The cup the also visited the prefecture which were hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. And the emperor expressed sympathy for those affected by a series of disasters. Among them were strong earthquakes that devastated the southwestern prefecture from april. The emperor referred to his august message to the nation where he indicated his message toed a so indicate. It may be difficult to carry out duties as his condition declines. The emperor and other members of the imperial family are scheduled to appear at the imperial palace in tokyo three times on friday morning to greet well wishers. Japanese emergency crews have brought one of the countrys biggest ever fires under control. Flames swept through the city on the sea of japan coast and burned at least 140 buildings. Five people were hurt. The fire broke out thursday morning in a Chinese Restaurant in the niigata prefecture. Translator ive never seen a fire this big. Translator im wondering if my home is okay. The city advised more than 700 residents to evacuate. Police say a woman was taken to hospital after inhaling smoke. Another woman and three firefighters was slightly injured. Three firefighters were slightly injured. An engineering professor says three factors contributed to the size of the fire. Translator first of all, the fire broke out in a restaurant at the center of the city. An area where wooden houses are closely built. Secondly, strong winds caused the flames to spread to other houses. Finally, it was beyond the capacity of local firefighters. They werent able to deal with the fire that big. Weather officials said wind gusts were clocked at almost 90 kilometers an hour in the area around noon that was due to a low developing in the japan sea. The u. S. Returned 4,000 people could soon be paying for the clean up around the nuclear plant. The cabinet signed off on a request from the Environment Ministry for about 250 million. The money will pay for decontamination in areas where radiation is too high for people to return. So far, the government has made the plants operator pay on the principle that the company is responsible. Environment minister says spending public money is a tricky issue. Translator we need to think how to explain this in a way that will get the public to accept it. The Environment Ministry estimates the cleanup has already cost 36 billion. Officials say the work in badly contaminated areas will be slower and harder. German Authorities Say they found the fingerprints of a tu nearbien man can wanted of playing a role in the truck attack at a Christmas Market in berlin. They discovered the fingerprints of 24yearold suspect in the cab of the truck. He entered germany in july last year. He then moved within the country using aliases. Local media report that before the rampage, he was in contact with islamic extremists and hinted a az his attention to carry out a suicide attack. Authorities are concerned he may carry out another attack. The Christmas Market in central berlin has reopened after the attack. People are slowly coming back to it the Christmas Market but i can feel the weight of sadness on their shoulders. Market workers visited a church on thursday to pay tribute to the victims. Later food stalls began to reopen attracting many loams and tourists. Visitors laid flowers and candles at the site of the attack. Police were on patrol. I wish that will will be the end of the terror. I wish. She said shes really sad but wants to show evilminded people that ordinary life will continue. Syrian Government Forces say they have retaken complete control of aleppo. The Northern City had been the larger stronghold of opposition groups. They issued a statement it thursday night saying it returned safety to aleppo as last remaining opposition fighters withdrew from the city. It added the victory is a turning point in the war on terrorism. Government forces led the attack with the help of russian airstrikes. They took almost all of the city under control last week prompting Opposition Forces to agree to hand over their small enclave in eastern aleppo. They will continue to fight using northwestern areas as their basis. Turkey has been playing a bigger role in syria. Its seen refugees flow across the border. Turkey has been trying to create a safe zone along its border. In 2013 he and his family came u to turkey. Their hometown in syria has been captured by Islamic State militants. Translator e he killed around 30 people including my brother and my cousins. The children have to stay at home to work so they dont go to school. Its the only way the family can make ends meet. One day he hard about his hometown. The army sent troops and the Islamic State militants. Syrian refugees started returning backed by turkish government. Turkey has been overwhelmed by the refugees. But the result is another reason why supporting. Translator now we are moving towards syria. We dont need terror organizations like the Kurdish Democratic union party and Kurdish Peoples Protection forces. Through the presence in the area along the turkish city, the government say is to create a buffer zone with pressure on the kurds. The turkish army is guarding along with free syrian army. Turkey is also helping to rebuild schools. Inside turkey, steps are also being taken. Here in syria, workers in preparation to work inside syria, they are selected by turkish government. The aid is to rebuild services and also to provide refugees with jobs. They have been hoping to return to his hometown where his