Annexation of the region. More than 300 people from an area near the crippled Fukushima DaiichiNuclear Plant can now return to their homes. Japanese government officials have lifted an Evacuation Order for a neighborhood in the city of tamura. Its the first time theyve declared an evacuated area safe to live in again. Now, people in the neighborhood had to leave their homes right after the accident three years ago. But government officials found that radiation levels were relatively low. So workers could decontaminate the area before other parts of the evacuation zone around the plant. But most evacuees from the area say they dont plan to return home in the near future. Some of them are worried there may still be pockets of high radiation. Hiroyuki says his parents will return him. But he, his wife and their three young daughters will stay in temporary housing in another part of tamura. Translator its our responsibility as parents to ensure a safe life for our children. Thats the main reason we decided not to go back. Government officials plan to give docimeters to people moving back to the neighborhood. More than 80,000 people from the evacuation zone still cant return home. Investigators at japans Riken Institute have completed an irkwairy to some of their own science. They looked into the work of a researcher who coauthored high profile papers on stem cells. They concluded parts of haruko obokatas research amounted to fabrication and manipulation. Translator the papers published by our researchers have damaged our credibility among the scientific community. I would like to renew my apologies for that. Noyori also said the verification of obokatas stem cells would be carried out by a third party. But he said researchers at riken should do their own tests first to try to recreate the stem cells. He said riken scientists should cooperate with the outside researchers. Obokatas Team Announced in january they had found a method to reprogram mature animal cells into embryoniclike stem cells. He said the stap cells can be turned into any kind of tissue. It was hailed as groundbreaking Stem Cell Research and the findings were published in the Science Magazine nature. Then researchers elsewhere started to find problems in obokatas paper and investigators at riken began probing the research. They said photos used in her study were nearly identical to those used in her 2011 doctorate thesis. They pointed out the conditions of the two experiments were different. They said the inappropriate use of the photos amounts to fabrication. Translator this misconduct undermines the credibility of the data, and we have to conclude ms. Obokata must have been aware of such a risk. The Panel Members concluded images of dna fragments were manipulated. They said parts of those images were cut and pasted. The panel cleared two of obokatas coresearchers of misconduct but found them responsible for not fully checking the legitimacy and accuracy of data. Obokata says she will launch a protest against riken. She said in a statement she does not accept the panels findings of manipulation and fabrication in her research. She also said that her mistakes are without malicious intent, and should not be considered misconduct. A group of parents staged a rally outside the Japanese Embassy in washington. They say their former partners have returned to japan, taking their children with them. The demonstrators are hoping a new International Custody treaty in japan will help them get their kids back. Now, the treatsy sets out rules for resolving child custody disputes between parents living in different countries. It allows one parent to seek the return of a child taken to another country by the other parent without consent. The demonstrators urged japanese officials to take the first step by arranging meetings with their children. Embassy officials said they will do their best. We want to see our children very, very badly. Weve been through many, many years of pain. And we hope that this is a chance to finally finally hold our children and love them. The Organizer Says more than 400 such cases have been reported in the u. S. The International Court of justice has ordered japan to suspend its research whaling in the antarctic. Judges say the japanese may not continue their program in its present form. The Fisheries Ministry in tokyo says leaders are disappointed, but will comply. Translator we will suspend our research whaling program in the Antarctic Ocean in accordance with the ruling. Still, the minister says whales are an important food source. He says japan has not changed its policy of catching them in a way that has a scientific basis. He says government officials will study the court ruling, and decide what steps to take. Judges ruled the japanese whaling program is not for scientific purposes, as defined in an international convention. Shoppers in japan are digging a little deeper. The consumption tax has gone up for the first time in 17 years. The government raised the rate from 5 to 8 . Retailers who were still open put their prices up at the stroke of midnight. Translator theres nothing we can do about it. I hope the government makes good use of the money. Translator things are going to be a bit tighter for me. Rail operators spent the night reprogramming their ticket machines, and Early Morning