hit your year anniversary, it's kind of like, "okay, this is really getting old now." >> reporter: okada keeps herself going with detailed lists of what she needs to do and what she's already accomplished. she says, otherwise, time can get away from her. >> i will have a busy day and really haven't done anything important. >> reporter: she also finds support at this weekly meeting of job seekers at a local church where people can network, get help with resumes and celebrate the occasional success. ( cheers ) mayumi also volunteers, offering advice that she has gleaned from her own year and a half on the job market. >> probably every three or four months, i have to actually look at, "is what i'm doing working?" >> reporter: once you've been out of work for a couple months, it can become harder and harder to put yourself out there, easier to just apply to things online and rely on e-mail. but job counselors say it's important to keep getting out, beat the streets, go to networking events, meet with people in your field and build your network in person as well as online. >> they need to mak

the current foreign minister, katsuya okada, has accepted kan's request for him to become the democratic party's secretary-gener secretary-general. chief cabinet secretary yoshio sengoku and finance minister yoshihiko noda are expected to retain their posts. in the new party executive line-up kan asked former party secretary-general ichiro ozawa and the party's upper house leader, azuma koshiishi to serve as his deputies. however, koshiishi told aides that both he and ozawa have declined the offer. now, on friday morning kan accepted the resignations of all current ministers at a cabinet meeting. before he launches his new cabinet this afternoon he will formally appoint new party executives at a meeting of all legislators from the party. the party meeting is expected to start soon. on friday afternoon kan will meet shizuka kamei, the leader of the coalition partner. after that he'll announce the line-up of the new cabinet. >>> eight years ago today north korea acknowledged it had abducted japanese nationals. however, a sense of disappointment lingers among relatives of the abductees. on

. >>> japanese foreign musliniste okada apologized for prisoners suffering in world war ii. they were taken to japan to be slave laborers. the pows are in japan for a week at the invitation of the japanese government. foreign minister okada told them they had been treated inhumanely and suffered greatly at the hands of the imperial japanese army. they said as a representative of the japanese government and foreign minister he extends his heart-felt apology. 90-year-old lester tenny is the group leader. he is a survivor of the death march and said he came as a marriage for the pows. >> this is our opportunity to seek the justice we have looked for all these years. we welcome the opportunity to start a dialogue between the japanese administration. >> tenny said it's regrettable that private japanese companies have yet to offer an apology to former pows. the companies used them as slave laborers. >>> a plane carrying 51 people crashed in eastern venezuela on monday, killing 15. the twin engine turbo prop atr-42, belonging to venezuela's state-run airline crashed about 10 kilome

japanese foreign minister cats yo okada and his german counterpart have agreed to step up cooperation in promoting nuclear disarmament. the two ministers met in berlin on tuesday. after the meeting they told reporters at a news conference that he will attend a foreign minister's meeting on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation in new york later this month. japan and australia have organized the meeting and about ten countries are expected to take part. >> recent outbreaks of a deadly bacteria in two hospitals in japan apparently started from patients who have never traveled abroad. experts say the superbug may be widespread in japan. the university hospital in tokyo recently revealed nine patients who died in the hospital were infected by the drug-resistant bacteria called acinetobacter. the superbug has also infected 24 people at fujita health university hospital in central japan since february this year. it had been suspected that the superbug came from foreign countries. however, the two hospitals say the first patients thought to be infected had not traveled abroad. an expert o