at 20:00 (JST), May 21

Japan's Foreign Minister has urged South Korean President to exercise leadership in solving the bilateral issue of wartime labor.

Japan's Finance Minister has suggested that the country's economy will pick up despite some weakness seen in domestic demand.

Nearly 350 foreigners have passed Japan's exam for working visas under a new system aimed at easing the country's labor shortage.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20190521200000_english_1.mp3


Key words : foreign minister urged exercise
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_24/

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono has urged South Korean President Moon Jae-in to exercise leadership in solving the bilateral issue of wartime labor.

Kono was speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday, a day after the Japanese government asked South Korea to agree to establishing an arbitration panel in line with a 1965 bilateral agreement. The request came as South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said his government cannot resolve the issue alone.

Kono said Japan has dealt with the issue while reserving its complaints, but it can wait no longer now that Seoul says what it can do is limited. He described the present situation in bilateral relations as crucial.

Kono called on President Moon to deal with the matter with responsibility.

He added that if Seoul says what it can do at home is limited, it should naturally agree to set up an arbitration panel. He also hinted at bringing the matter to an international court if necessary.

Key words : Suga has asked
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_28/

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has asked South Korea's new ambassador to Japan to quickly establish an arbitration panel to address the bilateral issue of wartime labor.

Suga spoke to Nam Gwan-pyo when he made a courtesy call on Tuesday to mark the start of his time in Tokyo.

Suga referred to Japan's repeated requests to South Korea in line with a 1965 bilateral agreement to set up an arbitration panel that includes a member from a third country.

He said that under the agreement, South Korea is held responsible, so he wants the country to quickly resolve the issue.
Tokyo and Seoul have been at odds over a series of South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese firms to pay damages to those who say they or their relatives were forced to work for the companies during World War Two.

Meanwhile, on North Korean issues, Suga and Nam recognized that it's important for their two countries to work together.

Key words : finance minister
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_25/

Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso has suggested that the country's economy will pick up despite some weakness seen in domestic demand.

Aso commented on the preliminary GDP figure released Monday that shows an annualized growth rate of 2.1 percent for the January to March period. That marks the second-straight quarter of expansion. But corporate investment and consumer spending fell.

Aso said that business investment was not so strong, and that companies appear to have postponed their spending a bit. But he said that jobs and corporate profits remain at high levels, and that Japan's economic fundamentals are firm. Aso also said spending from this fiscal year's budget is just getting underway, suggesting a bump in economic growth.

Key words : nearly 350
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_33/

Nearly 350 foreigners have passed Japan's exam for working visas under a new system aimed at easing the country's labor shortage.

The first results of the exams, which began last month, were announced on Tuesday.

Out of 460 foreign candidates, 347, or about 75 percent, passed the exam for visas to work in the restaurant industry.

Successful applicants will be able to start working as early as July, depending on the results of their Japanese language proficiency tests.

Last month, job-seekers in the restaurant industry reached nearly 3 times the available number of exam slots on just the first day of the application period. This caused the agriculture ministry to schedule an additional exam within the month.

The ministry also plans to increase the number of exam dates and venues for June, and will accept about 2,000 applications.

More than 140,000 foreigners are already working in the restaurant industry. The government plans to admit up to 53,000 foreign workers over the next five years.

Key words : labor ministry
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_26/

Japan's labor ministry has requested the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to carefully manage the safety of foreigners hired for decommissioning work.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, announced last month that it plans to allow foreigners to work at the facility through Japan's new visa program.

The ministry sent a notice to the utility on Tuesday instructing it to secure a level of safety for foreigners that is at least equal to what is offered to Japanese workers.

It requests that TEPCO manage foreign workers' radiation exposure levels and keep their Japanese language skills in mind when conducting safety training. The ministry has asked the company to deliberate and report back.

Labor Minister Takumi Nemoto told reporters that most foreigner workers in Japan under the new visa program are not used to the country's labor customs, and will return to their countries in about five years.

He said such factors should be taken into account when establishing a safety management system.

Nemoto added that under the current system, extremely cautious deliberation is necessary on whether to have the foreign workers engage in decommissioning and other radiation-related work.

