ai uchida has more from the business desk. >> they are looking up at the sky. they want to utilize it. they all want to use flying robots, or drones, to expand their business. and the japanese electronics maker is the latest to get on the trend. sony holds a market share for sensors that work like human eyes and are used in devices like digital cameras. executives want to use the technology in drones. sony is considering drones equipped with these sensors to inspect infrastructure such as age tunnels and bridges. the drones can also be used to check how agricultural crops are growing. analysts say the economic effect of drones will be more than $76 billion in the u.s. alone by 2025. the new project may help sony rebuild its finances as its tv business has been in the red for the past ten years. in the i.t. industry there has been a global move to use drones for commercial purposes. u.s. based online retailer, azom.com announced in december a plan to deliver goods using drones. facebook announced a plan to beam internet signals to various parts of the world as a

ai uchida joins us from the business desk. >> what the people at the federal reserve say can move markets. that's why investors are always looking into policymakers' comments to glean what the fed might do next. for years they kept the interest rates near zero but they hinted that a strong recovery in the job market could lead them to change their approach. the policymakers released the minutes of their meeting last month. many of them said the labor market is improving faster than they had expected and they said it might become appropriate to begin removing monetary policy accommodation and raise interest rates sooner than they anticipated. but some policymakers argue there are still too many people who remained unemployed for a long time. and they point to others who have not managed to get a full-time position. most of them agreed they need to make sure the labor market and the overall economy are improving. then they could decide to raise rates. many investors had been expecting rates to go up in the first half of next year. but some are reconsidering after reading the latest minutes.

ai uchida joins us from the business desk. can you break down the details for us? the prime minister has plans to boost everyone but that requires money to kick off. and that's why the officials with japan's government ministries are set to demand 100 trillion yen or $960 billion for the 2015 fiscal budget. the record outlay highlights the struggle between the need to balance the government's growth plans and fiscal health. people at the health and welfare ministry will ask for about $304 billion. the biggest request ever. the money is need to cover pension and medical costs among other growing social security outlays as the country's population ages. prime minister shinzo abe's growth strategy is also driving up the budget. officials have decided to allocate nearly $40 billion for projects aimed at enabling the strategy. the total request for policy spending are expected to be some $730 billion. in addition, debt service costs will likely grow to nearly $250 billion as the balance of government bonds continues to rise. officials from each ministry will submit the

ai uchida joins us with more. >> the two nations already trade a lot of raw materials but china would like to scour a better foothold in its resource-rich neighbor. the leaders of both countries have agreed to deepen ties across a range of trade and economic issues. chinese president xi jinping is in mongolia for talks with the president. chinese media say the two signed an accord strengthening cooperation in trade, resources development, infrastructure projects and other areas. china is mongolia's largest trade partner largely thanks to exports of coal and copper. china wants to secure energy resources by helping to improve mongolia's infrastructure. it also hopes to use these economic links to boost political ties. analysts say mongolia has been wary of allowing china too much influence. so it has been building ties with japan which it calls mongolia's third neighbor after china and russia. >>> a task force with japan's main ruling party will call for a lower tax rates in regional economies. the move is part of prime minister's shinzo abe's attempt to rebuild the vitality of local a

. >>> things aren't going in the direction they want and ai uchida join us from the business desk. what can you tell us? >> we've seen month after month are more imports than exports, and things weren't so different last month either. finance ministry officials say july marks the 25th month in a row that trade has been in the negative, but the deficit has narrowed. the deficit for july came to about $9.4 billion. the monthly trade balance has been in the red since july 2012. exports rose 3.9% in yen terms from the same month last year, meanwhile, imports increased to 0.3 0.3%. pickup in auto exports continued to decrease in the deficit but higher demand for fuel for thermal power generation is keeping japan's trade balance in the red. >>> let's get an update on how investors are reacting to those numbers, ramin mellegard is standing by at the tokyo stock exchange. good morning, ramin. what can you tell us? >> thank you very much, ai. those numbers you just mentioned coming in a little bit wider than market consensus, but let's have a look at how the nikkei and the topix are reactin

ai uchida joins us from the business desk. >> akita amari is the one tasked with making abe nommics work and those around him have said this is japan's last chance for the economy. we have seen the stock market grow in the last 18 months and corporate earnings grow. but, gdp in the april to june quarter fell largely because of the consumption tax hike. amari has been watching it all play out. a business magazine says he has what it takes to deal with what's ahead. it has chosen him as one of the top 50 most influential leaders in the world. he is juggling economic reforms including cutting the corporate tax to overhauling social security to negotiations to reach a free-trade pact with asia-pacific nations. minister amari thank you for joining us. for our viewers watching we are going to be switching to simultaneous translation now. >> translator: thank you for being with us. according to the economic report last week, the april-june growth rate was minus 8.6% which was the biggest contraction since the japan earthquake. even after july department stores are facing an up hill battle. coul