Hello. A very warm welcome to NHK Newsline. I'm Yamamoto Miki in Tokyo.
North Korea has announced it will hold a key meeting later this month. The focus will be diplomatic policy as Pyongyang prepares for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House. The ruling party's newspaper says the Central Committee plenary meeting will confirm North Korea's direction for next year. It says there will be discussions and decisions around important issues.
They will come about a month before Trump takes office. The president-elect became the first U.S. leader to meet with his North Korean counterpart during his first term. Reuters has reported that Trump's team is mulling fresh talks with Kim Jong-un, though nothing has been decided.
Pyongyang's big meeting also comes as Kim has grown closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin... with thousands of North Korean troops reportedly deployed to Russia to help fight against Ukraine's forces. Kim used last year's plenary session to make some major announcements. He unveiled plans to launch military spy satellites, and Kim shifted his stance toward South Korea. He called it a hostile country, which is no longer a potential counterpart for peaceful unification.
2025 also marks the final year of North Korea's five-year national defense plan. All eyes are on whether Kim mentions his country's nuclear and missile development at this meeting.
The International Court of Justice is weighing what legal obligations countries have to fight climate change.
The hearing kicked off at The Hague in the Netherlands Monday. It's in response to a UN General Assembly resolution from last year. It asked the court to issue an advisory opinion about greenhouse gas emissions under international law. The goal is to clarify what the legal consequences are for countries that cause significant harm to the climate. The question is especially critical for small island states like Vanuatu. The Pacific nation is endangered by rising sea levels.
We find ourselves on the front lines of a crisis we did not create. There is an urgent need for a collective response to climate change, grounded not in political convenience, but in international law.
Delegates from over 90 countries are expected to take part in the proceedings.
They will run until December 13th. The court is expected to issue its opinion as early as next year.
China is allowing visa-free visits by Japanese nationals on short-term trips for the first time in nearly five years.
It had previously allowed visa-free visits for up to 15 days before suspending the policy amid the coronavirus pandemic. It is a notable development in relations between the countries, but it's also raising some questions.
China on Saturday resumed its visa-free program for Japan and eight other countries. The eligible length of stay has been doubled to 30 days.
Beijing says the program will continue through the end of next year.
I'm on business. It's very convenient that we no longer need to get a visa.
I used to live in China and I'm visiting a friend. I'll probably come here more often on business as well.
This company in western Japan manufactures and sells machinery for brewing sake. Exports to China sometimes account for more than 40% of its annual sales. The company says it sometimes took about two months to get a visa.
In the field of sales or machinery repair, it is important to respond quickly and timely to sudden requests.
Teachers and students at Eimei University also welcome the move. They hope to resume exchange programs with universities in Beijing and Shanghai.
China is geographically close to Japan and a familiar country to Japanese students. I expect the number of exchange students to increase to the pre-pandemic level.
This travel agency says it's already seen a jump in the number of people asking about tours in China. It hopes the visa-free program will help return tour numbers to pre-pandemic levels, but says some people have been raising safety concerns, too.
We advise our customers not to visit crowded places in China or go out alone at night.
And earlier, I delved into the political significance of this move with our Beijing correspondent, Nakamura Genta. So Genta, here in our neck of the woods, many do welcome the resumption, but what about from Japanese living in China?
Miki, most I spoke with in Beijing are feeling the same way, but they also see it as unexpected. In fact,a diplomatic source on the Japanese side called the resumption a genuine surprise.
That's because Beijing had tied the resumption to reciprocal majors from Tokyo to its travel for Chinese visitors to Japan. But in this case, Beijing moved ahead without seeming to get anything from Tokyo first.
Right, at least nothing publicly announced anyway. So what's Beijing's motivation?
Well, of course, there is an economic boost, something China can really use right now. But it's also bracing for the big political shift in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to power in January, with some steep tariffs on China on his agenda.
That's expected to escalate tensions between the countries. Beijing may see stabilizing ties with Japan as one way to ease diplomatic risks.
You also have to understand the reality here. The prolonged real estate slump and slowing economic growth have taken their toll. Beijing likely aims to boost the flow of business travelers and tourists, and to encourage investments from Japanese companies as to stimulate its economy.
So, do you think this move will play out the way Beijing hopes?
There's significant skepticism around that when you factor in how Japanese and Chinese appear to feel about each other. Japanese think tank the Genron NPO and China International Communications Group conducted an annual survey in both countries. About 2,500 people in total responded between October and November.
It says 89% of Japanese respondents hold unfavorable views of China. There are some big issues between the countries these days, including the opaque enforcement of China's revised anti-espionage law.
