It's a Monday evening here in Japan. I'm James Tengan in Tokyo.
Welcome to NHK Newsline.
Cuba Considers Drone Attacks on US Targets
US news site Axios has said Cuba is considering a plan to attack US targets with drones.
The report cites a classified US government assessments.
Axios said on Sunday Cuba has acquired more than 300 military drones and is considering how to use them to attack the US base at Guantanamo Bay.
The report says other possible targets include US military vessels and Key West, an island city at the southernmost tip of the US state of Florida.
Axios says Russia and Iran have been supplying Cuba with the attack drones.
The report says US officials see no imminent threat, but the intelligence could become a pretext for US military action.
Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the US of fabricating a fraudulent case to justify potential US military intervention.
He said in a social media post that certain media outlets were complicit in this.
Rodriguez said Cuba neither threatens nor desires war. He said his country is ready to exercise its right to self-defense and confront external aggression.
White House Highlights China Talks, Omits Taiwan
The US government has released details of its agreement with China, highlighting economic achievements while making no mention of Taiwan.
The White House issued a fact sheet on Sunday, outlining the deals reached by President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during their talks in Beijing last week.
Trump earlier said he exchanged views on Taiwan with Xi during their summit talks, but the fact sheet contains no reference to Taiwan.
It says the two leaders agreed that the US and China should build a constructive relationship of strategic stability.
China will purchase at least $17 billion worth of US agricultural products annually from this year through 2028.
The document says Beijing approved an initial purchase of 200 American-made Boeing aircraft for Chinese airlines.
The fact sheet commends Trump for securing historic deals with China and delivering for American workers, farmers, and industry.
About China's restrictions on rare earth exports, the document only says China will address US concerns.
It also says, Both leaders discussed the Iran situation and called to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. They agreed that no country or organization can be allowed to charge tolls.
Taiwan Urges Continued US Arms Support
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-de is urging the US to continue to sell arms to Taiwan.
This comes after Trump suggested Washington could use the sales as negotiating chips in its dealings with Beijing.
Lai pointed out in a social media post on Sunday, China has been ratcheting up military pressure near Taiwan. He said China is the root cause of regional instability.
The president added Beijing is changing the status quo.
Lai stressed the people of Taiwan want to defend the status quo.
He said the Taiwan independence issue does not exist.
Lai said US arms sales and security cooperation between the two sides are key elements in efforts to safeguard regional peace and stability.
Trump made the negotiating chip comment in a Fox News interview that was broadcast on Friday. Trump mentioned Taiwan in the interview.
He said some in Taiwan want to go independent.
He added people there see the United States as behind them.
But the US president noted he would like it to stay the way it is.
Drone Strike Sparks Fire at UAE Nuclear Plant
Authorities in the UAE say a drone attack caused a fire at a nuclear power facility in a western part of the country.
They said no injuries were reported and the plant's operation was not affected.
The fire broke out at the Baraka nuclear power plant.
UAE's defense ministry said on Sunday one of three drones that entered the country from the western border struck an electrical generator at the plant.
Officials said there was no impact on radioactive safety levels, and they're investigating the source of the attacks.
The country's foreign minister held talks over the phone with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He reportedly condemned the attack, saying that targeting civilian facilities and vital infrastructure violates international law.
The UAE has come under attack amid the conflict in the Middle East.
The nation announced earlier this month that Iran had launched missile and drone strikes on its territory.
Iran Negotiations Stall as Tensions Escalate
Meanwhile, negotiations between the US and Iran to end the conflict have been dragging on without a resolution.
Now, Trump has warned that time is running out and urged Iran to make concessions.
A Trump post on social media on Sunday said, For Iran, the clock is ticking, and they better get moving fast or there won't be anything left of them.
US news website Axios quoted Trump during a phone call.
He reportedly said, We want to make a deal. They are not where we want them to be.
They will have to get there or they will be hit badly.
Axios also quoted US officials as saying that Trump is expected to convene his top national security team in the Situation Room on Tuesday to discuss military options.
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call with Trump.
Details of the conversation have not been disclosed, but a major US newspaper says the US and Israel may soon resume strikes on Iran.
Fars News Agency, which is seen as being close to Iranian authorities, reported Sunday on the latest back-and-forth in negotiations.
The media outlet said Iran has demanded an end to the war on all fronts, especially Lebanon.
Tehran also reportedly wants sanctions lifted, frozen funds released, and compensation for war damages.
Moreover, it seeks recognition of Iran's sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
The outlet also reported that Washington had announced its own conditions in response.
It wants no compensation paid and no assets released.
It seeks the transfer of 400 kilograms of enriched uranium from Iran to the US.
Washington also wants only one set of Iranian nuclear facilities to remain active and a cessation of the war.
