And tuneishen authorities have arrested several suspects after a deadly museum attack and theyre pledging to tighten the nations security. Many people in japan paused on march 20th to reflect on what was a scary and painful time in their history. 20 years ago today members of a religious cult released sarin gas on the tokyo subway system during the morning rush hour. 13 people died and 6300 others were hurt. People held a Memorial Ceremony at one of the subway stations targeted in the attack. They held a moment of silence at 8 00 a. M. Around the time members of Aum Shinri Kyo released the nerve gas. Families of the victims and others laid flowers and offered prayers. Translator ive always thought i could have been one of the victims. That thought brought me here today. Translator as a bereaved Family Member i want to keep on telling the next generation about this tragedy. But theres a limit to what i can do. I want young people to become interested in knowing what happened in the Aum Shinri Kyo incident. Aum shinri kyo members targeted lines that passed through a district in tokyo where the National Government is located. They left sarinfilled bags on a number of trains. Two days later, police stormed the cults compound in central japan and eventually arrested the founder and his followers. Officials with the National Police agency or npa outlined the Lessons Learned from the attack in a report released in 1996. They pointed out that police never expected criminals to use highly toxic gases and lacked expertise. That prompted authorities to set up chemical terrorism units in different parts of japan. In the npa formed a forensic section on Chemical Warfare agentses. One month after the attack lawmakers enacted the first legislation banning the possession of Raw Materials used to manufacture toxic gases, including sarin. Theyve since introduced other antiterrorism measures. Counterterrorism experts know authorities have made Great Strides but he stresses the importance of reminding people of what happened on march 20th, 1995. Translator young people dont know anything about the assault. I think they need to understand what really happened. We should explain what the chemical terror attack was like. He says a full review of the subway attack is needed to help educate future generations. Ten cult members are awaiting the Death Penalty in connection with the attack including the founder shoek u asahara. His high profile trial was both difficult and bizarre. Many were left dissatisfied with the outcome. Among them the presiding judge who spoke about the case exclusively to nhk. Our Jun Yotsumoto has more. Reporter abe retired from the bench in 2010. One of his most famous cases as a judge involved the founder of the religious cult Aum Shinri Kyo. Abe faced matsumoto in the courtroom 219 times over a period of six years. Matsumoto faced charges in more than 13 cases, including the sarin gas attack. Abe first met the defendant five months after his arrest. The judge had summoned matsumoto to a closeddoor session to ask why he had dismissed his lawyer. It was an unusual step. Abe still rebs what matsumoto said. Translator you are just there to judge me. But my life is at stake in this trial. Translator he stated very logically that the trial is extremely important to him. He clearly understood he must properly face the court. Reporter matsumoto pleaded not guilty at the beginning of the trial. But, his behavior soon become erratic. Translator i expected some kind of testimony. But he began babbling in english. None of it made sense. Reporter abe says he tried to listen. But, it wasnt easy. Translator i thought he may one day confess something central to the case. I vividly recall that during the hearings i often struggled over whether i should order him to leave the courtroom or be more patient. Reporter matsumoto later stopped talking. Abe believes the defendant couldnt accept the fact that his onetime disciples started to testify against him. Matsumoto shouted when one former aide spoke in court. Translator call off this trial at once. Youll all pay for this. Translator matsumotos oncetrusted aides began revealing details of their conspiracy. He probably found that unbearable, and began escaping from reality into his own tight shell. Reporter the sarin gas attacks on the tokyo subway system shocked japanese. And many followed matsumotos trial closely. Especially the families of the victims, and the thousands of survivors. But, with the defendant defusing to speak coherently few were satisfied with the outcome of the case. Abe says he ran the trial by the books, but he still feels a sense of regret. Reporter the trial ended even though crucial elements remained unknown. It was a real shame. I feel terribly sorry for failing to oversee a trial that actually deserves to be called a trial. One that leaves lessons for future generations. Abe and people affected by Aum Shinri Kyo say they are searching for closure. They say its important to examine the roots of these terrible crimes and how authorities handle the cult to ensure this kind of thing never happens again. Jun yotsumoto, nhk world tokyo. Now, in other news tunisian authorities have designed nine men on suspicion of involvement in the deadly museum attack in the capital tunis. And theyre now investigating the backgrounds and the modives of the suspects. People gathered at the National Bardo museum to lay flowers and light candles. They prayed for victims of wednesdays shooting. 21 people including three japanese nationals were killed in the attack. 