people living in the cities of osaka and kyoto are expecting to face the most serious short fall. kansai electric power serves the region. it relies heavily on nuclear energy. customers will be asked to reduce their usage by 15% or more. customers further south in kyushu will be asked to reduce their usage by at least 10%. utilities in neighboring areas will be urged to save 5% or more so energy can be diverted to kansai and kyushu. shikoku and hokkaido electric power companies will have reduction targets of at least 7%. cabinet ministers will review the standards if two reactors at kansai's ohi plant go back online. municipalities surrounding the facility are debating a government proposal to restart the units. >>> a liquefied natural gas project led by japanese companies has begun in australia. australian prime minister julia gillard and japanese government officials attended a ceremony to mark the start of the project on friday. japanese resources developer inpex has been leading preparatory work on the $33 billion project off the australian coast. >> we have worked together wi

people living in the cities of osaka and kyoto are expecting to face the most serious short fall. kansai electric power serves the region. it relies heavily on nuclear energy. customers will be asked to reduce their usage by 15% or more. customers further south in kyushu will be asked to reduce their usage by at least 10%. utilities in neighboring areas will be urged to save 5% or more so energy can be diverted to kansai and kyushu. shikoku and hokkaido electric power companies will have reduction targets of at least 7%. cabinet ministers will review the standards of two reactors at kansai's ohi plant go back online. municipalities surrounding the facility are debating a government proposal to restart the units. >>> a liquefied natural gas project led by japanese companies has begun in australia. australia's prime minister and japanese government officials attended a ceremony to mark the start of the project on friday. japanese resources developer inpex has been leading preparatory work on the $33 billion project off the australian coast. >> we have worked together with a spirit o

from osaka, singapore, shanghai, taipei, and seoul, korea.h our offices and communities to promote education, trade, allow ourselves to educate ourselves continuously about the need to have a more advanced, smarter immigration policy for our country. and also one that we enjoy celebrating because we get a lot of talent from the other countries, which is why we want to be a gateway to the world. that is why we enjoy the celebration so much. with that, i like to invite former mayor willie brown and also the supervisors, please join us on the stage and be part of the witness and of the signing of the proclamation for this year imposed a celebration of the asian pacific heritage month. and supervisor cohen, come on up as well. [applause] >> with that, it is official, asian pacific heritage month is on. thank you, mayor li and everyone that came out to help with the signing of the proclamation. they are the cumulative efforts of the asian pacific heritage celebration committee. please welcome the founder and chairman of the heritage celebration co

(vo)outside kobe the main highway to the neighbouring city of osaka was wrecked.ilway lines were torn up bridges collapsed and the city was cut off from the outside world. known as the great hanshin earthquake, the disaster resulted in more than 6000 deaths in kobe and the surrounding area. in addition around 37,000 people were injured and 200,000 buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged. us engineer peter yanev was shocked by the scale of the disaster. >>it was by far the worst earthquake i have ever seen. it exceeded by far the japanese expectations. they expected moderate damage. maybe some significant damage.but for the most part light damage .what they had is essentially a war zone. (vo)in the aftermath of the earthquake thousands of people were left homeless. 50,000 fled the city, many of them never to return. the cost of the disaster was later put at between $150 and $200 billion. according to the guinness book of records this makes it the costliest natural disaster ever to befall a single country. the japanese authorities were severely criticised,

will be questionable if there such a larger scale disaster in a metropolitan area such as tokyo or osaka. i'm not sure if people would behave in the same manner. and so i think we can definitely utilize some technological advancements to mitigate some panic and also risk damages to the people. and i think information technology is such a critical issue that we have to continue to work on and also discuss. and i think if we -- if people are given an accurate and fair information, i believe that people would eventually reach to a right answer or a right decision. so as a fact, we temporarily lost all the communication resources and devices and infrastructure right after the disaster. so i think that we have to take this as a lesson, important lessons to learn for future disasters. and i think as other panelists mentioned, information sharing is a critical thing to be prepared for and also execute it correctly. >> my comment, again, directed at nuclear power plant safety and operations. you asked a question, what americans can learn from this occurrence. and the word "earthquake" strikes me