Another Iranian media outlet says that the US seems to be trying to achieve through negotiations what it has not been able to in the war.
It says that doing this without tangible concessions to Iran would lead to a stalemate in negotiations.
NPT Review Conference Faces Consensus Challenges
It's now the fourth and final week of a key conference on nuclear disarmament.
The UN meeting is discussing the future of the major international agreement.
But it's unclear if they can adopt a final document.
Delegates have gathered for the review conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It's also known as the NPT.
A draft of a potential final document was presented last week.
The conference hasn't managed to produce a consensus since 2010.
While an earlier version expressed grave concerns over attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, that direct reference has reportedly been removed.
That has triggered backlash from Iran. Another divisive issue is language around the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The facility in Ukraine was damaged during the Russian invasion.
Wording over Israel and North Korea is also contentious. Israel is not a party to the NPT.
North Korea unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the treaty in 2003.
Some non-nuclear-armed countries have also expressed frustration.
They say nations with nuclear weapons have not engaged in the talks as mandated by the treaty. Others are discontent with the handling of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
It was the only remaining nuclear disarmament pact between the US and Russia, but it expired in February.
Expert Warns NPT Credibility at Risk
For more on this, we spoke with Nishida Michiru.
He is a Nagasaki University professor and a former diplomat.
He's attending the conference as an advisor for the Japanese delegation.
So far, he says, he's not optimistic the parties will adopt a final document.
He says the hurdle isn't from any one specific issue, but rather how each nation prioritizes its own interests.
00:09:20 話者 2/Nishida Michiru
Each country is merely reiterating its own position and claims and with virtually no effort to reach compromise at this point.
States parties may be thinking that they still have another week to go, so they may be thinking that it is not time yet for compromise.
00:09:43 話者 1
But he says that doesn't mean it's impossible.
00:09:47 話者 2
If the priority is to simply adopt a final document, regardless of its content, then those contentious issues can be left out.
That would increase the likelihood of reaching an agreement.
But this raises actually the question of whether that is truly the right approach, because if you just leave out whatever you cannot agree to, then the final document would be very simple and very brief and with not many good content.
00:10:18 話者 1
Regardless, he says, it's important that the conference reaches some kind of consensus.
Otherwise, he says, the NPT itself may be at risk.
00:10:28 話者 2
In the long term, there's a real possibility that the general perception will take hold, that the NPT is no longer relevant, and expectations for the NPT will decline, and the norms it establishes will weaken.
So, I think that's why we really need to reach a consensus this time.
00:10:54 話者 1
He says he hopes the Japanese government will urge other countries to look at the bigger picture. But he says the global public also needs to put pressure on the delegates.
00:11:05 話者 2
I hope the viewers will not view the NPT as something distant or unrelated to their own lives, but rather as an issue directly connected to their daily lives.
And, I hope viewers will follow the NPT with keen interest.
This will create pressure on diplomats on the ground, and it would increase the likelihood of achieving manageable outcome.
00:11:35 話者 1
The question is whether that can happen before talks end on Friday.
BUSINESS
Japan's long-term interest rates continue to rise.
Yuko Fukushima from our business desk has the details.
What can you tell us about them?
00:11:50 話者 3/Yuko Fukushima
Yeah, thanks, James.
Japan’s 10-Year Bond Yield Hits 29-Year High
So we're recently seeing a rise in long-term yields on Japanese government bonds, and the 10-year JGB refreshed a 29-year high on Monday.
The yield on the benchmark hit 2.8 percent on Monday.
Brokerage firm Japan Bond Trading says the last time it saw such a level was in May 1997.
I talked to Aoki Daiju at UBS Wealth Management about what's behind the surge.
He says it's because traders see inflation rising.
00:12:19 話者 4/Aoki Daiju
I think a major reason for the surging yield was the result of the US-China summit held last week.
Investors saw that the talks will not lead to Iran's Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon.
This led traders to expect oil prices to stay at high levels or climb even higher.
If the price of WTI futures stays above 100 dollars, that would mean a 50 percent higher crude price for Japan compared to last year.
So experts see the country's inflation rising to above 3 percent in this situation.
00:12:55 話者 3
Aoki also says money managers are looking at Japan's worsening finances related to inflation.
00:13:04 話者 4
Although I said market participants are worried about Japan's finances, that doesn't mean they expect a collapse any time soon.
They're worried that expanded government spending will generate growth and stoke excessive inflation. And traders are also worried about the risk of a weaker yen.
This concern will grow if the government boosts spending and the Bank of Japan doesn't raise rates high enough.
00:13:31 話者 3
Aoki points out that the global economic situation is also feeding into Japan's higher inflation and climbing yields.
Long-term rates are also rising in the United States and Europe.
00:13:43 話者 4
Economic data announced in the US last week, including industrial production and retail sales, was pretty strong.
