Hello, welcome back to NHK Newsline. I'm Maria Sato in Tokyo.
RUBIO: OPERATION TO END IN WEEKS, NOT MONTHS
Saturday marks one month since the start of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, and the situation remains uncertain.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he expects the operation to end in weeks, not months.
00:00:29 話者 2/Marco Rubio
We are achieving all those objectives. We are ahead of schedule on most of them, and we can achieve them without any ground troops, without any.
00:00:37 (Maria Sato)
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon is looking to send up to 10,000 additional troops to the region.
President Donald Trump says he will again pause attacks on Iran's energy facilities for 10 days.
A former commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tells NHK he's skeptical of those remarks.
00:00:59 話者 3/Hossein Kanani Moghaddam/Former commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
It appears that Trump is seeking time to complete his forces in the region to confiscate the islands in the Persian Gulf.
00:01:10 (Maria Sato)
He stressed that the Iranian side will continue all-out resistance.
The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven Nations have discussed the conflict.
They released a statement calling for an immediate halt to attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
The ministers met on Friday, just outside Paris.
The statement says there can be no justification for the deliberate targeting of civilians, as well as attacks on diplomatic facilities.
The ministers also stressed the need to permanently restore toll-free, safe and free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains effectively closed.
Japan's Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu spoke to reporters after the talks.
He called for an urgent calming of the situation.
00:02:04 話者 4/Motegi Toshimitsu
There was no difference between our basic stances.
Japan will maintain close communication with partners, including the G7.
00:02:16 (Maria Sato)
Motegi also commented on Japan's position on worsening relations with China.
He stressed the importance of a complete denuclearization of North Korea, and called for understanding and cooperation in resolving the abduction of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang.
TOKYO'S CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN FULL BLOOM
With much of Japan under sunny skies and warm temperatures on Saturday, crowds of people in Tokyo were out enjoying the first day of cherry blossoms in full bloom.
00:02:53 話者 5/Japan Meteorological Agency staff
I've confirmed that 80 percent of the cherry blossoms have bloomed, so I declare they are in full bloom in Tokyo as of today.
00:03:07 (Maria Sato)
Japan's meteorological agency made the announcement after observing the benchmark cherry tree at the capital's Yasukuni Shrine at around 2 p.m.
The daytime high in central Tokyo by that time had reached 19.4 degrees Celsius.
The city's Somei Yoshino cherry trees have reached full bloom two days earlier than last year and three days earlier than average.
Sunday is expected to be another sunny day over wide areas of Japan with temperatures similar to those typically seen from mid-April to early May.
This makes for ideal cherry blossom viewing weather.
JAPAN'S FOREIGN POPULATION HITS RECORD HIGH
Japan's foreign population has reached a new milestone topping 4 million for the first time.
Immigration officials say that as of the end of last year, the total stood at 4.12 million, up 356-thousand from the previous year.
The largest group is from China, with more than 900-thousand people, followed by Vietnam and South Korea.
Nearly 950,000 now hold permanent residency. And more than 470,000 have the visa that covers fields such as interpreting or data processing.
Around 465,000 students were in the country.
Immigration officials also revoked the residence status of over 1,400 technical trainees for working outside the permitted roles and other reasons, an increase of more than 260 from the year before.
Deportations rose to 318, the highest on record.
At the start of this year, there were an estimated 68,000 undocumented foreigners for reasons such as overstaying their visas, down by more than 6,000.
US DISPLAYS CUTTING-EDGE SPACE TECHNOLOGY FOR LUNAR WORK
The US Department of State introduced cutting-edge space industry technologies to foreign media via a tour.
The event came before the first crew launched to the moon under the US-led Artemis Lunar Exploration Program.
A ship carrying four astronauts is scheduled to lift off from Florida as early as April 1.
The craft is to be the first crewed ship to orbit the moon and return to Earth since the Apollo missions about 50 years ago.
The two-day tour was held through Thursday in Seattle, home to many space-related firms.
Five companies briefed participants on technologies for extracting rare material called helium-3 from lunar sand and bringing it back to earth.
The material is expected to be in demand to use for cooling various equipment.
00:06:05 話者 6/Virginia Staab/US Department of State
This tour is timed perfectly right in advance of the Artemis II to build excitement and to showcase American superiority in the space sector and also commercial opportunities that exist for companies and foreign investors and domestic investors to get into space ecosystem here in the United States.
00:06:23 (Maria Sato)
NASA says it will shift its focus to construction of a base on the moon after landing astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028.
US ISSUES ALERT OVER NEW SECURITY RULES IN HONG KONG
The US government has issued a security alert for American citizens in Hong Kong.
It says new security rules may apply to their personal electronic devices, including smartphones and laptops.
The move comes after Hong Kong's government revised enforcement of the national security law on Monday.
Under the changes, those who refuse to submit passwords or help decrypt electronic devices could face up to one year in prison and fines of up to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, or about 12,700 US dollars.
On Thursday, the US Consulate General in Hong Kong said the change applies to everyone, including US citizens.
It says the Hong Kong government has more authority to take and keep any personal devices that it claims are linked to national security offenses.
The Hong Kong government says the changes are in response to abrupt and unpredictable security risks.
But observers say there are concerns they are being applied arbitrarily.
JAPAN'S SAKAMOTO WINS 4TH FIGURE WORLD TITLE IN FINAL EVENT
Japanese figure skater Sakamoto Kaori has won a career fourth woman's singles world title in her final competition before she retires.
The silver medalist at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games landed all the jumps in her free skate at the World Championships in Prague on Friday.
She scored a personal best in the free skate, with her overall score also a career best.
No Japanese figure skater has ever won four World Championships before.
Sakamoto said she was really glad she was able to skate in front of all the fans and expressed gratitude for their support.
Outstanding.
Those were the headlines for this hour.
♫～ 3-DAY FORECAST ～♫
And that's the latest we have for you at this hour on NHK Newsline.
I'm Maria Sato in Tokyo. More to come on NHK World Japan, so stay with us.
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