate after the nuclear disaster. wild animals have moved in claiming them as their own territory. in nearby town, after the evacuation order was lifted, the shocking incident took place. the family moved back in with their dog and it was bitten to death by a group of wild boars outside the house. >> it feels as though the dog sacrificed itself for us. >> repo

representatives from northeastern prefectures, including fukushima, set up their stalls in a shoppingenter. they're highlighting regional attractions such as food and hot spring baths. chinese tourists are flocking to japan in record numbers, but relatively few make it to the northeast. communities there are struggling to recover from the earthquake and tsunami. >> translator: more people will go there when they hear about it. >> translator: the cherry blossoms in miyagi look beautiful, and i'm interested in the food. i'd love to go. >> representatives say they want chinese to come visit with peace of mind. >>> let's take a look at the weekend weather forecast. >>> that's all we have for now on "newsline." i'm ross mihara in tokyo. from all of us here at nhk world, thank you for watching. anchor: flexibility. it sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? if you're flexible, then you can fit in with changing demand, take on different roles, rise to different challenges. but is "flexible" becoming little more than a euphemism for "dispensable"? welcome to "global 3000," where this week, we'r

yuko fukushima, nhk world. >> more for you next hour. here's another check on markets. >>> a u.s. navy destroyer's making a port call in shanghai. it is there as part of plans to promote naval cooperation between the u.s. and china. it is the first such port call since the two countries were in a diplomatic row last month. a u.s. navy vessel sailed through waters claimed by beijing off a reclaimed reef off the south china sea. the united states doesn't recognize territorial claims based on artificial means. it docked at a naval port in shanghai on monday afternoon. domestic and foreign media were invited to the welcome ceremony. during the ceremony, joint drills for communications and rescue maritime work are scheduled for the navy vessels. the "stethem's" commanding officer said the visit had already been scheduled during last month's dispute. >> we can learn from each other. over time we can build trust between the chinese navy and united states navy. >> last month, the united states missile cruiser sailed within 12 months of the disputed reef, drawing protests from china. follo

. >>> a wall at the damaged fukushima daiichi is leaning slightly. the operator says it doesn't stop the ability to block contaminated water from seeping into the sea. inspectors say the shift measures 20 centimeters and say pressure from ground water is the cause. utility says workers are reinforcing the wall with steel pillars. they are also repairing the cracks to prevent rain from raising water levels further. the wall stands 30 meters below ground and was finished in late october. >>> japan's supreme court has ruled that a disparity in the value of one vote in last year's lower house election was in a state of unconstitutionality. but the court dismissed the plaintiff's demand to nullify the outcome and urged the diet to reform the election system. two groups of lawyers filed lawsuits around the country demanding the results of last december's election be nullified. in the election, a ballot cast in the least populous constituency was worth 2.13 times the value of a vote in the most heavily populated one. the lawyers claim the disparity violated

yuko fukushima, nhk world. >> and a correction on the market report. singapore snapped a seven-day losing streak with a minor gain. we apologize for that mistake. that's it for business news. i'm going to leave you with the rest of the markets. >>> cabinet ministers from the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum have wrapped up two days of discussions in manila. talks focused on how to shape a free trade framework for the region. nhk world is covering developments from the philippine capital. >> reporter: the gathering was the first international meeting on trade since a broad agreement was reached on the transpacific partnership free trade deal last month. all 12 tpp members also belong to apec. japan and the united states are using the tpp model to push for a separate free trade area in the pacific rim. japan's economy, trade, and industry minister held bilateral meetings with those apec members which are not part of the tpp. hayashi underlined the significance of the deal saying it would accelerate trade and investment liberalization in the asia-p

. >>> the operator of the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant built along the waterfront is reducing the amount of radioactive materials flowing into the ocean. tokyo electric power company engineers completed a 780-meter-long piling wall along an embankment in late october. it's 30 meters tall. the wall is designed to prevent contaminated groundwater at the plant from reaching the ocean. tepco officials measured the levels of radioactive substances in seawater along the embankment to determine the barrier's effects. they say early this month the level of beta ray-emitting materials was measured at 32 becquerels per liter on average. that's down from 150 becquerels in mid-september. the level of radioactive cesium was reduced from 16 to 10 becquerels. the operator says it will continue to monitor the levels of radioactivity near the embankment to confirm the effects of the steel wall. >>> the japanese prime minister wants his country to become more productive. to do that shinzo abe thinks it needs to embrace the future. ai uchida joins us from the business desk. what exactly does he