So investors saw the US economy was not as bad as they thought, even as the global economy is being impacted by the situation in the Middle East.
I think this will also lead to the acceleration of global inflation.
00:14:05 話者 3
Aoki says the Bank of Japan's decision on its policy rate and the direction of the US economy will be key factors in determining where the long-term yield will go from here.
Japan’s Big Three Banks Report Record Profits
Japan's three largest financial services groups have booked record net profits for the year that ended in March, mainly thanks to higher interest income from loans.
Mitsubishi UFJ's net profit topped 2.4 trillion yen, or over 15.2 billion dollars.
Sumitomo Mitsui posted more than 1.5 trillion yen, or about 10 billion dollars, in after-tax income.
And Mizuho's net profit exceeded 1.2 trillion yen, or over 7.8 billion dollars.
All three groups saw an increase in outstanding loans to corporate and retail customers, and higher interest rates helped boost their revenue.
Their divisions offering advice on mergers and acquisitions also performed strongly.
Looking ahead, the banking giants are taking measures as uncertainty over the Iran conflict drags on.
They have raised their provisions for loan defaults by up to 60 billion yen, or more than $370 million.
China’s Consumption and Output Slow in April
China posted slower growth in retail sales and industrial production in April as Iran conflict remained a concern.
Real estate investment fell sharply amid the protracted property slump.
The National Bureau of Statistics says retail sales rose two-tenth of a percent last month from a year earlier.
But that's much slower than the 1.7% increase in March as consumers remained frugal.
Industrial output expanded by 4.1%, although growth slowed from 5.7% the previous month.
Investment in real estate development in the first four months of 2026 plunged almost 14 percent compared with the same period last year.
New home prices fell in 70 percent of China's 70 major cities in April from their March levels.
Gamification Trends Transform Hiring and Training
More and more businesses and schools in Japan are borrowing tricks from the world of gaming.
The trend known as gamification aims to boost motivation while quietly leveling up real-work skills.
00:16:20 話者 5/Tamura Shinya/Reporting NHK WORLD
This company makes mainly school kitchen equipment.
Managers want to raise their profile so they can hire more people.
This year, the company has adopted an original simulation game for recruiting.
The game recreates a realistic school kitchen.
The player takes on the role of the kitchen manager, designing the layout and planning meals. The mission is to efficiently create high-quality school lunches.
00:16:53 話者 13/Nagasawa Hidetoshi/Manager, Nakanishi Mfg
A prospective hire who gets a good score in the game can skip the first interview and go directly to the second stage of the process.
00:17:04 話者 5
The company reached out to students by putting information about the game at around 40 universities.
It reports that the number of applicants is eight times higher compared with the same period last year.
00:17:20 話者 13
I hope students will gain deeper understanding of our company through the game, and I want them to choose their own path at the crucial moment of job hunting.
00:17:33 話者 5
Another company is incorporating games into worker training.
This company provides real estate information and has young employees playing card games.
Managers say a key factor in sales is identifying a client's personality and responding accordingly. The game they develop is designed to hone those skills.
All interactions are done by exchanging cards.
The sales staff use four cards to cover topics, such as the weather and the client's reason for moving, and then must assess the client's personality.
The game offers nine personality types, such as meticulous and powerful.
The person playing the client is assigned a personality type in advance.
Then, cards are used to ask about the client's requirements and suggest properties.
The game is based on a lot of case studies and is aimed at giving trainees real-world skills.
00:18:43 話者 16/Igarashi Taku/Lifull
We want our workers to provide excellent service based on clients' personalities.
They can experience the excitement of sales, clinching more and more deals.
I hope that will make the real estate industry more fun.
00:19:03 話者 5
The company is selling its game to other real estate firms to spread this method across the industry.
MARKETS
00:19:12 話者 3
And now let's get to the latest on the markets.
♪
And that's the biz for this hour.
00:19:45 話者 1
Yuko Fukushima from our biz desk.
Kim Vows to Fortify Border with South Korea
In other news, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reiterated his hostile stance against South Korea.
At a meeting of the North's military commanders, he said the border between the two countries will be turned into an impregnable fortress.
State-run Korean Central Television said on Monday.
Kim convened the meeting in Pyongyang on Sunday.
Kim reportedly touched on his party's policy on territorial defense.
He was quoted as saying it is aimed at strengthening the first-line units in the southern border and turning the border line into an impregnable fortress.
In March, the country's Supreme People's Assembly clarified its adversarial stance of treating South Korea as a separate state.
It also removed the reference to reunification from North Korea's constitution.
On Monday, the South Korean military began a five-day annual computer-simulated exercise.
It plans to boost its response capabilities against threats from the North through training scenarios that reflect recent warfare.
Halal Wagyu Export Shift Amid Iran Conflict
The conflict in Iran is dealing a serious blow to an award-winning brand of Wagyu beef.