47 others were wounded. Gunmen opened fire on Foreign Tourists at the museum. They forced into the building and took hostages. The siege ended when Security Forces stormed the facility and shot dead two of the assailants. Officials with the countrys interior ministry told reuters two suspects had received military training at a facility run by extremists in libya. And they say the two gunmen were recruited at a mosque in tunisia. A statement reportedly issued by the Islamic State group appeared online thursday claiming responsibility for the attacks. It described the gunmen at the groups fighters. It also suggested the possibility of more attacks. But tunisias president has not mentioned any connection. He said the dead gunmen are linked to another Islamic Extremist Group in tunisia. Now going on to Business Opinions are divided over a new bank proposed by china. Heres ron madison from the business desk with more on that and other business news. Ron . Yeah, thats right, miki. The advanced economies of europe have signaled their intention to join chinas proposed International Development bank but leaders here in japan remain a bit cautious. Finance minister taro aso has hinted that the government might discuss participating if transparency in the banks operations can be ensured. Now aso talked about the Asian InfrastructureInvestment Bank chinese leaders say the bank will help developing countries in asia. Aso said the banks board of directors will have to screen its projects. Translator id like to make a careful judgment in terms of the economy, and diplomacy. Japanese government Officials Say its not clear how the new bank would share roles with the Asian Development bank. They also say its not clear how the new bank will reflect concerns of member nations, other than china. All right lets get a check of the markets now. Japans nikkei share average hit a fresh 15year high friday. The index, in fact finished up more than 0. 4 19,560. Thats the highest closing level since april 2000. The nikkei ends the week up 1. 6 . It has now seen six straight weeks of gains, and analysts say investors are increasingly optimistic about japans economy. And that optimism has been supported by better corporate earnings, and wage hikes. The shanghai composite seeing gains, as well. In fact extending it to an eightday up 1 3,617. The market opened volatile but rallied in the afternoon. This was on expectations of further government stimulus for the week it gained 7. 25 . In taiwan stocks are up for the fourth day in a row, renewing a sevenyear high. The index gained just over a tenth of a percent, 9,749. Investors bought shares of hightech companies, tracking gains on the tech heavy nasdaq. Other asian markets pretty mixed today. Seoul ended almost flat on profit taking. Sydney was up 0. 4 boosted by banking shares. Hong kongs hang seng index finished the day lower just about 0. 4 . Well looks like chinese leaders are pretty unfazed by a slowdown in their economy. Premier li keqiang is targeting growth of around 7 this year. That would be the countrys lowest gdp rate in decades. And he says even achieving that wont be easy. He says hes still committed to adding jobs and increasing wages. Earlier, our ai uchida spoke with jackson wong from United Securities in hong kong. He told her how leaders are planning to achieve their goals. China is targeting to raise their minimum wages to around 40 of the average wages, and they have been doing that by annually 13 increase over the last few years. So i think theres still room for them to grow the wages. However, there is still a big problem for young people finding jobs, because a lot of these young graduates have huge expectations to find decent jobs. But in reality, they can only find a job that can pay can be paid only a bit above minimum wages, so thats still a big gap between this. So i think china will have to do Something Like you know asking to start their new business and enforce rules and regulations to protect their rights. And what about the target growth rate . Around 7 is a slowdown for china. But still something many other leaders can only dream about. What factors are tailwinds, and what are the headwinds for the economy . Well i think the tailwinds would be china can always go with both physical and monetary policies. We all know that. China has been doing their Interest Rate cuts and required ratio cuts in the last few months. And i do believe they will keep doing that in the first half of the 2015. However, this will take some time to take effect. So for fiscal policies i think they will go back to their old tricks, which is building infrastructures. We all know that they have been doing the one role projects and also they Just Announced yesterday they will try to urbanize the western parts by building massive Railways Network to connect to the main part of china. So i think all these projects can keep the economy going for next few years. However, whether the government can carry out all these actions as planned, will determine whether this will win the investors confence so that the economy can be sustained at that level. Okay speaking of infrastructure, lets talk about the aiib. More and more support building for the bank. Right now more than 30 countries have announced theyd like to join the bank and a lot of them just from europe. Five countries now showing support. Right. And all the while, the u. S. And japan remain skeptical. So how did the latest developments change the dynamics of the bank . Well i think