Community will break apart and the possibility of china starting an invasion will grow. Lai is due to be the ruling partys progressive candidate in the election in january. He told nhk chinas claim that taiwan is part of its territory is not acceptable. Lai went onto say taiwan and japan played a key role in peace and stability in the indopac indopacific region as they face the most direct threat. Japan and taiwan should cooperate in every way possible to protect our own safety and the peace and stability of the world. Lai also said the Democratic Progressive Party must win the president ial election so taiwans democracy continues to develop and the next generation of taiwanese people enjoy freedom and human rights. Japanese leaders Say International tensions are at their highest point since world war ii. Defense minister is overseeing a major shift in policy. He shared ideas with his u. S. Counter parts on modernizing their alliance and tackling shared challenges. He chose the u. S. As a swift overseas destination since being appointed to his post last month. He met with defense secretary lloyd austin at the pentagon. Kihara has inherited a plan to spend more than 3 billion on defense over five years. Translator unilateral change tuesday the status quo by force and such attempts can never be condoned in any part of the world including the indopacific region. We support your governments bold decisions to invest in advanced capabilities including counter strike. Austin cited what he called chinas coercive behavior, north koreas dangerous provocations and russias reckless war of choice. He says teamwork with allies including south korea and australia will make the indopacific safer and more secure. Kihara says the government hopes to fast track the purchase from the u. S. Of tomahawk missiles. He says he wants the selfdefense forces to have the missiles by 2025, a year earlier than planned. U. S. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer says hell lead a Bipartisan Senate delegation to visit china, japan, and south korea next week. Schumer said on wednesday three democrats and three republicans will comprise the team. He said the trip will focus on economic competition and security, u. S. National security, as well as Global Leadership and advanced technology. Nhk spoke with democratic senator jon osoff who will be making the trip with schumer. One of the reasons dialogue is so important is to reduce the risk of inadvertent escalation or conflict. U. S. China tensions have been rising. They deteriorated further after then u. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited taiwan in august last year. But President Joe Biden has been sending key members of his administration to china in recent months. Vice Foreign Ministers from japan and south korea have held strategic talks in seoul. Such meetings had not been held for nine years. Japans vice foreign minister and his south korean counterpart met on thursday. Officials in charge of north Korean Affairs also took part. They discussed the norths recent moves including its efforts to strengthen military ties with russia. The officials condemn what they call pyeongyangs provocations using its nuclear and missile programs. They agreed to work closely with the United States to meet the international communitys firm response. They also agreed to step up cooperation with china. Government officials from the three nations are trying to arrange a trilateral summit by the end of the year. And japanese government has filed a lawsuit to try to get a controversial landfill approved. Its part of a plan to relocate a u. S. Military base in okinawa. The prefectures governor did not sign off on the project by wednesdays deadline. The Central Government asked the naha branch on thursday to order okinawa to approve the revised project. If the prefecture rejects this order the minister of land and infrastructure could issue an approval in whats called execution by proxy. Tokyo has been working for years to move the u. S. Marine corp futenma air station. Reclaiming an offshore site for the base should be the first step of construction, but the land under the water was found to be too soft. That led the Central Government to revise its construction plan. Okinawa rejected it. The case eventually landed in Japans Supreme Court which upheld tokyos order and obliged okinawa to approve the plan. The governor said on wednesday he told the land minister it would be difficult to give approval by the deadline saying Public Opinion needs to be considered. The second release of treated and diluted water from the Fukushima DaiichiNuclear Plant has begun. Its operator Tokyo Electric Power company, or tepco, said it resumed the ocean discharge thursday morning. The water was used to cool molten nuclear fuel inside the plant where it mixed with rain and ground water. Its treated to remove most of the radioactive substances but still contains tritium. Before releasing it into the ocean, officials dilute it to reduce tritium levels to less than oneseventh of the World Health Organizations guidelines for drinking water. In preparation for the second round, tepco mixed massive amounts of seawater into the treated water tuesday. The utility then checked the tritium level in the diluted water. It was found to be 63 to 87 bechorsals per liter. Seawater samples taken near the plant during that release found 10 per liter. This time around tepco plans to discharge around 7,800 tons of treated water from ten tanks over a period of 17 days. Thats about as much as the first round. Over 31,000 tons from 40 tanks are planned to be released by the end of march. The Chinese Government has reacted sharply to that release, sus spending the import of all japanese marine products. There have been many hilee critical stories on chinese newscasts, but a people here are not hearing all the facts from state run media in that country. As well see in our next report he decided to cover the situation himself. Reporter veteran chinese journalist visiting Fukushima Prefecture last month. He heard directly from local people about the Nuclear Accident and the impact of the treated water release. Translator i came here to see what they experienced asked how theyre coping. Reporter he says he wants to tell chinese citizens about the situation in fukushima, what he has seen with his own eyes. Wang was a reporter on state run China Central television and produced a program that sharply