brother still live. Translator whats the situation there . The road is open again. Reporter now that they have security, theres renewed hope for the future. He has decided to take his family home. As early december, some 16,000 syrians have returned. But there are still not enough jobs or schools in the city. People in buffer zone seem safe from attack by Islamic State militants. But for many they remain pressured. The documents known as the Panama Papers continue to shock the world. Efforts by governments to create a network to end tax evasions are being complicated as many Global Companies use them for daily business activities. We met with a journalist to Exchange Information on a Shell Company. Both firms have invested in it. This is the scheme and if it you could help us to further investigate. They dont have to transfer. Thank you. Thank you for coming. They have been analyzing the Panama Papers. They include personal information of Company Representatives and shareholders. We began tracking each of these people down as they reviewed their titles we came across names associated with major japanese trade iing firms. The case we are investigating with the journalists involves a Shell Company in the British Virgin islands. They invested in another firm and received dividends. Normally such would be report as profits and the japanese invest tovs would pay taxes to respective authorities. Following the investigation revealed that the Taiwanese Firm may not have been doing so. Heres a chart yeah, its zero. Okay. Zero. So i mean, they dont send any monies back. Theres some profit. That means it means they dont pay a tax in taiwan. How about the Japanese Company . Firm told us it had paid taxes in accordance with the law. In another case, a Major Trading firm was trying to set up a Shell Company with an Iranian National oil firm. Its representatives say that the aim of the Shell Company was to conduct feasibility studies on iranian infrastructure, but they explained they didnt complete the establishment process because they couldnt find common interests with a firm. All japanese firms we spoke with said that they pay taxes properly. But they add that the taxes that they impose on them are based on what they revealed to the authorities. The head of the National Tax Agency told us that its not easy to tackle the issue. Honestly speaking it is very difficult to grasp the scope of International Tax evasion using tax havens. After the Panama Papers release, the public took a growing interest in the issue. I think we need to step up our efforts to keep an eye out for tax evasion and investigate if necessary. The Companies Either ones could decide how much information to disclose about their activities in tax havens. And such places can keep some of the business covered. People in western japan are looking for way to remember the attack that pulled the u. S. Into world war ii. Its been 75 years since Japanese Military planes attacked pearl harbor. And residents of the key town wanting to send a message of peace are causing some controversy. This former Imperial Japanese navy arsenal is lit up every night. Inside, residents are hard at work. Theyre trying to commemorate all that was lost during the japanese attack on pearl harbor. They think a life sized replica of a bomber used in the strike could serve as a symbol of peace. This really happened. I think its important to talk about that. Neither side will forgot the tragedy of pearl harbor and both will strive for peace. The city of saiki was the side of the last drill before leaving for hawaii. It was chosen because of its resemblance to pearl harbor. This man took part in that drill and the strike. He flew on the type 97 carrier attack bomber and launched torpedoes into pearl harbor. The experience haunted him for many years. He had regrets and wanted to make amends for what he did. He visited honolulu for the first time in 2000. And helped lead the two cities to sign a friendship treaty. Another way to show his regret was with touring the bomber he flew, a bitter legacy. He hoped to transform it into the symbol of peace. But he died without realizing his goal. He and other friends were inspired by him. We want to honor the dying wish and stay focused on promoting peace and goodwill. Building the replica isnt easy. He wasnt able to get the blueprints and had to use a detailed plastic model to look at the size. He wants it displayed at the Peace Memorial museum but the museum is less enthusiastic. We need to consider whether it would be appropriate to display that. This is a place to study and think about peace. We dont want to glorify here and we want people to come here just to look at a warplane. Even if the replica is controversial, he believes it will help understand the tragedy. We want to show a life sized replica of the type 97 carrier attack bomber for people to see it and feel it. To experience what the war was like. So when they leave the museum, they truly feel the importance of maintaining peace. Mochizuki and crew hope to finish it by early next year. They want to send a message of peace from the very part that the pearl harbor attack began, but they may have still have to do some convincing. Spotting a shooting star can be magical. Especially because they seem to appear so randomly. But that could all change. A japanese startup is trying to make the celestial show appear on schedule. Shooting stars on demand. Thats the slogan for the ambitious project to create artificial meteor showers. Her aim is