uchida understands his idea and offers to help. to allow as much moonlight as possible to reach the rocks, they're cutting off some branches. there had been no trees in ogimagaishi until about 30 years ago. uchida remembered what it looked like back then and agreed to do the cutting without a second thought. >> an open area of sky about ten meters across emerged. everything is ready now. december 21st, the longed-for day has finally arrived. >> translator: see ya! >> take care! >> the moon will reach its highest position at half past midnight, but the weather doesn't look so promising. at nightfall, clouds started to gather. uchida's friends came to join him. >> translator: the weather isn't in our favor. >> translator: not a breath of wind. >> translator: it's so still. >> who's this arriving? >> it's his daughter. and his wife! >> translator: would you like to come? come with me? bring your bag with you. >> translator: if you say so. >> translator: the wind has started to blow. >> translator: hey, look! the moon's out. >> transla

for details let's go back to ai uchida. >> major u.s. credit rating agency moody's has downgraded japan's sovereign debt by one notch on concerns over the country's worsening fiscal standing. on wednesday, moody's lowered the rating of longtime japanese government bonds from aa-2 to aa-3. the agency says the affects of the march disaster and resulting power outages are slowing down japan's economic growth. added the country has so far failed to hammer out viable plans for reforming its social security and tax system. following the ratings downgrade announcement, we spoke to tom burn, senior vice president and regional credit officer for asia and the middle east at moody's. >> the factors that prompted the downgrade were the large build-up in budget deficits and also the almost -- rise in government debt over the current policy framework. we cite one of the factors contributing to the rating downgrades was the frequent change in government and related to the frequent change of government is, so far, inability of the government to put into

ai uchida joins us from the business desk with details. >> thanks, catherine. >>> the jobless rate worsened while job availability improved in july. the unemployment rate was up 0.1% to 4.7% marking an increase for the second straight month. the internal affairs ministry says the number of unemployed stood at 2.9 million. the figure excludes those of three disaster hit prefectures. job availability improved for the second consecutive month. there were 64 positions available for every 100 job seekers in july. job availability for disaster stricken regions also improved. the ratio for miyagi and fukushima prefectures stood at 62. iwate was at 55. job offers from reconstruction businesses are rising but the situation remains grim in badly damaged coastal areas. >>> a separate government survey shows temporary employees accounted for nearly 40% of private sector staff last year. that is at a record high. the labor ministry polled about 10,000 offices and establishments with five or more workers as of october last year. the results show that the average ratio of temporary staff including contrac

. >>> time to switch gears now and look at the latest in business news with ai uchida. >> good morning to you, catherine. let's start with a story on two major automakers. toyota a ford will jointly develop new hybrid technology for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. the two auto giants announced in a news conference on monday that they have reached a basic agreement to develop a gas electric system with higher fuel efficiency. toyota has made its hybrid systems available to ford since 2004 but until now the two firms have been working independently to develop this kind of technology. in the united states, standards on fuel efficiency are expected to be tightened. so toyota has decided to develop hybrid pickup trucks and suvs. the two companies plan to introduce the new hybrid system in their own models independently before the year 2020. toyota and ford also agree to tie up in the development of new information technology for vehicles. >>> and now let's turn to the markets. here in tokyo markets have just opened and we're seeing japanese stocks moving higher on this tuesday mor

we go straight to business this hour where ai uchida has more. >> very good morning to you. with one day remaining until the deadline for raising the u.s. debt ceiling, the house of representatives has approved a bill drafted by democratic and republican leaders. >> the bill has passed. and without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. >> on monday, the lower house voted for the legislation which requires a reduction of $917 billion in spending over the next ten years. it also proposes setting up a bipartisan committee to compile a plan for further cuts of $1.5. the plan would also include raising the debt limit by $2.1 trillion. the legislation was not without opposition, however. some democrats voiced concern over large cuts in social security programs. meanwhile, some republicans criticized that the budget cuts are inefficient to rein in debt. but leaders of both camps managed to garner sufficient support within their ranks ahead of the vote. now the focus is on whether the senate will pass the bill on tuesday to avoid a default. on the tokyo foreign exc