in this project, four companies, including hitachi and toshiba, employed cutting-edge technologies and created six robots in just six months. but the robots were never used. in 2006, the project disposed of the robots. >> translator: the nuclear industry had a view that robots were not capable of doing things that were easy for humans. they thought workers could do the job faster, so robots were not necessary. >> reporter: the government project had concluded that human beings could perform the same tasks and that the robots would not be useful at the site of a nuclear accident. refusing to give up on robot development, the professor saved some of the robots and displayed one at a science museum in tohoku. >> translator: the robots may not have been up to par the first time, but if we had continued our development efforts, we would have been able to improve them to be really useful at accident sites. >> reporter: until then, japan had only concentrated on developing robots that could rescue people from debris caused by natural disasters. for example, hitachi construction machinery hold

inhis project, four companies, including hitachi and toshiba, employed cutting-edge technologies and created six robots in just six months. but the robs were never used. in 2006, the project disposed of the robots. >> translator: the nuclear industry had a view that robots were not capable of doing things that were easy for humans. they thought workers could do the job faster, so robots were not necessary. >> reporter: the government project had concluded that human beings could perform the same tasks and that the robots would not be useful at the site of a nuclear accident. refusing to give up on robot development, the professor saved some of the robots and displayed one at a science museum in to nop the efrt wouave been able to improve them to be really useful at accident sites. >> reporter: until then, japan had only concentrated on developing robots that could rescue people from debris caused by natural disaster for exame, hitachi cotiacry debris with one arm and cuts it with t oerrmutt lacked the ability to perform actions requiring a more delicate touch. the machine did prove i

let's talk about the japanese industrial giant, hitachi and mitsubishi. they agreed to establish a new company. i had tachy and mitsubishi are expected to merge their businesses to form the company. sources say the two have reached a brought agreement to invest 50% of the capital each to establish the new entity in april of 2013. they are expected to announce the agreement in the near future. the field in which the two plan to merge businesses are expected to be the key to developing smart cities powered by renewable energy. the companies have formed an alliance in the business with an eye on emerging economies. they hoped to integrate the power businesses with that of mitsubishi electric. they could develop into a full merger. once again, the top story, japanese industrial giants i had tachy and mitsubishi have agreed to start negotiations to establish a new company. they are mernling in energy, virp, and social infrastructure to form a new company. we will keep you updated on the details and join us later on. at the top of the next hour with the latest

m mitsubishi and hitachi competing to get some market share in the renewable energy sector, which is highly competitive. for now the nikkei down over 190 points. we'll see how that trades throughout the session. back to you in the studio. >> thanks a lot. the nikkei has plunged further down over 300 points or a loss of 3.4% so far this friday morning. the yen is at 79. dollar yen 79.05. back to the main news. >>> the japanese government is planning to buy up cesium tainted beef that has reached the distribution chain. the plan will include beef with radio active cesium at levels within the national safety limit. the agriculture ministry developed a plan in response to calls for more support by beef cattle farmers. under the plan the government will buy 3500 head of cattle which are suspected to have been fed rice straw containing cesium in excess of the safety limit. the cattle will be cinerated. farmers who are unable to ship their cattle due to restrictions will receive about $630 per head of cattle. the government will also provide financial support to prefectures that are buying

toshiba and hitachi, down 4 to 4.5%. the hang seng was down 1.3%.r most of the day but it fell in the last few hours of trading. the top gainer is the hong kong exchanges and clearing. it closed up more than .5%. this is the holding company for the hong kong stock exchange itself. it's in joint venture talks with the shanghai and the shengjen exchanges. the shanghai composite also down 1.6%, the biggest loser of all asian markets today. new annual housing data showed housing prices rose 4.3%. the composite itself has fallen more than 9% as anti-inflation measures have hurt growth in stocks that list on this board. the asx 200 was down 1.22%. i mentioned the $10 billion hostile bid for foster's. resource-related stocks fell on slows of growth. bhp billotin and rio tinto. >>> investors weighed the latest set of corporate results against the economic and debt concerns. alison kosik has more from the new york stock exchange. >>> stocks pulled back from early gains to end the day basically flat wednesday. a batch of upbeat retail earnings helped boost th