officials are weighing the timing of a summit meeting between obama and japanese prime minister yoshihiko noda. they say they plan to invite noda to washington in the first half of 2012, perhaps in spring. the meeting is intended to strengthen bilateral ties in order to jointly cope with the changing situation in north korea following the death of kim jong-un. the u.s. government needs stronger cooperation with japan so it can monitor the situation on the korean peninsula. it's also trying to resolve the issues surrounding north korea's nuclear development program. but some american officials say obama shouldn't meet one on one with noda until progress is made on the relocation of the u.s. marine corps futenma air station within okinawa prefecture. the futenma issue is expected to reach a critical juncture in the first half of this year because members of japan's central government are going to try to win the approval of local authorities in okinawa. >>> president obama also faces some serious challenges ahead of november's presidential election. the u.s. economy is struggling and unemployment

yoshihiko noda took office and approval is cut in half. he may be forced to call a general election. the survey suggests 30% of respondents support his cabinet. that's a drop of seven points from a month ago. it is half the approval rating cabinet had when he took office in september. the disapproval rating rose by seven points to 49%. looking at the people that disapprove of noda's cabinet, 45% said they have no confidence in its policies. another 27% said the cabinet lacks the ability to implement those policies. part of it was about the consumption tax. 38% said they disapprove. 26% approve. the survey also asked respondents if they want political change. 51% said yes while 42% said no. nhk world's commentator gave us some perspective on the poll and tough political choices facing prime minister noda. >> more voters are criticizing his ruling democratic party for not keeping campaign pledges it made when they took power in 2009. the prime minister wants to double the japan sales tax by 2015 to 10% from current 5. previously said they wo

officials are weighing the timing of a summit meeting between obama and japanese prime minister yoshihiko noda. they say they plan to invite noda to washington in the first half of 2012, perhaps in spring. the meeting is intended to strengthen bilateral ties in order to jointly cope with the changing situation in north korea following the death of kim jong-un. the u.s. government needs stronger cooperation with japan so it can monitor the situation on the korean peninsula. it's also trying to resolve the issues surrounding north korea's nuclear development program. but some american officials say obama shouldn't meet one on one with noda until progress is made on the relocation of the u.s. marine corps futenma air station within okinawa prefecture. the futenma issue is expected to reach a critical juncture in the first half of this year because members of japan's central government are going to try to win the approval of local authorities in okinawa. >>> president obama also faces some serious challenges ahead of november's presidential election. the u.s. economy is struggling and unemployment

the prime minister yoshihiko noda announced a cabinet reshuffle. that happened earlier today. his spokesman is here now. thank you very much for coming in. >> you're welcome. >> i want to pick up on the reconstruction first of all. i think the figures are around about 100,000 people are still in temporary accommodations. the debris has been cleared up. there are villages that still have the debris cleared up but no work is going on. there's a lot of frustration with red tape. what is the government doing about that. >> of course 3/11 was a major, major disaster. the government has been trying to help those people who are affected by tsunami and other quake-related disasters. we are moving on from recovery to reconstruction phase. the government just passed the $150 billion reconstruction supplementary budget. >> do you think you need to cut the red tape to move things faster? certainly that is the message which comes from many of the people in the area. >> right. so the tohok region, we are coming up with new special zones where there will not be regulations being applied as i

. >> the prime minister yoshihiko noda had face-to-face meetings earlier this month with the head of local municipalities. he asked them to back the plan. officials from fukushima prefecture and the eight municipalities started talking about how they should handle the matter. they had talks tuesday with residents. some citizens are struggling with the idea. >> translator: if you built the facility in tokyo, people there wouldn't accept it. it's only possible in futaba, but we are against the idea because it means the facility will be near our homes. then again, we can't send contaminated waste from our town somewhere else. >> the environment ministry hopes to secure a site for building an intermediate storage facility by the end of march, 2013. spokespersons say efforts to explain the necessity of this will continue, but it may take time before the ministry gets approval from local municipalities and residents. >>> many are casting a wary eye on japan's economic future, but one british journalist has a different take. bill emmett, former editor of "the economist" and tokyo correspond

. >> prime minister yoshihiko noda said japan has a duty to share the lessons from the accident. if the government wants to export nuclear reactors, they need to keep their promises and show how they are going to guarantee their safety. >> that was nhk world's susumu kojima. >>> u.s. president barack obama is putting the final touches on the state of the union. the president delivers the annual address on the state of the economy and his legislative agenda. obama will deliver the speech this year with the presidential election in mind. americans head to the polls in november. so he'll speak to their economic concerns while laying out the themes of his re-election campaign. we'll carry the state of the union live here on nhk world. that's coming up at the top of the hour. now, japan's december trade data show deficits for the month and for the year. ai uchida from the business team with those details. >> japan posted its first trade deficit in over 30 years in all of 2011. this is due to a plunge in exports following the earthquake and nuclear accident last march. the finance mini

officials are weighing the timing of the summit meeting between obama and japanese prime minister yoshihiko noda. they say they plan to invite noda to washington in the first half of 2012, perhaps in spring. the meeting is intended to strengthen bilateral ties in order to cope with the changing situation in north korea following the death of its leader kim jong-il in december. the u.s. government needs stronger cooperation with japan to monitor the situation on the korean peninsula and trying to resolve the issue surrounding north korea's nuclear development program. but some american officials say obama shouldn't meet one-on-one with noda until progress is made on the relocation of the u.s. marine corps futenma air station within okinawa prefecture. the futenma issue is expected to reach a critical juncture in the first part of the year because members of the japanese government are going to try to win the approval of local authorities in okinawa. >>> south korea's president, lee myung-bak, used his new year's address to promise to do all he can to maintain peace and stability on the korean pen