Thursday. Whipped by high winds the fire spread quick ly. Translator ive never seen a fire this big. Translator im wondering if my home is okay. The city has advised more than 700 nearby residents to evacuate. Officials say that a woman in her 40s was taken to the hospital after inhaling smoke. Another woman in her 40s was slightly injured. Weather Officials Say that wind gusts were clocked at 90 kilometers an hour in the area around noon due to a low developing in the japan sea. Earlier we spoke to Theodore Brown who is originally from the u. S. Hes lived and worked there for the last eight years. Its a very historic area with a lot of very old businesses. Some of these businesses are hundreds of years old and theyre currently burning. Actually its located along the sea of japan and this part of japan experiences very very strong winds, especially in the winter months. But today in particular weve seen some incredibly strong winds coming from the south. The Central Government set up a liaison unit to deal with the fan. People in japan are calling a milestone. The u. S. Has returned 4,000 hectares of land in okinawa. Locals are uneasy. The land the u. S. Returned is half of the morning training area, the biggest military training site in okinawa. The two governments agreed on the return in 1996. Its the largest plot the u. S. Has handed back since it stop governing the prefecture in 197. About 70 of all japanese land used by the u. S. Mail tear will still sb in okinawa. The land that the u. S. Is returning has elheld la pads. Oak gnaws burden of hosting bases will be lighter. They held a ceremony to mark the it. He wants the u. S. To stop using the ospreys. People who live nearby are unea uneasy. An osprey was badly destroyed when it ditched in Shallow Water last week. Japanese officials briefed local residents about the accident and later took questions behind doors. One pernd said they were told about the accident too late and another asked for a probe into the marine life. Translator we have to get rid of u. S. Bases. I want them out from okinawa. People who oppose the ospreys gathered in the last hour. Hundreds came to participate. People across japan could be paying for the clean up around the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant. The government plans to use public money for the first time. The cabinet signed off on the 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. Thus far, the government has made the plants operator pay on the principle that the company is responsible. The environment minister says that 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 there say the work is in badly contaminated areas will be slower and harder. Now on to business news, japan has approved a cabinet. Japans cabinet has approved the nations budget plan for the next fiscal year. Its the countrys largest budget ever. A third of the spending is on social welfare to cope with the countrys aging population. A large portion of the budget is dependent on debt. The draft comes to 830 billion. Thats 6 billion more than the plan for the current year. Over 270 billion is earmarked for social welfare. Some of the funds will go to hemp familihe help families. The boost comes amid regional tensions. As for money coming in, tax revenues are projected to reach 490 billion, an increase of 9 billion from this year. The budget calls for issuing roughly 290 million in bonds making up 35 of total revenue. The cabinet has also approved cabinets for funds to attract for tourists to japan. They want to increase the number to 40 million a year by 20 million. About 125 million has been earmarked for the airport. They will accommodate more flight and a tunnel. The government plans to spendnd 124 million to improve immigration procedures at airports around the country. New equipment will be introduced so that airport officials can shoot photographs of travelers quickly. 72 million will be allocated to setting up multilingual information counters and providing other facilities at tourist destinations. To make rural areas more appeal, the budget calls for an injection of 42 million into local communities. The government is promoting private home stays where travelers will be able to experience traditional japanese lifestyl lifestyles. The nikkei average ended lower for the second day. We have more from the tokyo stock exchange. Trading volume was low. Lets look at the closing levels for thursday. The nikkei lost less than 1. 5 of a percent. To pix alsoo fell. But over the week the nikkei ganted 0. 1 . Its been gaining for seven weeks now. The dollar traited in a top rarange. Trade volume is expected to taper off as investors go on yearend vacation. Thats something to keep in mind as it may lead to some volatility. Many other markets in the Asia Pacific Region ended lower. Hong kongs index was done, indonesia was dount by 1. 