Key words : Koike plans to
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_29/

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike says she plans to draw up by December a strategy to effectively reduce the city's carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050.

Koike announced her plans at the Urban 20 Mayors Summit talks, which began in the Japanese capital on Tuesday.

Representatives from 26 major cities around the world are taking part in the event to discuss global warming, sustainable economic growth and other shared concerns.

The Paris Agreement on climate change aims for virtually zero emissions of global greenhouse gases by the latter half of this century.

Japan's government has set a goal of cutting domestic emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government has gone a step further, and plans for effectively zero emissions in Tokyo by 2050.

The strategy will include a 40 percent reduction in incinerated plastic waste by 2030.

The U20 Mayors Summit wraps up on Wednesday with a joint statement, which will be formally presented to the Group of 20 summit in Osaka next month.

Key words : US government eased
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_18/

The US government has eased some restrictions on business dealings with Huawei Technologies for three months, about a week after the Chinese telecom giant was blacklisted.

The US Commerce Department last week banned American companies from doing business with Huawei and its 68 affiliates in the US and other countries, including Japan.

On Monday, the US Commerce Department partially eased restrictions on transactions between US companies and Huawei for three months. The measure is designed to limit the impact of the company being blacklisted on its customers around the world.

The department said the move was aimed at maintaining existing networks using Huawei products and providing software updates to existing Huawei handsets.

Relevant business transactions with Huawei and its affiliates based on contracts signed before last Thursday were permitted between May 20 and August 19.

The department said it will judge later whether to extend the exemption beyond three months.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the new authorization is intended to give telecommunications providers that rely on Huawei equipment time to make other arrangements.

Some regional telecom companies in the US are using Huawei equipment in order to cut costs.

Key words : Indonesian president re-elected
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_10/

Indonesian President Joko Widodo was re-elected for his second term in last month's presidential vote.

According to the official result, released by the country's election commission on early Tuesday, Joko won 55.5 percent of votes. His challenger, retired military general Prabowo Subianto, captured 44.5 percent in the April 17 election.

Joko obtained wide public support by implementing infrastructure projects and attracting foreign investment to the country, achieving annual economic growth of around five percent during his first term.

Prabowo has refused to accept Joko's victory, claiming widespread cheating in vote-counting. He is urging his supporters to take to the streets to protest.

The Indonesian government has deployed more than 30,000 police officers and troops in the capital Jakarta to brace for possible unrest.

Key words : Disney
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_27/

Tokyo DisneySea has begun its largest expansion project ever.

The operator, Oriental Land, started construction on a 100,000-square meter parking lot for the 2.3 billion dollar project.

The new area will be called Fantasy Springs and consist of three areas inspired by the Disney films "Frozen," "Tangled," and "Peter Pan."

It will include four attractions, a hotel, and restaurants, and is scheduled to open by March 2023.

At a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, Oriental Land Chairman and CEO Toshio Kagami said he aims to make the resort the only one of its kind.

Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert Iger also attended the event and expressed support for the project.

A record of more than 32 million people visited the Tokyo Disney Resort in fiscal 2018. But it continues to face tough competition from Universal Studios Japan and others.

Key words : news key word segment We take a deeper look at Tokyo Disney attractions
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Key words : group of researcher artificial
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190521_13/

A group of researchers says artificial intelligence was able to detect early stage lung cancer with more than 90 percent accuracy in a test, showing its potential to help doctors make more accurate readings.

The study conducted by the group that included IT giant Google and Stanford University was published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday.

First, the group used more than 42,000 CT lung scans from patients with various conditions to train computers to recognize patterns in a process known as deep learning.

They then had the computer system analyze 6,716 CT scans with known diagnoses. The software detected lung cancer in early stages with an accuracy ratio of 94 percent.

They said AI missed tumors or misdiagnosed benign spots as tumors in only a few cases.

The system performed as well as expert radiologists when earlier scans were available. It did slightly better than experts when no prior scan was available.

Lung cancer is the most fatal cancer in countries including the United States and Japan. Finding tumors at an early stage is crucial in treating the disease.