For instance, a Japanese employee at a major pharmaceutical company remains detained without clear charges.
It's one of several cases that has deeply unsettled foreign businesses, not just Japanese, operating in China.
And now getting to the safety concerns referenced earlier, they add another layer of complexity. In the just past six months, there have been two violent incidents targeting Japanese children. One of the incidents resulted in the death of a boy in Shenzhen. Chinese authorities have yet to provide detailed explanations to Japan.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the Chinese side mirrors this mistrust. The same survey I mentioned shows 87% of Chinese respondents hold unfavorable views of Japan. To truly increase exchanges between the countries, the resumption of the visa-free program alone won't suffice.
Both governments have significant work to do to address the deeper issues dividing them.
The BBC has included two Japanese in its 2024 list of 100 inspiring and influential women. It's named a barrier-breaking comedian as well as a plaintiff who won a landmark legal battle. The British broadcaster celebrates Watanabe Naomi as someone who's paved the way for a new generation of female comedians. It says she's challenged Japan's beauty standards with body positivity, launching a plus-size clothing brand. The BBC also lists Suzuki Yumi, who, along with 38 other plaintiffs, sued Japan's government over its now-defunct eugenic protection law.
It says she was born with cerebral palsy and sterilized when she was 12.
The BBC says this year, Suzuki won her court case after Japan's Supreme Court ruled what she endured was unconstitutional. Watanabe and Suzuki are just some of the women highlighted on this year's list, including others from Asia. The BBC also named Beijing-born filmmaker Chloe Zhao, the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director. as well as South Korean Olympic shooter Kim Yeji.
She went viral at this year's Paris Games for her skills and what the BBC calls her Ice Cool demeanor.
A new drug to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, has cleared a major hurdle on the path to being produced and sold in Japan.
An expert panel at the health ministry on Monday gave the green light to Tofersen. The drug was developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company Biogen. The next step will be formal approval by the ministry. ALS is a neurological disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. It affects an estimated 10-thousand people in Japan.
Officials at the firm's Japan arm say the drug is for ALS patients with a mutation in a specific gene called SOD1 that accounts for about 2 percent of ALS.
Scientists say the mutations cause the creation of abnormal proteins and lead to symptoms. Tofersen is expected to prevent the production of such harmful proteins. Experts say the new drug will be the first for use in Japan that addresses an underlying cause of ALS.
It's time now for our check on the world weather with our meteorologist Jonathan Oh. Jonathan, people in parts of Malaysia are reeling from deadly flooding that took place this weekend. What's the latest?
Hello, heavy rainfall has been impacting especially the northern areas of Malaysia over the past several days that in the process has caused some major flooding in the area. Here's a look at some video to give you an idea of the situation on the ground as heavy rainfall brought severe floods to parts of northern Malaysia, leaving a trail of disaster over the weekend. Authorities say 27 people have died so far, and on Monday residents were seeing cleaning up mud from their homes and stores. And although water levels have started to recede, more rain is expected this week. I mean, this is more tropical areas. We see a lot of convergence of the moisture and really gathering all that rain together and dumping in the same general area and we're looking at that to be the case as we go through the day on Tuesday into Wednesday where we see that heavy rainfall continue to be in the area. So that's going to be a continued problem for those especially who are dealing with the aftermath of flooding to see more rainfall could compound the problems that they are already facing. We go up toward the north into the eastern areas, northeastern areas of Asia and we are looking at some snow to be a part of the story across northern portion of Japan as a low pressure system scoots out over the Sea of Japan and brings that northwesterly flow into the northeastern portion of the country. Behind that high pressure is the big story and so it's going to be relatively dry in places like Beijing and also into Seoul. We're looking at a temperatures though in the single digits, so still on the cooler side on Wednesday, but Tokyo. We're going to be above average for this time of year. Partly cloudy skies, a high of 17 as we go through today on Wednesday.
Looking at what's happening across North America, we had this kind of a Clipper set up that's been moving out of the Pacific, excuse me, the Midwest and down toward the Carolinas. So yeah, we're talking about snow and dusting of snow, but into North Carolina seeing some of that taking place with the high pressure bringing a northwesterly flow, which means the Great Lakes area may be seeing some of the lake effect snow continuing.
As we go today on Tuesday and look at this down to Atlanta, looking at high of only six single digit highs that far South, it's going to be chilly for the eastern areas as we go through Tuesday.
Hope you have a good day wherever you are.
♫
And that is all for this edition of NHK Newsline. I'm Yamamoto Miki in Tokyo.
Thank you for staying with us.
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