commuters were hit with the higher fares. Government analysts estimate the sales tax will bring in about 50 billion in the current fiscal year. The revenues are expected to grow the following year, to about 80 billion. Translator the higher tax will help cover the rising costs of pensions and health care. As well as nursing care for the elderly. Were aiming to regain the trust of the nation. Well spend all of the extra tax revenue to fund social insurance programs, and expand child rearing support for families. Lawmakers have voted to raise the tax to 10 in october of next year. But abe has said he would study the effects of this increase before deciding whether to implement another one. Now japanese leaders have been considering a tax hike for years, but memories of one in the past unnerved them. More from nhk worlds kyoko fujita. Reporter Prime Minister shinzo abe kept japan in suspense for months as he debated raising the consumption tax. Last october, he decided the hike should happen. Translator we will preserve Peoples Trust in our country, and pass on a sustainable Social Security system to the next generation. Reporter japanese first began paying a sales tax in 1989. It started out as 3 . In 1997, thenPrime Minister hashimoto raised it to 5 . Translator we need to work on Fiscal Consolidation right away, and we will introduce measures to do that. Reporter back then, japans debt stood at about 5. 9 trillion. The government needed more money, the population was aging rapidly, and Social Security costs had started to skyrocket. But the tax increase came at a bad time. The bursting of the asset price level burdened banks with billions of unpaid loans. Personal spending slumped, and Economic Growth slowed. Then, the Asian Financial crisis hit, and things got worse. Major japanese security firms and banks went bankrupt. Hashimoto faced a crushing defeat in the 1998 upper house election, and resigned. The next year, the government focused, instead, on selling bonds of about 760 billion worth to pull the country out of the recession. Every Administration Since then has issued more and more bonds. Experts say politicians believe hiking the consumption tax would cost them at the polls. As a result, japans debt climbed year after year until it was roughly 9. 9 trillion in 2009. The financial meltdown in greece provided a wakeup call. Japanese leaders saw how quickly investors could start selling the bonds of countries with huge debt. Talking about increasing the consumption tax was no longer taboo. By 2012, japans debt had already topped roughly 1,000 trillion yen or 10 trillion. Senior citizens made up one quarter of the population. Social security costs continued to climb. When Prime Minister abe took power, he decided to lessen the impact of the tax increase by linking it with a 50 billion stimulus package. Translator implementing the stimulus package could pull the country out of deflation, and revive the economy. Reporter Prime Minister abe now must figure out if approving another increase will help or hurt the country, and his political future. Kyoko fujita, nhk world, tokyo. Now lets get more on the impact of this tax hike from ron madison at the business desk. Managers across the country are worried about the tax increase and analysts at the bank of japan checked in with thousands of them for their latest survey of business confidence, the tankan. Many managers said they were suspicious about what the hike would do to their profits. Bank officials asked managers at around 10,000 companies how they felt about business conditions. Current sentiment among major manufacturers improved for the fifth straight quarter. The index hit plus17 points, its highest level in more than six years. Economists pointed to more auto production, and to growth in retail sales. And as weve been telling you, consumers bought up a range of products before that tax increase took effect. Bank officials said sentiment also improved among nonmanufacturers. That index rose four points. But the optimism is not expected to last. Managers at large manufacturers are predicting a ninepoint decline in the quarter that just started. Those at nonmanufacturers are expecting an 11point fall. All of them are concerned the tax increase will choke off the economic recovery. All right lets get more now on how the tax hike is affecting shops and people on the streets. Nhk worlds raja pradhan has been following the reaction in downtown tokyo. Reporter im in a shopping street, and people here are in the stores buying their dinners, but ive talked to some shop owners, and they say that theres not much of a decrease in customers. Probably because of the beautiful weather, and its Cherry Blossom season. Now, this store over here sells tofu, or bean curd. And at the back of the store theyve been making these products for 90 years. Now the aftertax price of this item, their packaged tofu went up from about 1. 7, to 1. 