the latest developments has two folds. And from the surface i think china would very welcome all these western countries or developed countries to join because from financial point of view, there would be more funds from this developed countries, and also with all these developed countries, this organization will have world representative powers in the world. However, relatively depending how they can structure their voting powers if in the organization. If too many of these countries do join i think it might dilute chinas influence or voting powers in the worst, so china would have to really think about that and take a very delicate balance to let them in. Well heres something that gamers in china are probably cheering about. The people at sony are selling their game console in Mainland China following the lifting of a sales ban. Sony is the first japanese maker to sell video game devices in that market. Just about 100 people lined up at a store in shanghai friday. They were waiting to buy Sony Playstation 4. And playstation vita. Chinese authorities had band the sale of gaming devices in 2000 saying they would have a negative effect on young people. But consumers were able to buy consoles and software smugged into the market. The government lifted its ban last year. Translator we dont have to buy smuggled products anymore. Im so happy and relieved. Chinese authorities are now screening game consoles before they go on sale. Well many japanese automakers are expecting record profits this fiscal year. Thanks to brisk overseas sales. But the outlook for the domestic market isnt as bright. Thats because tax authorities will remove some of the breaks enjoyed by owners of popular mini vehicles. Officials at the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association say it predicts total domestic sales of 4. 9 million vehicles in fiscal 2015. Now thats down from 5. 4 from the projection for the current fiscal year and would be the first time in four years for the figure to dip below the 5 million mark. Just around a third of japans auto market consists of mini vehicles. They have small engines no bigger than 660 ccs and are made exclusively by japanese manufacturers. A Japanese Company has won the worlds top prize for whiskey. The prize was announced thursday in britain. Thats the home of whiskey making. Japanese whiskeys have come out on top in different categoryies for nine years in a row. Tacket sure rue 17yearold. Judges in the world whiskeys awards chose nikkas brand taketsuru as the best blended whiskey for 2015. Its the second Straight Year winning the prize. The whiskey was named after mats hara tack et your rue whose life forms the basis of a serial drama currently running on nhk. The drama has made more people familiar with our whiskey. Winning the worlds best prize will add momentum to that. I think the complexity, their attention to detail skill, and real artisanal production in a way, real craftsmanship has really made japanese whiskey the powerhouse that it is today. And its certainly world class. And the value of japanese whiskey exports jumped nearly 150 last year from the previous year. All right. That is going to do it for biz this hour. Lets see how things are looking on the markets. Analysts will be closely watching north korea when its members of Parliament Meet next month. Theyll be looking to see whether top personnel in the nations leading bodies will be reshuffled. Staterun media announced the Supreme Peoples Assembly will convene on april 9th. The assembly meets once or twice a year to make decisions on the National Budget legislation, and personal appointments. The Assembly Last met in september. During that session, it was decided the National DefenseCommission Vice chair Choe Ryong Hae would be replaced with one of north Korean Leader kim jonguns closest aids hwang pyong so took the place. He was the head of the highest leading body of the workers party. He no longer holds that post a fact that was revealed last month. Japanese police have arrested a man for allegedly making bomb threats against a u. S. Embassy in tokyo. They say hes also a possible suspect in Death Threats against ambassador caroline kennedy. Police say Mitsuyoshi Kamiya lives in the Southern Island prefecture of okinawa. They say he made three calls from a pay phone earlier this month to the u. S. Embassy in tokyo. He reportedly threatened to bomb the embassy as well as camp schwab, an American Military base in okinawa. Japanese police say Embassy Staff have received about 30 threatening calls since last month. The caller threatened to kill ambassador kennedy, and the u. S. Consul general in okinawa. Police say kamiya is frustrated with the planned relocation of a u. S. Air base in okinawa. The futenma air station is set to move to a less populated area within the prefecture. They have charged kamiya with obstructing the u. S. Embassys operation. The Japan Coast Guard has a new addition to its fleet. The High Performance vessel is designed for Disaster Relief and antiterrorism patrols. The ship was christened sado and launched from the port city of niigata on the sea of japan coast. The 90 meter long patrol ship can reach speeds of nearly 40 kilometers per hour. Its equipped with a crane to load supplies and has space to carry relief supplies or evacuees. It has two rubber life boats and two rescue boats. A filtration system removes salt from sea water to produce drinking water. Translator the crew will take part in daily drills, so in the event of an emergency we can make full use of the ship. The head of the Niigata Coast Guard Office says that in the event of a tsunami or other disaster, he hopes the sado responds quickly, making it a guardian of the sea of japan. U. S. Researchers say arctic ice has hit a record low for winter. Two scientific institutions estimated the total area of sea ice this season. It was the lowest figure since 1979, when such records began to be kept. The u. S. National snow and Ice Data Center and nasa based the estimate on satellite data. They say the total area peaked at 14. 