Reporter representatives from around the world gathered thursday to vote on what could be a Ground Breaking step in ridding the world of Nuclear Weapons. 123 countries voted to pass the draft resolution. 38 voted against while 16 abstained. Draft resolution l41 is adopted. Reporter the resolution was submitted by over 50 countries including austria and mexico. It aims to convene a u. N. Congress to have a tool to prohibit Nuclear Weapons. Eventually leading towards the total elimination. Areas made a passionate plea. A legal instrument to prohibit Nuclear Weapons will be a Solid Foundation on which to build additional instruments leading to the total elimination of Nuclear Weapons to attain and maintain a World WithoutNuclear Weapons. Reporter but Nuclear Weapons states including the United States, russia, and the United Kingdom strongly opposed it. And they demanded other governments withdraw their support for the draft. And while we respect the views of the proponents, we disagree with the practicality of their approach and are concerned with the negative effects of seeking to ban Nuclear Weapons without consideration of the overarching International Security environment. Reporter japan voted against it. Its the only country in the world that experienced the horrific consequences of atomic bomb attacks. But its also under the nuclear co umbrella. Translator cooperation between the Nuclear Powers and nonnuclear countries is essential. We need unanimous approval of the international community. Reporter japanese atomic bomb survivors have been actively campaigning to ban Nuclear Weapons for decades. They attended the session earlier and asked the world to do away with them. Some delegates praised their long standing efforts. We heard from hibakusha and i think they had a huge impact to make the humanitarian part of Nuclear Weapons known to wider public. Reporter the resolution now goes to the General Assembly for a vote at the end of the year. If approved there, it will require a u. N. Conference on the treaty to start next year. Supporters and activists across the world say this is a major breakthrough for nuclear disarmament. Nhk world, new york. And survivors from the only cities attacked with atomic bombs are reacting. This man lived through this bombing and heads a hibakusha group. Translator this is unacceptable. Have they forgotten the hibakusha . Have that forgotten hiroshima and nagasaki . This woman is a survivor of the hiroshima bombing and called for u. N. Meetings. She told nhk shes worked many years to see this progress. She says as a hibakusha shell continue to speak out about how dangerous Nuclear Weapons are. Japans foreign minister has also come out to defend the decision. Fumio kishida highlighted that the countrys goal is gradual disarmament. Translator the resolution doesnt suit our fundamental stance. We believe we should achieve a Nuclear Weaponsfree world by taking concrete and practical measures. Kishida also argued the resolution would only widen the gap between nuclear and nonNuclear Weapons states. He says the two sides must Work Together to achieve results. But he said japan will take part if negotiations take part next year. He said japan will emphasize its stance as the only country to have had atomic bombings. The assembly has adopted a resolution. Police officer from another prefecture insulted using a derogatory term meaning uncivilized native and is considered a racial slur. The resolution was adopted by a jourt vote on friday. It condemns the officers remarks. It depends that the incident never be repeated again. The assembly plans to submit to the police and Public Safety commission. Sony has been forced to apologize after admitting that employees at one of its Group Companies padded orders and engaged in other illegal acts. Gene otani has news on that and other business headlines. Sony said on friday that the embezzlement by five employees including an executive caused losses of about 8. 5 million. The company sony lsi design does semiconductor design. Sony said employees padded values for over four years. Executives with the Japanese Electronics giant say the employees have been dismissed and face measures after an inhouse probe. They issued a statement to everyone involved to prevent recurren recurrence. Isetan holdings has capped the net profit through mark. A decline in sales due to Foreign Tourists was a m major factor. The groups operating profit for the year was prereviously 351 million. But executives havee dowowngrad thatat to 228 million. The earlier outlook for profit was 247 million. The latest is 123 million. It is attributed to a large drop in the value of purchases by foreign visitors. Tourists have switched from buying expensive products such as jewelry to less producy items like cosmetics. Also hit by an extraordinary loss as it prepares to close Unprofitable Stores next march. Officials with the firm say they had famed to predict the steep decline. Theyre not the only struggling. Others have revieds down their business forecasts. Turning now to the markets, the Financial Sector led the gains on favorable corporate earnings and as investors moved away from bonds. Giang nguyen reports from the tokyo stock exchange. Tokyo stocks really got a boost on friday from moves in currencies and bonds. Investors are hawkish about a u. S. Rate hike by the of this session. The nikkei 225 added 0. 6 closing at 17,446. The broader topix rose 0. 