8 dollars. Half of the increase is a result of the tax hike, and the other half comes from a recent rise in the cost of its main ingredient, which is this, soybeans. The shop owner says the price of soybeans has jumped about 40 over the past three years. And also other Raw Materials also have risen in cost. Now, this street is full of shops and other stores, and totals about 60 of them in here in yanaka. The tax increase has pushed up the price tag of the Meat Products in this showcase of a meat store right across the tofu store. Now you can see that this shop also has cooked foods. You can see here fried food such as fried eggs, fried cutlets, fried shrimp, and croquette, as well. The owner has kept the same price for most of the products but for some products they increased the price. And the signature of this store is this, the beef meat croquette. And, the prices of these the meat croquettes is increased from 1. 50, to 2 dollars. It will increase in the coming two weeks. Again the rise partly comes from the consumption tax hike, but its also because of the recent rise in the main ingredients, which is meat, as well as cooking oil, and gas. Now let me ask some of the customers how they feel about. [ speaking Foreign Language ] thank you very much. She says that for this particular store, the prices havent changed yet but for many other items, shes thinking of, you know, she has to think twice about it, especially with the extra change that shell have. Now, we can see that customers are getting used to the price hike, but it may take some extra time for that to happen. Raja pradhan, nhk world, yanaka. All right. Lets get a check of the markets now. Investors in asia taking heart from chinese manufacturing data, which slightly beat market expectations. The official data shows an expansion in factory activity in march. Its the first rise in four months. And it also lent support to sentiment in the region. Hong kongs hang seng index posted a threeweek high. The shanghai composite gaining 0. 7 to finish at 2,047. It rebounded from a fourday losing streak. Investors bought a wide range of shares there. Meanwhile, indonesia closed higher by 2. 25 just about. Investors encouraged by upbeat Economic Data out of the country. The trade balance swing back to a surplus in february. Also, inflation eased more than expected in the same month. Here in tokyo the nikkei average ended down. 25 finishing 14,791 in a pretty choppy trading session. It also snapped a fourday rally. Investors were a bit wary of the weak outlook among Japanese Companies as shown in the tankan survey. Okay that is going to do it for biz this hour. Ill leave you with the markets. Russian leaders are demonstrating their grip on crimea. Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev flew in to the central city of simferopol. It was his first visit since russia annexed the region. Medvedev and members of his cabinet met with crimean lawmakers and other officials to discuss plans for economic development. Medvedev said russian officials will make crimea a special economic zone. Theyll offer a tax breaks for corporations and build up the infrastructure. That includes building a road and railway bridge to the peninsula. And the Prime Minister reminded residents of their pension payments will rise to match those paid to russians. In moscow, president Vladimir Putin signed a decree creating a ministry for crimean affairs. At the same time, russian leaders have taken steps to ease the standoff in the region. Russian commanders say theyre pulling some of their troops from areas near ukraines border. Translator the battalion of the motorized Infantry Brigade of the Central Military district has completed a field exercise, and is commencing its march back to the base. Putin phoned german chancellor angela merkel. He told her personally of the withdrawal plan. Analysts say the pullout affects only a portion of troops. They say tens of thousands of Russian Forces will remain in place along the ukrainian border. U. N. Military commanders stationed in south korea are hoping to ease tensions on the peninsula. Theyve called on officials from north korea to sit down for talks. The move comes after the two koreas exchanged artillery fire across the disputed maritime border. North Korean Forces shot more than 500 rockets and other munitions off the west coast of the peninsula as part of a live action military drill. About 100 shells fell on the south korean side of the disputed boundary known as the northern limit line. South Korean Forces responded by firing 300 rounds. South Koreas Defense Ministry says officials at the u. N. Command urged leaders in the north to stop their aggressive action. The u. N. Command also proposed holding general level talks. Its unclear if the north replied. Officials in seoul say the shelling was a premeditated act aimed at provoking the south. Last week, north korea also f e fired Ballistic Missiles into the sea of japan. The shelling prompted south korean government officials to hold an emergency meeting. They agreed to strengthen security, and to keep monitoring the situation. U. S. Defense secretary chuck hagel says he is staying in close communication with the commander of the u. S. Forces in south korea. The provocation that the North Koreans have once again engaged in is dangerous, and it needs to stop. He said hell talk about the issue with officials in china when he visits the country next week. Now Chinese People dont often get to directly vote for their leaders but the residents of a village in Southern China have voted in a local election for the second time. People in wukan in Guangdong Province cast ballots for members of the village committee. Local authorities