3 . Concerns over the italian Banking System weighed on sentiment. Shared in the philippines dropped to close at 6587. The central bank kept its key rate as widely expected. S p asx 200 up over half a percent. Financials continued their pull run. U. S. President elect donald trump is creating a new train to vamp a knew trade environment. The mood is seen as him following up on his promise during his campaign. The White House National trade counsel will advice the president on trade negotiations an assess u. S. Capabilities. The mission also includes drawing up new jobs. He picked the professor at the university of california irvine. He said in a statement that that vary rojas documented how globalization harms u. S. Workers. Heres a look at some of the other stories were following in business. Gentleman. Japan and britain have signed an agreement. T. The industryy minister met with his counter park to finalize the agreement. Theyll promote plans for construction of a Nuclear Power station in the uk. Executives at honda are eyeing a partnership with google to get Self Driving Technology on the road. They plan to conduct tests on u. S. Highways. The officials hope that partnering with an i. T. Giant will accelerate their efforts to bring self driving cars to the market. Many Asian Countries had growth in 2016, such as brexit, turbulent markets and oil prices. For many the focus is now 2017. Belo we look at the year ahead and what lies instore for japan. I was able to catch upp with a fund manager, the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Market group. Mark, i want to start by asking you about emerging markets in aesha. Which countries are you looking at right now. Were looking at every country in asia right now because the picture looking good for two reasons. One, the growth in china continues to be very very high, 6 or 7 and the growth in india seems to be higher, 7 or 8 . And we expect that kind of growth in the two largest countries in asia are going to be beneficial. Vietnam is one of the hottest frontier markets. Thailand continues to do well. Malaysia is slow down a little bit but the opportunity will be good as Commodity Prices come up again. Let me go down that list and start off with china. Were seeing some slowdowns in the country the past few years. How concerned are you about the data thats coming out right now . Theres no question that the velocity of the economy is slowing dodown. In other words, youre seeing a deceleration, however, the current growth in dollar terms is greater than it was when it was 1010 in 2010. So in looking at the totality of whats happening in china, you must realize that the amount of money going into investments, expansion, et cetera, is much greater than its ever been before. In 2017, where do you see japan going . Is, in your view, abenomics working . Abenomics, at least the first two arrows will be helped with the trump administration. Because, with Rising Interest Rates in the u. S. And rising inflation in the u. S. , this will affect whats happening in japan. Now, of course, the third arrow is very important for japan. Its absolutely necessary that abe and the administration in japan go about the Reform Efforts in a very aggressive manner, to recononform the japanese industry and the way japan works. Now japan has a great advantage, because one of the strengths is robotics. And the robotic revolution is hitting the world, and japan can take advantage of that trend. Marark, up until now, weve been pretty much been talking about the positive view. Where do you see the biggest risks in 2017 . The most outstanding risksk the etf, the exchangetraded funds. Exchangetraded funds have been growing at a very rapid rate. They now represent almost 30 of all mutual funds globally. These etfs, of course, d dependn the inde they follow the index. They all follow the same stocks. And liquidity is drying up because of that. If something reverses the prices of these stocks and the etfs are forced to sell and they have massive redemptions, this could create a general panic, not only in the u. S. Market, but globally, so this is something we have to watchch very, very carefully. You can catch on report online with a full transcript. Thats a look at the business news. Im going to leave you with the markets. South koreas court has held its first hearing on the impeachment of of president park, asking h her t to explain whwhereabouts on the day of a deadly ferry sinking. The judge askeded for a detaile account of her activities during the first seven hours of the ferry sinking. The accident killed 290 people. Nine were never found. One of the reasons for parks impeachment was over accusations she violated the constitution by failing to protect people on board. The lawyers said theyy wouldld d in some related documents after listening to what papark has to say. Mark was em boeched earlier this month and immediately suspended frorom her duties. The court has six month to rule on the position. Park is accused of violating freedom of speech and the rule of law. Shes been linked