at 18:30 (JST), October 30

Asian View
"Asian View" is a five-minute news segment broadcast by NHK WORLD-JAPAN. It features the latest news and deep analysis from Japan and the rest of Asia. Listen to "Asian View" and get the latest information from a region that's playing an increasingly important role in the world.





https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20231030183000_english_1.mp3


Key words : seoul 1,000 police
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231029_04/

Police and local authorities in Seoul are stepping up safety measures ahead of Halloween in the city's Itaewon district, where more than 150 people died a year ago in a crowd crush.

People have been visiting the popular entertainment district to mourn the 159 victims, most of them young, who lost their lives. They include two Japanese citizens and one person who later committed suicide.

Messages reading "Rest in peace" have been posted on walls along the narrow alley.

More than 1,000 police officers have been mobilized for crowd control this year at 16 popular areas of the city.

Fences have been placed in the center of alleys, so that people on either side walk in one direction.

A system has started that uses artificial intelligence to analyze video from security cameras to notify authorities when a crowd seems to be forming.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stressed on Wednesday that his government is working to prevent similar incidents.

But families of the dead say that the response by police and local authorities at the time of the incident was inadequate. They call the crush a man-made tragedy and are demanding accountability.

Key words : former premier age of 68 deployed
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231028_18/

People in inland China have paid their respects to former Premier Li Keqiang who died in Shanghai on Friday.

The country's state media report that Li suffered a heart attack and died shortly after midnight at the age of 68.

In the city of Hefei, Anhui Province, where Li spent his childhood, a long line of mourners came to pay their respects to the former premier on Saturday.

They laid flowers with messages praying for the repose of his soul.

Among the mourners was a woman in her 40s who came with her child. She said Li's death made her heart sink, and she wanted to offer flowers in his memory.

Police officers were deployed.

Last year, gatherings in Shanghai and other cities to mourn victims of a fire which occurred under China's zero coronavirus policy developed into mass protests.

The Chinese government is apparently trying to prevent ceremonies honoring Li from developing into anti-government protests.

Key words : group of seven unnecessarily
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231029_12/

Trade ministers from the Group of Seven nations have called for immediately ending measures that unnecessarily restrict trade.

The ministers adopted a statement before wrapping up their two-day meeting in the western Japanese city of Osaka on Sunday.

Their discussions centered on such issues as how to respond to "economic coercion," which is used to pressure trading partners by restricting trade or raising tariffs.

In the statement, the ministers said they "strongly call for the immediate repeal of any such measures that unnecessarily restrict trade, including the newly introduced import restrictions on Japanese food products."

This comes after China suspended imports of Japanese seafood products following the release of treated and diluted water into the sea from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

This is the first time that calls for retracting the suspension have been incorporated in the outcome document of an international conference.

The statement also denounces actions to "weaponize economic dependencies." It says the G7 members will accelerate coordination with non-G7 countries to bolster supply chains of semiconductors and critical minerals, including lithium, a key component for EV batteries.

The document also emphasizes the G7's continued cooperation in ensuring fair competition. It vows to build more robust international rules and standards in a bid to counter protectionism and other market-distorting measures.

The statement also touches on the issue of reforming the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization. It says the ministers will deepen their discussions on this topic with an eye to a WTO ministerial meeting in February next year.

Key words : anti-terrorism southern india
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231030_02/

Three explosions have occurred at a prayer session of the religious group Jehovah's Witnesses in southern India, killing at least one person and injuring more than 50 others.

Indian police say the blasts took place at a convention center in Kerala state on Sunday. More than 2,000 people were attending the event.

Police suspect an explosive device was used. The government has sent an anti-terrorism team to investigate the incident.

In March, a gunman attacked a facility related to Jehovah's Witnesses in Hamburg, Germany. The shooting left eight people dead, including the suspect.

Key words : human rights pakistan
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231029_11/

Pakistan's decision to deport people it says are in the country illegally has raised concerns among 1.7 million undocumented Afghan nationals who are staying there.

The Pakistani government is urging all migrants without legal status to voluntarily leave the country by November 1 or face deportation.

The government says Afghan nationals are suspected of being involved in more than a dozen suicide bombings this year.

Pakistan has become home to a large number of Afghans who fled their country to escape the hostilities that began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan about 40 years ago.

When the Taliban retook power in 2021, people affiliated with the ousted government and human rights activists fled to Pakistan.

Authorities in the capital, Islamabad, demolished some homes of Afghan nationals, prompting criticism from local residents.

Human Rights Watch has issued a statement, warning that "the Pakistani authorities' threats to deport more than one million Afghans puts them at grave risk of being returned to persecution and other abuse."

The international rights group urged the Pakistani authorities to "end police abuses and deportation threats."

Key words : myanmar living in japan
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231029_15/

People from Myanmar now living in Japan held a rally demanding democracy in their home country.
Sunday marks 1,000 days since the military coup there.
The demonstrators want to keep global attention on Myanmar's plight...even as the world's focus turns to conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

About 200 people from Myanmar and their supporters gathered in central Tokyo to protest military rule.
They walked through the capital chanting, "Free Myanmar, free our leaders."

The country has been in chaos since the military seized power in February 2021. It toppled the democratically elected government and ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Pro-democracy forces have been fighting against the junta, which has brutally cracked down on all dissent.
A local human rights group says more than 4,000 civilians -- including children -- have been killed since the coup.

A UN humanitarian agency estimates nearly two million people have been internally displaced. Many need life-saving assistance.

A participant said, every time she is about to lose hope, she remembers the faces of her friends detained by the military. She said, "The world seems to have forgotten Myanmar as time passed. But please support us until our pro-democracy movement wins."

A Japanese participant said a video about displaced children in Myanmar moved him. He says they live without access to education, or even enough food and water. He said, "I can't accept that they live in total despair without hope, when we live on the same earth in such different conditions."

Myanmar people at the rally said they want the world to see they have not given up.

Key words : research conducted embryos
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20231028_16/

A team of Japanese researchers says they have found that mammalian embryos develop normally in space under microgravity conditions.

The researchers, including Professor Wakayama Teruhiko of Yamanashi University and a team from the Japanese space agency JAXA, conducted an experiment on the International Space Station.

They sent frozen mouse embryos on board a rocket heading to the ISS in August 2021.

After the embryos were thawed and cultured by astronauts for four days, they investigated whether the embryos developed into blastocysts. A blastocyst consists of cells that develop into the fetus and the placenta.

The researchers found that 17 of 72 embryos, or 23.6 percent, developed into blastocysts under microgravity, while 19 of 61 embryos, or 31.1 percent, developed into blastocysts under artificially-created conditions where gravity was the same as that on Earth.

The researchers say gravity had no significant effect on the development of mammalian embryos.

They also say, in terms of DNA and genes, there were no differences between blastocysts cultured under microgravity and those cultured under artificial gravity conditions.

They say this was the first-ever such experiment to demonstrate that mammalian embryos develop normally in space.

Previous experiments conducted under artificial non-gravity conditions resulted in lower birth rates as the embryos hardly developed into placenta.

Professor Wakayama says the experiment produced an unexpected result as there was little difference in the development of embryos with or without gravity.

He says his team plans to transplant the blastocysts into mice to see whether microgravity affects birthing.