. >>> earlier i spoke to nhk world's senior commentator hisashi tsuya. so, hisashi, is it unusual to have two aircraft carriers in this region at the same time? >> no, it's not that unusual. u.s. navy policy says there should be a presence of two carriers in the region. but this is not always the case because of demands elsewhere, so "uss george washington" has its home base in japan. the "uss john c. stennis" is based on the u.s. west coast but is on its way to the persian gulf to join the fleet. it arrived in the western pacific in mid-september. >> so is there anything unusual about what's happening right now? >> yes. the fact that the u.s. navy made the announcement in the first place. usually, it doesn't announce details about ships' movements except for port visits. this could possibly be due to the dispute surrounding the senkaku islands. the show of force could be for the -- for both china and japan. the implicit message could be for china to refrain from taking any provocative action and to give japan a sense of security. it remains unclear how l

. >> nhk world senior commentator hisashi tsuya. >>> as the presidential campaign heats up in the united states, employment figures are showing improvements in september. the news could provide a boost to the campaign of president barack obama. u.s. department of labor officials say the u.s. jobless rate dropped to 7.8% in september. the figure is the lowest since january 2009. employers added 114,000 nonfarm jobs in september, matching the expectations of analysts. the nonfarm sector is considered particularly sensitive to economic trends. 44,000 jobs were added in the health care sector. manufacturing employment edged down, shedding 16,000 jobs. >>> policymakers at japan's central bank unanimously decided to maintain current monetary policy. this comes after the rare attendance by the economic and fiscal policy minister. seiji maehara has been advocating aggressive monetary easing to get the economy out of deflation. after the two-day meeting through friday, the policymakers shared the view that personal spending remains steady as the jobs situation is improving. but they agree that ou