agriculture and fisheries minister koya nishikawa has announced he's stepping down.ishikawa came under fire after a media report said his political organization received a donation from a company subsidized by the government. he returned the money when he realized it could have been deemed illegal. >> translator: i've tried to explain but it never seems to be enough for those accusing me. so i submitted my resignation to the prime minister. i explained everything and i've done nothing illegal. >> nishikawa says he told the prime minister he doesn't want the allegations to hinder ongoing diet deliberations. >> translator: as the prime minister, i am responsible for choosing cabinet ministers. so i want to apologize to the public for causing the trouble. >> abe says he's appointed former agriculture minister hayashi to replace nishikawa. the prime minister says highish shi will push forward the farming policy and effort to make the industry attractive and profitable. >>> prime minister shinzo abe says the practice of hate speech against ethnic minorities must be stoppe

hoe nishikawa reports wp >> reporter: the debate over japan's right to collective vefl defense is nearing what may be the final stage. the outcome could determine where and how the country's self-defense forces are deployed. the japanese constitution currently allows them to be dispatched only when the country is under threat. the coalition is discussing whether the sdf should be allowed to go to the aid of closely related countries, as well. prime minister shinzo abe wants to change the current security policy to allow for such collective self-defense. >> translator: we'll resolutely protect people's lives and livelihoods. for that purpose, we'll proceed with security legislation that allows this country to deal with any kind of situation. >> reporter: the cabinet decided last july to allow japan to exercise the right. the july decision limits such protection to u.s. forces. but the government and ldp are considering allowing the sdf to also help other countries, including australia. policymakers are discussing how to respond to what they call gray zone situations involving infringement

mitsuko nishikawa, nhk world. >>> japan's economy is showing positive growth for the first time after the consumption tax hike last april. ron madison is here with the latest on this story. >> gene growth not really meeting analyst expectations but no real complaints here. that's because the expansion for october to december is the first that we've seen in three quarters. the officials say a recovery in personal spending gave some momentum to the gdp figures. officials at the cabinet office say the fourth quarter figure grew in real terms by 0.6% compared with the previous period. that translates to annualized growth of 2.2%. and they say consumer spending rose 0.3%. people are loosening their purse strings after holding back since the consumption tax hike last april. capital spending by companies picked up. that figure grew by 0.1%. now the officials say strong demand from abroad contributed 0.2% to gdp. the weaker yen helped to lift the country's exports to the united states and asia. still, they're a bit concerned by housing investment. that figure was down 1.2%. the consumption ta

mitsuko nishikawa, nhk world, tokyo. >>> a scholar in egypt has translated to one of japan's best knownga into arabic. barefoot gen tells a story about the atomic bombing of hiroshima. the series was originally created in ten volumes by the late keiji nakazawa. it's about a boy who is orphaned in the bombing. nakazawa based the story on his own experiences. it's been translated into over 20 languages. a bookstore in cairo held an event to celebrate the release of the first volume in arabic. it was translated by a professor of japanese at cairo university. he spent time as a student in hiroshima. he says he made a translation to let people know about the suffering caused by the attack. >> translator: i want young people to understand the tragedy of the bombing. i think if they see the picture and think about what happened they'll start thinking more seriously about peace. >> he plans to translate the last nine volumes of the series over the next two years. >>> the arctic chill is still covering much of the u.s. and canada creating frozen sights. our meteorologist sayaka mori joins us for