company officials attribute this to the severe business environment created after the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant in 2011. they had been withholding the numbers for westinghouse saying accounting rules do not mandate the disclosure of subsidiary's results. toshiba officials say they don't include the write-downs in their group results as they expect the subsidiary to be profitable. >>> japan's nuclear regulator says a new entity is needed to operate a troubled prototype reactor. the nuclear regulation authority has called on the science and technology ministry to find a replacement, the first recommendation of its kind. if a new operator cannot be found, the ministry may have to scrap the facility. the fate of the reactor is likely to have a significant impact on the country's nuclear policy. the monju fast breeder reactor is located in surugua in fukui prefecture on the sea coast. it was meant to play a key role to recycle japan's nuclear fuel. spent nuclear fuel from conventional nuclear power plants contains plutonium which can be used as fuel in the monju reactor, and wh

company officials attribute this to the severe business environment created after the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant in 2011. they had been withholding the numbers for westinghouse saying accounting rules do not mandate the disclosure of subsidiaries' results. toshiba refishes say they don't include the write-downs in their group results as they expect the subsidiary to be profitable. >>> now let's check on markets. tokyo stock prices did open lower following sharp drops in the u.s. and europe. as you can see the nikkei still in negative territory, down 1.28%. 19,444. crude oil prices continued to fall signaling weak global demand. investors jittery about a growing divergence in monetary policies between the u.s. and the eurozone. let's see what's happening with currencies. the dollar is weakening for a second day as traders are buying the relatively safer yen. the dollar/yen is at the mid-122 yen levels. analysts say there's upward momentum for the greenback following comments from several u.s. federal reserve officials hinting at a rate hike next month. the euro is trading ag

nobody even talks about fukushima anymore. you know, when you're in the pacific, you actually care about the fact that there's almost no more fish. that the ocean is dying. it's terrifying to be on the receiving end of this society, this culture. it is terrifying every day. and because i'm hawaiian, people go wait, wait, wait, hold it, hold it. you're not supposed to be that angry. so then i gotta blame being irish. [laughter] but being angry, that's a healthy emotion in the face, you know, when you're facing down the united states. so, you know, unfortunately or fortunately for my people, i got invited to this amazing event. and i got to be a part of the conversation that's beginning today that will go on today and tomorrow. i'm incredibly the grateful for that opportunity, derek and max and leaire and sabrah and everybody that put this together and for all the work that you've done. i'm trying to get some of the radical environmental political thinking that goes on amongst you folks into hawaii. it's a tough gig because we'r

i feeling when you hear nuclear people still fear fukushima and say i don't want that.they fear accidents. and there are also concerns about the spent fuel and how that's disposed of. which is an environmental issue potentially. >> it is and it isn't. you have to start with what are we looking at and if you take all the spent rods from the 104 reactors we have had operating over 50 years and you lay them end-to-end you would fill up one football field to the height of the goal post. it's not something the size of maine. it also is not a gas. they are pellets. you can't use them. you can take a spent rot and stick it in a missile. they are safely stored on-site now. not optimal. they should go to one repository. they are a lot less expensive than the big ones. they are probably -- a big reactor is between $7 billion and $9 billion. these were probably in the $5 billion category. hey can be moved on-site whole and put down. they have great potential particularly in areas like the sub sahara or in the middle of this country where you are not on the grid and you don't have

i give to you the subject of the fukushima that is going on, an environmental disaster that they arecovering. the other thing is that the low-lying areas, all of this infrastructure that you are talking about, i get that, because i work installing and building infrastructure on my life -- i get that because i worked installing and building infrastructure all my life. if we don't start building up the low-lying areas now, when thereater does get there, is going to be an environmental disaster that nobody has talked about up until now. there is going to be a large have it withcan't corporate taxes and the corporate media ignoring it. in the third point i would like to make is that some of these -- and the third point i would like to make is that some of these people haven't taken time to understand this problem or don't think rationally or in an engineering point of view. they need to understand relational heating and cooling -- understand radiational heating and cooling. the ice iced windows -- dwindles, there will be a heat wave surge that none of them are prepared for, neither are t