will be questionable if there is such a large scale disaster in a metropolitan area like tokyo or osaka. i'm not sure people will behave in the same manner. and so i think we can definitely utilize some technological advancement to mitigate some panic and also risk and damages to the people. i think information technology is such a critical issue to discuss. i think if people are given accurate and fair information, i believe that people would eventually reach to a right answer or right decision. >> translator: so as a fact we temporarily lost all the

investors say hiroshi admitted to selling falsely labeled beef from fukushima in february at a store in osakan western japan. police say he told them he didn't think people would buy meat from fukushima. agriculture ministry officials ordered the shop's operator last month to label its products correctly. they discovered it falsified the origin of 1.4 tons of beef. >>> myanmar has been called the last frontier of asia. as the former military regime opens up, it presents untapped economic potential. asian neighbors and western countries are reaching out to the formerly reclusive country. now manhoman singh is the first indian prime minister to visit the country in 25 years. singh vowed to help myanmar bolster its economy and democratization during his meeting with president thein sein on monday. singh outlined india's plans to improve transportation systems linking the two nations. and to support the regional development. he also stated india's readiness to aid the country's transformation to democratic rule. unlike many western countries, india has not imposed economic sanctions against myanm

hiroshi kutsukake admitted to selling falsely labeled beef from fukushima in february at a store in osaka in western japan. police say he told them he didn't think people would buy meat from fukushima. agriculture ministry officials ordered the shop's operator last month to label its products correctly. they discovered it falsified the origin of 1.4 tons of beef. >>> myanmar has been called the last frontier of asia. the country presents untapped economic potential as it opens up. now a first visit by an indian prime minister in 25 years. our bangkok bureau has the latest. >> as myanmar continues its efforts toward its democratization, its asian neighbors in western countries are reaching out to the formally reclu reclusive country. china has long had an influence over the country and now india is courting myanmar with a three-day visit by the prime minister. s singh vowed to help, during his meeting with president thien sien on monday. he outlined india's plans to improve transportation systems linking the two nations and to support regional development. he also stated india's readiness

osaka is the leading shareholder in kansai electric power company. the manager of ohi, the city's mayor said thursday for first time he agrees with restarting the reactors. >> translator: i'm effectively accepting the reactors restart so that we can make it through the summer. even though the safety assessments are based on tentative safety standards. >> people in the town of ohi and fukui prefecture say they want the government to fire up the reactors because their jobs are at stake. >> translator: i'm in favor of restarting because otherwise my farm, with this many employees, will collapse. >> not everyone feels that way. people living in the town of takeshima in the neighboring prefek which are worried. they live 30 kilometers away from the ohi plant. >> translator: i'm worried that something might happen. my baby is only 3 months old. >> translator: electricity is a necessity, but using it can be two accidents which affect all of our lives, so it is scary. >> it's scary because the march 2011 accident at fukushima daiichi highlighted the dangers

while the others were either opposed or undecided on starting up the plant which provides power to osaka. all 50 of japan's reactors are now off line. on the question of whether they should be restarted, about a quarter of respondents called for the abolition of nuclear power. more than half said operations should be resumed to meet minimum requirements. meanwhile, 5% said as many reactors as possible should be back into action. the poll was conducted from friday to sunday. >>> japan's southern island of okinawa observes an important anniversary on tuesday. may 15th marks 40 years since the island was returned to japan. american forces occupied okinawa at the end of world war ii and it remained under u.s. control until 1972. even today, though, okinawa is a base for thousands of u.s. troops. four decades later, people there are reflecting on their past. james tangen has more. >> reporter: 40 years on, an island freed of foreign rule but still struggling with the legacy of occupation. this is ginowan city in central okinawa. i will be reporting from here on monday and tuesday, the anniver