criticized social issues in his country, but he quit his job six years ago because he says he was no longer allowed to freely report the facts as the government tightened control on speech. Last year he decided to move to tokyo to continue his work. He independently analyzes news from china is distributes it to chinese citizens in japan and beyond. Translator our society seems to be further away from the rule of law. Reporter the news of the release of treated water from fukushima was especially big news in china. Translator china firmly opposes and strongly condemns it. We have made serious approaches to japan and asked it to stop this wrongdoing. Reporter wang feels the Current Situation in fukushima is much different than what the chinese news has been reporting. Translator ordinary Chinese People misunderstand it because the authorities only provide them with limited information. I believe that if i tell people what is happening in fukushima in a video, chinese viewers will sympathize with me and their view on the Nuclear Accident will change. Reporter so wang covered the Tokyo Electric Power company and the fukushima power plant by himself. Tepco officials explain to him that the treated water is being released after being diluted to levels well within International Safety limits. Wang was also told daily analysis of the seawater shows tritium levels well below those that would prompt the company to stop releasing treated water. Translator tepco has been dealing with the matter very strictly and found that there is no problem. The data released to the outside and all the data were the same. Reporter wang also interviewed nearly a dozen local residents including people in the fishing industry, farmers, and Restaurant Owners in the region. Reporter wangs report about fukushima has been viewed more than 1. 7 million times on his youtube channel. Wang says it shows there are people in china who want to know the truth ucfukushima. Translator when i went to the site in fukushima my concept of treated water and residents living in the surrounding area changed significantly. If we continue to tell Chinese Society about the reality of fukushima, people will definitely understand it, even younger generations who support the Chinese Communist party. Halloween is less than a month away and tokyos busy shibuya ward is taking ample steps to keep people safe after a deadly crowd crush in south korea last year. It wants tourist tuesday know partying near shibuya and the crossing will not be tolerated. Shibuyas mayor gave a prehalloween press briefing at the Foreign Correspondents Club in japan. Translator shibuya is not going to be a halloween event venue this year. I want to make this message clear to the world. If i must stress id say please refrain from coming to areas around shibuya station. He says drinking in it streets near the station will be prohibited between 6 00 p. M. And 5 00 a. M. From october 27th through the 31st. Security will also be increased. I can certainly see why he is quite anxious. I understand his anxiety. Nobody wants a repeat of what happened in seoul last year. In 2022 massive crowds celebrating halloween poured into the narrow alley ways of seouls district. A surge led to the deaths of more than 150 people. Officials here in tokyo are hoping to avoid a similar tragedy. Nhk asked visitors to shibuya how they feel about the rules. I think that will limit our choices of places to go especially this is the main tourist attraction. So i think its not a good idea in my opinion. Maybe he can decide next year well try again, and maybe people will be more responsible. This will be the first halloween since japan eased covid19 restrictions, and as the number of foreign visitors to shibuya has increased. On top of reducing crowds, the ward says it also wants to avoid the effects of overtourism including property damage, littering, and altercations with local residents. Next in weather, some residents of northern japan have faced strong gusts and rough conditions. Our meteorologist has more on the situation in our World Weather report. Hi there, the latest we have there is gusts going as fast as 104 kilometers per hour. The answer to the weather condition has been reported and a video to share with you. The amount of rainfall we have seen there where the heavy rain in northern japan is still continuing this thursday. Some places received 221 millimeters of rainfall in just a period of 6 hours, which is more than the area would see normally for the entire month of october. Strong winds are also being reported with officials and want people to be on the lookout of possibilities of landslides. Over the next couple of days we should be seeing similar conditions especially if youre going to be along the northern part. Rainfall is going to continue, and gusts are going to get Even Stronger especially for people in hokkaido and gusts as fast as 126 kilometers per hour. Towards the south and southwestern parts still quite dry and slightly more calm weather will continue there. And further south were dealing there with the typhoon quite strong and parts of taiwan bringing heavy rainfall. And give more details later. Your temperatures are going to be fairly warm, so in tokyo 26 your maximum for friday, and cyril and beijing coming a bit towards normal temperatures just around the lower 20s. With that dry weather persisting there. Now, speaking of dry weather this is what well be seeing across much of Southern Europe and all the way to the balkans. You can see the High Pressure there keeping things quite clear for you. Temperatures quite high, though, lisbon, 29. It is fairly warm along those parts. And speaking of warm weather, the southern parts of the african continent is going through or they are going through heat waves. Johannesburg and up north as well. Things going to be quite toasty for you at least into the weekend. Thats where i leave it for the weather. Do take care. That wraps up this edition of nhk newsline. Im raumga pradhan in tokyo. Coming up next is newsline biz with ramin mellegard. So stay right there. This is newsline biz. Im ramin mellegard. Now, japans released a list of about 200 infrastructure operators that will likely be screened as part of a Government Initiative to prevent cyber attacks. Economic security legislation harshly enacted last year calls for government inspections of companies that run key infrastructure. The list contains 209 firms. It includes 40 