to provide what she calls entertainment in space. Five years ago she founded the startup to develop a technology to make her plan a reality. The goal of this project is to create a show in the sky that can be enjoyed by anyone within a 200 kilometer radius. Shooting stars occur when rock burn up as they fall through the earths atmosphere, emitting a bright light. The plan is to recreate that by releasing particles from a small satellite. Okie gee what has been fascinated by the starry night skies since he was a child and she went on to earn a doctorate in astronomy. This idea came to her when she was a student. My friends and i used to gaze up at the sky, waiting. I thought it would be great if we could control that experience ourselves. The first step was to come up with the right Chemical Substances for the source particles. Working with universities and other organizations, she spent six years experimenting to find materials that can glow brightly enough to be visible to the naked eye. Even in the middle of the city. We have to make sure they can be seen with the naked eye. The important thing is that anyone can look up at the sky and see our shooting stars. Once the particles had been developed more investments started coming in. The next challenge is to build the satellite and the equipment for releasing the particles. She also believes the project will continue to scientific progress. And an analysis of the Data Collected should help shed light on some of the mysteries still surrounding asteroids and comets. She says the project will be ready in three years if she can secure a rocket to launch the machines and hopes the dream will become a reality in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Travel plans will r being hamper weekend we have the details for that. The harsh conditions have been affected a lot of transportation. Yes, actually. Theres been hundreds of flights delayed. Even cancelled across hoe kai doe. In fact, we are looking at blizzard conditions and some of these areas because we have upwards of about 50 centimeters reported in the past 24 hours there in the southern okai doe and fairly strong wind gusts. The high winds are fanning the fire there as well. Just because of this storm system. Pushing overhead. But those winds combined with the snow really make for some rough weather. Ill show you some weather out of saporo. The big problem is 230 flights in fact have been cancelled there across hokkaido. 170 trains have been suspended. I know it doesnt look too bad, but look at wakanai, along the coast. Theyre seeing some fairly rough weather out there. Blizzard conditions. Poor gentleman had to clean that up. Were still looking at more rough weather. Winds up to 120 kilometers an hour possible there in hokkaido. Youre thinking where is all this snowfall, pretty warm out there. In fact, today tokyo got hit nearly 20 degrees but its working its way in. We have the classic sea effect show setting up, and thats going to bring you some of a White Christmas across the mountains out here. Even over towards tokyo you wont see snow but temperatures are a big drop. 19 there on friday, dropping down to 12 and 10 by sunday. So definitely a lot of people today is National Holiday across japan and a lot of people might be seeing the delays in the north. Now, i also do want to mention, people traveling ahead of a christmas. Definitely in the philippines. This is the big impact storm for a lot of you. May be wanting to adjust your plans. We have now severe Tropical Storm pulling off to the west. The thing with this storm its continuing to intensify. This will be a typhoon by the time it makes land fall on Christmas Eve and christmas morning. Pulling across there and a lot of ferries will be cancelled. People will be traveling this weekend and the airports as well. It brings with it not only the damaging wind threat but the flood threat. Mountains are seeing that threat of landslide. Even sliding in manila. Look at sunday afternoon, do be continuing to watch this. I know you want to get where you want to be, but definitely want to be taking the storm very seriously. Now, also do want to talk about travel weather concerns out here across the u. S. Here today. We have a storm system lifting in from the south. Bringing scattered showers in. As it drifts to the north it will interact with colder air and trigger up some blizzards in the parts of the dakotas and severe storms in kansas and oklahoma and a potential for a tornado on christmas day. Oklahoma city, only a high of 6 on friday. Scattered showers for you. Los angeles maybe some passing rainfall. At least it stays clear back to the east in new york and d. C. Heres the extended outlook. Thats all for now on this edition of nhk newsline. Im raja pradhan. Thanks for joining us. Q÷bi9y Ernie Stevens on this edition of native report, we travel to Madeline Island to learn about the bilingual signage project. Rita aspinwall while on Madeline Island, we visit the Madeline Island museum. Bryan bainbridge were people of this land and of this earth and of this water. Ernie stevens and we meet bryan bainbridge, chairman of the red cliff band of Lake Superior chippewa in northern wisconsin. Rita aspinwall we also learn about what we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders on this edition of native report. Speaker 1 production of native report is made possible by grants from the Shakopee Mdewakanton sioux community, the blandin foundation, and the Duluth Superior Area Community foundation