investigators say he admitted to selling falsely labeled beef from fukushima in february at a store in osakan western japan. police say he told them he didn't think people would buy meat from fukushima. agriculture ministry officials ordered the shop's operator last month to label its products correctly. they discovered it falsified the or gin of 1.45 tons of beef. >>> a sunny morning in tokyo, but residents are carrying their umbrellas. sudden thundershowers are in the forecast. rachel ferguson joins us now with the world weather forecast. >>> it is going to be a fine morning here in tokyo. we had those pop-up thunderstorms yesterday across much of honshu. we're going to get about the same today. but in fact the rain could be even heavier. parts of central japan including can to region could see as much as 50 millimeters of rain just in the space of one hour. so some very heavy rain that can cause flash flooding, which as you know very, very dangerous stuff. hail and tornadoes are also potentially -- we also have the potential for hail and tornadoes. so some pretty severe weather coming our

and people going on hunger strikes there was a large rally all around the country i attended one in osaka last month for the one year anniversary of the three eleven crisis so there is definitely an indication that the public is not going to to let the status quo continue very much any longer of course the japanese government now being pressured by the o.e.c.d. in the world economic council and other organizations to restart the reactors so i think we're going to see this coming to a head quite soon but but i don't think there's any sign that the public is going to let up on this or right james corbet at it so the colbert report thank you very much for sharing your views with us thank you. and coming up next hour here and i'll see in the wake of japan's crisis several nations began to scale back the nuclear ambitions and how so with reaction on atomic power germany has had ten that consequence a. president that for paths to leave the kremlin as he finishes his town of office on monday handing over to vladimir putin all that credit for liberal views and a push for reforms as well that star

the world over the next five years so far the bath time favorite has visited auckland new zealand osaka japan and the laura valley in france hoffman is no stranger to massive animal art previous creations of his including a giant yellow bunny it took over the streets of o'brien or rebrov sweden last summer talking about his motivation to create the giant dark hoffman. there were dark knows no front hears it doesn't discriminate people and it doesn't have a political connotation the friendly floating rubber duck has healing properties it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define keep your eyes open for those giant rubber duckie coming to a river near you. after the break are you fed up with being profiled in porn i was scanned at the airport one of americans sure is and they've come up with a high tech way to fight back against unwarranted airport profiles. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old until the truth. i confess and i am a total get of friends that i love traveling hip hop is a planned trip. but it was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world wi

we have read the press reports osaka balls found on the middleton island in my state, and the fishing floats and styrofoam insulation washing up on kayak and monica islands. these are mostly the high wind items which float high in the water and are pushed by wind. then there's a ghost squid boat that appeared office southeast panhandle and which was probably sought by the coast guard. and i want to thank you, admiral, for to do. and even the harley-davidson which washed up in british, columbia. from alaska to washington, the reports of tsunami debris are coming in. including reports of containers of hazardous materials such as oil and solvents. that's not surprising when you consider the entire cities that are gas stations, garages, warehouses, stores, industrial plants all washed into the sea, now becoming a threat to our shores. one of my constituents of the gulf of alaska keeper has worked on the korean debris issues for most of the last decade. he described the tsunami debris as a slow-motion and environmental disaster. that will far exceed any single pollution event to hit the we

would be questionable during such a large-scale disaster in a metropolitan area, such as tokyo or osakawhether people would behave in the same manner. >> [speaking japanese] >> i think we can definitely utilize technological advancements to mitigate panic and also risk and damage to the people. >> [speaking japanese] >> i think information technology is such a critical issue that we have to continue to work on and also discuss. i think if people are given accurate information, i believe people would eventually come to the right decision. >> [speaking japanese] >> because we lost all of the communications after the disaster, i think we have to take this as an important lesson to learn for future disasters. as other panelists mentioned, information sharing is critical, to be prepared for, and also to execute correctly. >> my comment, directed at nuclear power plant safety and operations -- you ask the question, what can americans learn from this occurrence? earthquakes strike me as a uniquely american word, but we have learned so much from the japanese scientists and engineers in terms of