took the unusual step of arranging for voting and vote counting to take place in public. They apparently wanted to publicize their democratic reforms. People began paying attention to wukan two years ago when authorities first allowed villagers to vote in a local election. Since then its been known as democracy village. That first election followed fierce protests by villagers, after officials seized farmland. Translator i hope my vote will help determine the future of our village. The incumbent mayor is the local communist party chief. He was reelected. Even though some villagers are unhappy about slow progress in returning their land. Now prosecutors in china have charged a former highranking army chief with corruption. Gu june shand was once in charge of logistics for the Peoples Liberation army. The staterun Xinhua News Agency said prosecutors charged gu with bribery, embezzlement, misuse of public funds, and abuse of power. The agency said hell be tried in a military court. Gu oversaw the construction of military facilities, and rose to deputy chief of the armys general logistics department. In 2012 Hong Kong Media reported that chinas leaders had fired gu and he was being investigated for illegal transactions of militaryowned land. People in china posted images online showing gus luxurious mansion. They claim the general obtained the residence through the abuse of po neighbors. Find out the challenges china faces. On newsline. And were seeing heavy rains in southeastern china. Sayaka mori has more on the weather there and around the world. Hello there. Heavy rain has been causing some havoc over southeastern china. Lets go straight to some video from Guangdong Province. Strong storms with heavy downpours and typhoon force winds caused damage in the Southern China province of guangdong sunday. A roof of a supermarket was torn off and people lost power after the storm destroyed an electrical wire. Some hail was also reported in the province sunday. Unfortunately more rain and stormy conditions are expected for the southern areas during the next couple of days. Now, its not too bad today. But as i said, more rain is likely to come from tomorrow, an additional 100 millimeters likely for inland locations of Guangdong Province and parts of guangxi province. Enough to cause more flooding as well as landslides. The reason for the bad weather is that spring warm air is colliding with extremely hot air from the indochina peninsula. As you can see, temperatures extremely soaring. Up to 42 degrees in mandalay, myanmar thursday and nearly 40 degrees in many places. Stay away from the direct sunshine and watch out for heat stroke. As opposed to the southern areas, pleasant weather is continuing over the northern half of china, the Korean Peninsula and match of japan, going up to 21 degrees for beijing, 22 in seoul. Tokyo nearly 20 degrees on your wednesday. And will stay almost the same into the next couple of days. However rain is on the menu on friday in tokyo. That could be accompanied by strong winds. So that could blow away some of the petals of the cherry flowers. Hopefully you can arrange a Cherry Blossom viewing before friday. All right across the americas, we can see three low pressure systems and two of them are winter storms. One here is quite a vigorous system, enough to produce some blizzard conditions over the upper midwest. We have blizzard warnings in place for parts of minnesota and the dakotas. Snow will likely move into ontario, up to 25 centimeters of snow is likely. Now across the east, snow for the canadian maritimes will move away. Now across the bigger picture, looking quite stormy over the midsection of the u. S. Even tornadoes cannot be ruled out in parts of kansas, missouri, and texas. Now, back behind the severe conditions are happening, that means quite critical situation for wildfires. The combination of dry weather and strong winds are creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread. But across the west, wet weather still continues over the west coast of the u. S. Temperatures are cooling down to the teens in los angeles, with rain on the menu on tuesday. Meanwhile, winter still exists in winnipeg. 7 degrees below zero. But very warm conditions over the eastern seaboard. Up to 26 degrees with bright sunshine. Now across europe, very stormy conditions are still occurring over the western parts of the iberian peninsula. Waves of up to four meters are likely with gusts of nearly 110 kilometers per hour. Across the central parts of europe, looking quite gorgeous with a High Pressure system. Its going to be summerlike and plenty of sunshine right across these wintry precipitation over the northeast. Temperatures are going to be only 2 degrees in moscow, and snow will likely continue into your wednesday. Meanwhile, extremely warm conditions over the west and central areas of europe. Heres the extended forecast. And thats all for me today. Gene otani will be here at the top of the hour with more updates. Thank you for watching. Here are the headlines thisa hour. Minister terior is named the new french Prime Minister as part of a government reshuffle and an attempt to get the socialist party back on track. U. S. Secretary of state and john kerry heads to brussels to meet with four other nato members on the crisis in ukraine. As a new there