75 . On the week the index added and looking for a performance with a gain likely exceeding 5 . Nomura holdings closed more than 5 on upbeat earnings. Daiichi Life Holdings and Mitsubishi Financial Group were also higher. The dollar gained ground against the yen. The currency jumped to a threemonth high. Japan, t the u. S. , and australi alall have Monetary Policy meetings next week. Many investors are betting against additional easing by the bank of japan. But they say kuroda could inflate the time. Giang nguyen reporting. Most of the markets across the Asia Pacific Region ended in e the negative. Growing bets for a u. S. Rate hike by year end dampened some sentiment. Hong kongs hang seng index dropped by 0. 8 . Singapore also down by almost 0. 5 . The shanghai composite sl slid 0. 25 . The benchmark declined for a third day as many investors were wary that a weaker yuan could cause capital outflow from the country. Encouraged investors and pushed the benchmark up by just a fraction. 9,306 into positive territory. Its earning season in the United States and some of the countrys biggest i. T. Firms have been announcing their numbers. Googles parent firm alphabet and amazon both reporting strong growth in sales and profits in the three months to september. Alphabet posted 22. 5 billion. Net income nearly 5 billion. Up 27 . They contributed to brisk sales of ads thatt appear on mobilee dedevices. Leled by the cloudud computing businessss. Sasales jumped 29 yearn yearar. The firm posted about 250 million of net income. More than triple the figure a year ago. But some other i. T. Firms not doing so well. Apple and microsoft have reported lower from a year ago. Readers of novels have crowded an area famous for books. The event kicked off friday. Nearly 1 million used or antique books are for sale in kanda. Paperbacks as well as hardbacks have been specially discounted. Translator kanda is known wide as a book district. So many people are coming from abroad. He said book reading is set to be declining but he hopes the festival will reverse that trend. Heres a look at some of the other business stories were following. An Event Features japanese animation, manga cartoons, and games has opened in abu dhabi. Japanese anime a popular in the middle east. Japanese pop culture items are on sale. Fans have an opportunity to get autographs from members groups that sing anime songs. The event is expected to attract visitors through saturday. Maching inroads in businesses. Ibm has showcased ai applications at an event in las vegas. About 120 businesses from around the globe took part. A weather forecasting firm looked at 200,000 locations worldwide to make its predictions. Competition in Ai Technology is heating up. Google and facebook have open sourced their technologies and are calling on businesses to use them. It may not be too long before selfdriving vehicles become maiainstream makaking a turning point in the way we move both people and goods. In the second report of our twopart series on driverless technology, we focus on the kang changes in store for japans distribution sector. Reporter the delivery industry is facing a challenge. Most firms are struggling with labor shortages. An aging society and the low birthrate are likely to make the problem worse. At the same time, demand is rising. One big reason is the popularity of internet shopping. But many people are out when packages arrive. Translator no one was home at about 25 places today. Thats becoming typical. Reporter if the customer is absent, the package has to be redelivered. This creates more work. Selfdriving vehicles could be the answer. A major Japanese Company and an i. I. T. Firm are using the technology to develop a new service. Heres how it works. The customer uses a smartphone to set a time and place. A selfdriving vehicle arrives at the designated time. Inside the vehicle are containers. The customer enters a password to unlook the container and remove the package. Officials hope the service will be more convenient for customers. And ease the burden of delivery personnel. The companies are also exploring other possibilities. Translator we should introduce other services that are only possible with selfdriving technology. Reporter one idea is to tie up with supermarkets and restaurants and create a Food Delivery Service using automated vehicles. A service that takes people from place to place and also delivers food. Translator Japanese Society is changing and there are various signs that the workforce in our industry will continue to shrink. Were trying to diversify our services and we believe selfdriving technology could be one breakthrough toward aceveving at g goa reporter other companies such as i. T. And communications are looking at ways to take advantage of the technology. The race to gain a Competitive Edge in the world of selfdriving vehicles is heating up. Nhk world. And you can catch our report again online together with a full trupt. Look for nhk world and business wrap. Thats a look at business news. Im going to leave you with the markets. The japanese government says incidents of recorded School Bullying are on the rise. A recent government report says there were over 224,000 cases of bullying in the 2015 academic year. Thats an increase of more than 36,000 from the year before. The Education Ministry conducts the annual study. It says bullying incidents in the countrys Elementary Schools are higher than ever before. The ministry started to track the issue 30 years ago. Out of the bullying cases in 2015, two dozen of them led to students either attempting or committing suicide. World Renowned Russian conductor gergiev was in japan for concerts. The maestro took time to sit down with nhk world. He spoke about his longtime interest in japan and the cu cultural ties with his home country. Reporter gergiev is considered one of the greatest conductors in history. Hes no stranger to japan. Hes visited here more than 100 times. He spoke with us before a rehearsal. Im very, very used to performing