5 million square kilometers. Thats 130,000 square kilometers less than the previous record low in 2011. The institutions say the maximum was reached on february 25th, 15 days earlier than average. The data center attributes the record low to jet streams in february. Those jet streams raised temperatures on the pacific side of the arctic ocean. They also prevented ice from spreading to the bering sea and the sea of okhotsk. Arctic sea ice reaches its largest size in winter and is its smallest size around september. A nasa scientist called attention to the need to monitor the summer climate, saying the size of the ice depends on weather during the hot season. Its time now to check on the World Weather with our meteorologist jonathan oh. Jonathan, a cloudy friday here in tokyo. I want to see a sunny weekend. Will that happen . Well miki im sorry, i cant guarantee that youre going to see a sunny weekend. But i can tell you that we are still expecting temperatures to be in the mid to upper teens, so at least it wont be a cold weekend. And the rain shutting more of a scattered variety, and not an allday type of event for the next couple of days. So thats at least the brighter side to what could be an okay weekend in terms of the rain. Heres a look at the forecast right now. We have the clouds roll through, yes, as we went through friday. Notice we have some more clouds back toward the west and this is the one thats going to be pushing further toward the east as we go in to the next couple of days. For the weekend, and thats when were going to see some cloud cover and yes, some sprinkles from time to time. Now, i want to show you some pictures coming out of central china, and hunan province, from friday morning, where we saw this advection fog taking place, and residents were looking at this wow we wont get to see this very often in this region. It has a nice little view to it. You see the sky rises kind of popping out on top of the clouds. The fog, to be more specific. Now, as we continue on throughout the next day or so the moisture that helped to advect that will start to come down. Because we had it in place, thats why we were able to see some of that fog. Now, there are a couple of High Pressure areas. Now when we usually talk about High Pressure were talking about sunnier skies or at least drier weather. But we also have something called a dirty high where its not quite as powerful enough to keep the area completely clear. So thats where were going to see some cloud cover with that disturbance trying to move through and maybe some sprinkles from time to time. You see this little icon down here . Bavi. We talked about this earlier this week. And then it weakened to a tropical depression really wasnt expected to do much. It is still expected to bring some showers, so as we go throughout the weekend, manila and for those of you in luzon may be dealing with some showers from time to time. A high of 32 degrees coming up on saturday 25 in taipei mid teens for tokyo, 18 in seoul, 19 in beijing. Staying relatively dry. Maybe some sprinkles from time to time. Now heres a look at Tropical Cyclone nathan category 1. A bit weaker after it made landfall. It is expected to weaken even more as it crosses over queensland and then reintensifying back to a category 1 Tropical Cyclone as you go in to the weekend. As it goes over waters. Now in europe we do have a low pressure system we were talking about this one stuck down here in the iberian peninsula. Yes, more rain expected for places like spain, and also in to portugal. Even some of that moisture heading into france. Meanwhile the central portions of the continent staying dry as High Pressure continues to grip the area. Another area of rain will be moving in to the scandinavian peninsula, possibly even some snow from time to time. Way up north. 4 in stockholm, 13 in berlin rain in madrid with a high of 19 degrees as we go throughout the day. Wrapping things up with a look at north america, we are still watching out for a couple areas of low pressure systems down toward the south. This is going to bring some more rainfall. Meanwhile, back toward the west High Pressure controls the weather. We are looking out for a cold front to drop from the north. Thats going to bring some colder temperatures like winnipeg negative 3 for the high. 13 in chicago. Look at atlanta in the teens on thursday. Back into the 20s as we go into friday. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. Heres your extended outlook. Well thats all for this edition of newsline, im Miki Yamamoto in tokyo. Well have more news for you at the top of the hour. Thanks for watching nhk world. Islamic state Organization Claims responsibility for a tunis museum attack. 21 victims were shot dead. The Extremist Group says it is just the beginning. Despite his preelection statement, Benjamin Netanyahu says his policy on a palestinian state hasnt changed. The white house says it is un convinced. Those are the top stories this hour. Thanks for joining us