A meat processor in southwestern Japan's Miyazaki Prefecture has been making inroads into the vast Islamic world.
But exports to the Middle East have come to a halt, forcing it to pivot to new markets.
00:21:19 話者 7/Narrator: Carolyn Miller
Miyazaki beef has won the top prize at the Japanese Wagyu competition four years in a row. It is renowned for its tender texture and fine marbling.
However, due to Japan's population decline, the domestic market is shrinking.
So its producers have set their sights on the Middle East.
00:21:44 話者 22/Fujii Wataru/Livestock Promotion Division, Miyazaki Prefecture
We view this as a highly attractive market, where we can fully leverage the appeal of Miyazaki beef to drive sales. We aim to expand our exports to the Islamic world.
00:21:55 話者 7
The Islamic world is a massive market, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's population.
But to reach it, food products must be halal, meaning processed in accordance with Islamic dietary laws.
So two years ago, this local meat processing company became the first in the prefecture to obtain halal certification.
00:22:25 話者 26/Arita Yonezo/President, SE Meat Miyazaki
Basically, Muslims are not allowed to eat pork or drink alcohol.
So if there is a pig farm within a 5-kilometer radius of the site, a permit for factory construction will not be granted. It took many years to select a location.
00:22:41 話者 7
In addition, the meat must be processed by Muslims.
A team of staff members from Bangladesh performs this task.
00:22:52 話者 27
It is customary for cattle to face Mecca in Saudi Arabia during slaughter, which is westward from Japan's perspective.
00:23:02 話者 7
The company had finally met the strict requirements and was expanding into Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE.
However, this has been paused due to the conflict in Iran and some of its stock remains in storage.
00:23:19 話者 6
There's nothing I can do about it, and it's really frustrating. I'm hoping to continue giving presentations in other countries while gradually expanding the reach of this product.
00:23:32 話者 7
The company has decided to refocus its efforts on Asia, specifically Muslim-majority countries. In March, it hosted a reception in Indonesia where recently obtained export approval.
About 200 industry representatives and buyers attended, and the response was very positive.
00:23:57 話者 6
Going forward, we want to lead sales efforts in Southeast Asia, specifically Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
We're doing this with the hope that people will enjoy the delicious taste of Miyazaki beef, of cattle born in Miyazaki.
00:24:14 話者 7
If Miyazaki beef gains popularity in these Asian markets, it would be the first steps to capturing a major market.
00:24:24 話者 1
Mouthwatering.
Japan Faces Extreme Heat as Weather Shifts
It's time for a check on the weather with our meteorologist, Jonathan Oh.
So, Jonathan, we're definitely getting our share of summer-like heat across Japan.
Are we expecting temperatures to cool anytime soon?
00:24:39 話者 8/Jonathan Oh
Hello. I mean, it's May, but it's still feeling like in some places more like July or even hotter than that.
Some of these temperatures in western Japan hitting the mid-30s, and 35.1 degrees was not the hottest spot in Japan.
Let me take you to some video out of western Japan where, yeah, we're talking about some places in heat, not typical even for summer.
In Hita City, Oita Prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported temperatures hitting 35.3 degrees Celsius Monday. Now, it's not just that we saw hot weather.
Kyoto also seeing its hottest day of the year, temperatures reaching 34 degrees, feeling like midsummer.
People are being advised to stay hydrated, take breaks to avoid heat stroke, use parasols and just make sure that you try to get as much shade as possible.
High pressure still keeping things dry, but changes are on the way as we have some rain coming into the picture. And so temperatures will start to make their way down.
But one more day of highs near 30 in places like Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, but other places above the 30 degree mark in western portion of Japan.
Then the rain comes in, the clouds come in, temperatures start to come back down to more reality as we go through the second-half of the week.
Meanwhile, we're talking about a tale of two different air masses, hot toward the eastern portion of the United States, cold toward the west, and that cold front that divides them really brings some severe thunderstorms.
And that would be the case again for Monday into the Central Plains as that system pushes on through.
Thunderstorms from Chicago, down to Oakland City, Houston, also looking at thunderstorms behind that front, Denver down to 8 as we go through the day on Monday.
Look at what's happening across Europe. We do have a bit of a messy setup here, a low toward the eastern portions of the continent, another low toward the west.
But in the middle, we've got a little bit of a dry pocket here.
Sunny skies in Vienna with a high of 20, 21 Berlin, but plenty of rain from Moscow down toward Istanbul.
And rain pockets over from Paris into Rome as we go throughout the day on Monday, so you'll need your umbrellas.
Hope you have a good day wherever you are.
00:27:35 話者 1
For all of us on NHK Newsline, I'm James Tengan in Tokyo. Thanks for watching.
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NHK World
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