in japan from 1984 when i was totally unknown here. So its a big part of my musical life. Reporter gergiev even held a special concert for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. I love japanese culture. I love the spirit, in many ways quietness but also concentration and focus, discipline. And then japan also can be very near fairy tale devotion spirit to music. Reporter hes passionate about bringing together musicians in the Asia Pacific Region. In july the maestro organized the International Festival in eastern city of vladovstock. We saw fantastic potential in cooperation with the Asia Pacific Region. In japan but also china, south korea, taiwan. It was clear that we can e mor mouse progress and strengthen cultural ties with this country. Reporter gergiev also doesnt shy away from commenting on russias affairs. President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit japan for a summit. Gergiev says hes optimistic about the relations between the two countries. We have strong relation in japan, obviously. We have strong leadership in russia. The two leaders experience is strong. The vision of the world, he allows them to find variable solutions for Global Cooperation and for country to country cooperation. Reporter when it comes to the relations, he said its important for diplomatic efforts to be supported. Nhk world, tokyo. People in some portions of the u. S. And canada are starting to see signs of winter already with a cold snap bringing in some harsh weather. Our meteorologist jonathan oh has details for there and elsewhere in our World Weather report. Hello. We are looking at some snow that has been falling in the northeastern portions. We had a low pressure system moving through the area. In fact, it is still moving through the area. That spin around with the cold air already in place, the combination is leading to wintry weather. We are expecting this low to continue to push off to the east. Its going to take toward the afternoon hours before we see the precipitation coming to an end. Winter weather advisory continues to be in effect for the state of maine. Also looking for wintry weather throughoutut the Morning Hours frfriday and then it will taper off into the afternoon. So thats going to be something residents will need to look out for as we go forward in time. But yes, already seeing snow. Were still in the fall months at this point. High pressure is controlling the pressure, sunny skies and dry conditions remain. But over california we have a cold front crossing through the state. Thats going to bring in some heavier rainfall from time to time. Especially because seymour is bringing in a southerly flow. You may deal with heavier showers from time to time on friday. The cooler temperatures loekcat to the north and east. Lets see if you can warm up with these pictures out of hawaii. Looking at a beautiful sunrise. We also have beautiful pictures of the oceans nearby. Lolooking at some p pleasant conditions from hawaii. And we a are looking at tt t to contue as w we lookk at the forecast here. A few scattered showers coming from time to time but mainly clouds. It will be a wonderful friday when it comes to the forecast. Now, it has been a wet friday in tokyo. Its also been getting colder. The high today was achieved shortly after midnight and temperatures have been falling throughout the day. It was a little bit after noon when we saw the low temperature of around 10. Little cold. And were expecting that to actually be the case Going Forward in time. As the low pushes through the area, colder air will filter in behind it from the north. Thats going to really drop the temperature significantly as we gogo forward in time. Back to the west, more rain developing into southern portioions of china. Rain has been a big part of the story in japan. We expect that to continue as we go into saturday. Snow continues to be a part of the picture over into hokkaido. Again, friday as we went through the day, we had the cold air to the north. By saturday, all that will be moving to the south. So be on the lookout for that. Single digits with a chance for snow flurries throughout the weekend into monday. Down to 6 6 on monday in sappor. Tokyo stays in the teens as we go into monday. Wrapping things up with a look at europe, we have a low pressure system moving through the scandinavian peninsula. Filtering into places like russia. Snow returns with a high of 1 on friday in moscow. 5 in kiev. Now bring a chance for rain to athens as wee go into friday. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. Heres your extended outlook. Three young japanese dancers are among the winners of an International Ballet competition in russia. It was sponsored by the ballet academy, one of the worlds top ballet schools. 15yearold ishmada won the juniors girl division. This year dancers from 13 countries committed. Shimada is the first japanese to have won. Translator it was fun, but i fefelt like it was over in an instant. Its stimulating to be with talented dancers from all over the world. I can learn a lot from them. She said her dream is to be a member of a russian ballet school. And another japanese 16yearold won second prize in the same division. In the mens division, 17yearold finished second. And that wraps up this edition of nhk newsline. Im raja pradhan in tokyo. Newsroom tokyo will bring you 8uxu hello and welcome to live from paris. Lets look at what is making news this hour. The operation to retake the iraqi city of mosul is gaining pace. The u. S. Is saying up to 900 jihadists have been killed. If they went back territory held by the islamic state. Fighting has broken out in the syrian city of aleppo as rebels announce a large scale offensive. A historic