electricity providers such as Tokyo Electric Company holdings. Also on the list are telecom carriers. The government will assess the measures they have in place to guard against cyber attacks. In the preliminary screening it will also check who is supplying the equipment to the firms, which countries theyre based in and the names and nationalities of the executives. If the government detects any risks or security breaches, it will advice or order the firms to respond accordingly. Government officials will finalize the lists soon. They hope to launch the screening procedure next spring. And japans Prime MinisterKishida Fumio has attended a convention of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation which supports two opposition parties. Now, the last time a Prime Minister from kishidas liberal Democratic Party attended such a meeting was 16 years ago. Kishida told delegates the government will maintain a dialogue with labor unions in order to realize a positive economic cycle. Translator the momentum for higher pay must be sustained and extended to include small and midsize businesses across japan. The leaders of the two backed opposition parties also attended. The head of the Democratic Party says real continues to fall as prices are still rising. The president of the Democratic Party for the people called for income tax to be cut. Now, the japanese government says its had to halt a program that provides working parents with cheap babysitting services. Officials in charge say they have used up all of the discount coupons for the fiscal year ending in march for have no more to offer. The programs overseen by the japan Child Care Services association. The Industry Group says its already hit the annual quota, which is 390,000 coupons. A coupon provides a discount of 3,200 yen or roughly 15. Parents are entitled to two vouchers per child per day. About 4,100 businesses use the service for their employees. Any workers at the firm who are covered by employees Pension Insurance are eligible to use the program. The number of people who do has been rising. The agency attributes the surge in demand to an increase in double income families. Now, Officials Say they are yet to decide whether to increase the quota for the current fiscal year or wait to resume the program in the next one. The british Prime Minister says a planned section of the Highspeed Railway network will be scrapped due to rising costs. He says the government will instead invest the money in other transport projects. Hs2 was planned to link major cities with trains hitting speeds up to 360 kilometers per hour. Construction is under way for phase one between london and birmingham in the west midlands. Phase two will be scrapped. It would have connected birmingham to manchester, but inflation has pushed total projected costs over 100 billion pounds or 120 billion. Now, canceling the second leg of hs2 is sunaks latestiaturn on policies set by previous conservative governments. Political analysts say hes trying to appeal to voters ahead of the general election. Opinion polls show his party lags far behind. The largest opposition labor party, but politicians are divided over the rail projects even within the conservative party. Backers view hs2 as helping narrow an economic gap between london and regions in the north. Now, we are exploring a road map for adventurous foodies. Its called destination restaurants, a top ten ranking of fine dining in japans rural areas. Keen to find out more nhk world went to Fukushima Prefecture, the location of this years top prizewinner. This fish uses a slimily water plant native to fukushima and scalps enhance flavor. The chef and owner of the restaurant, he sources all his ingredients from local producers. Translator this is made out of eggplants. The invisible microorganisms are like my assistants who help me cook. The menu consists entirely of his original dishes featuring seasonal ingredients. Fermentation brings out the umami flavor. Salt is the only seasoning. That ensures that the flavor of the main ingredient shines through. His career started in france. After returning from his studies, he opened the french restaurant in 2000. Back then he really used the products from fukushima. Then came the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered a Nuclear Accident. His customers stopped coming amid widespread fear of food contamination. Translator it seemed like the only options i had were to abanden my business or to take my own life. But then a tiny shoot of new life appeared at a local farm. Thats what saved me. And this gave him a lifeline. Surprised by the flavors he decided to focus on simple dishes that highlighted the essence of each ingredient. He commuted daily to the farm and for a time even cultivated for himself. Translator hes very curious about farming, fields, and soil and asks questions with a gleam in his eyes. It makes me want to grow the best produce so we can use it to create delicious dishes. I would literally bet my farm on it. The Nuclear Accident today he uses fire root for cooking. This world Renowned Food reviewer is one of the judges for the destination award. Translator i can only imagine how hard it is for hagi to restart his restaurant after the disaster. There were only a few ingredients he was able to use but he stayed put and nurtured a Symbolic Alliance with local producers. That accounts for a lot. That alliance also explains why hagi pays full price for produce. He believes farmers can only recover from the disaster if they have a secure livelihood. In the meantime his restaurant is steadily winning new customers including visitors from overseas. Translator people shiep when they were most needed. Thats also what happens in creative cooking. We want to show our gratitude to customers who help us survive in difficult times by delivering delicious food. Fukushimas challengeerize far from over, but hagi says hell keep shining a light on local ingredients and the unique food culture that brings them to life. Nhk world. Okay, lets get a check on the markets. Thats it for newsline biz from tokyo. Im ramin mellegard. Thank you very much for watching. Emily other court case for donald trump accusing him of fraud. He says he is the victim of a witch hunt. With the mounting but the mounting legal problems do not seem to be denting his popularity. Will this help or hinder his president ial campaign . This is inside story. Emily welcome to the program