to an influence peddle l schedule. Ththey say park forced companie to donate funds to nonprofit organizations linked to that friend. Japans foreign minister said that the country decided to make its annual contribution to the u. N. Industry. It initially withheld his payment saying that it should not be used for political reasons. Translator we see that as major progress. He said that japan has worked as a responsible member of the agency to ensure that its activities promote friendship and Mutual Understanding among member states. Lalast october japan criticized unesco for adding documents from china to the memory of the world register. Beijing says that more than 300,000 chinese were killed after the former japanese armyy entered. Tokyo says its undeniable that many were killed but determining the exact figure is difficult. Documents referring to though as wartime comfort are being submitted for possible registry. The payments are usually made by around may. As christmas draws near, cities across japan are lighting up for the fesestive season. Displays in tokyo are drawing huge crowds and an Amusement Park is joining the fun for the first time. Reporter taking you back in time. The Amusement Park, ill show you whats happening inside the park. Look at this. Isnt it beautiful . There are more than 500,000 l. E. D. Lights decorating this park. Its very near the famous sensiji temple. When the sun goes down, workers go home. This is hoping to reenergize the district at night and the park operators are hoping to pull in more young couples and especially visitors from overseas. Many of the lights are pink. Thats in keeping with the theme of theory blossoms. But its not just the color. Follow me. Ill give you a closer look. Look at this tree. See . The shapes of the lights are cherry blossoms. Arent they cute . Theyre extremely lovely. Ive never seen this light before. And over theres a fountain with more lights. In fact this park is quite tiny by the standards of a modern Amusement Park. It only takes 15 minutes to walk around but there are about 20 attractions andnd it dates backo the era of the samurai. It opened in 1853, the year comma door ma true perry led his fleet to japanan to open its ports. It began as a flower garden. Then game the rides and the park has been going strong ever sense. But one thing hasnt changed since terry arrived. Foreign visitors still account as 1 of all visitor to the park. This year the park started offering visitors a head set loaded with recordings in four languages. Another fun way to soak up the atmosphere of all of japan. This is said to be japans oldest Amusement Park. Reporter this is an amusic park, after all. One of the stops is a haunted house. Its rumored to be really haunted. And this is the ride for real thrill seekers, space shot. It blasts you up 60 meter above the ground offering a birds eye view of the templple and tokyo sky tree, japans tallest structure. Yeah, that was extremely scary but i really enjoyed it because i could see a beautiful view. Also i could overlook the whole of the park. I want to ride one more attraction. I want to choose a peaceful one this time. How about the merry go round. And today, cameron is going to be my riding partner. This is a festive season. I really want someone to be with me. Last time i road on a merry go round was a long time ago so it reminds me of my childhood. He lets enjoy it together. Its beautiful to be surrounded by these pretty lights. Yeah, im so exciting excited. Yeah, lets go. Lets start. Yeah, thats my speed. I can enjoy the beautiful scenery peacefully this time. The light event will be taking place until the end of march. A lot of fun is packed in this park. All right thats it for now, back to you. All right. Something to add to your todo list while in tokyo. She even screams in a cute way. It looks like parts of the philippines will be in for a stormy holiday weekend. Jonathan oh has the details. Well we dont really talk about these types of storms around this time of the year. It does happen but usually were thinking a usually cooler around this time of the year so it tends to keep the waters a bit more still. But yes, we have a tropical and it may be impacting the philippines as we go into the Christmas Holiday weekend. A pretty big holiday especially in the philippines. Were looking for it to become a strong typhoon in the next few days. Its a transport storm at the moment expected to become a tropical storm. Moving 25 kilometers an hour. Notice the orange highlighted area. That is the time period when its expected to be as strong as a strong typhoon as we go into the weekend. But what were really lookiking out for is yes, the tral point is going to be toward the central islands of the phphilippines but with withh th right front quadrant located further too the north as it approaches the island. Manilala you may be getting u u 22 meters of rainfall. Be on the lkout for t this. Pi attention to the officials keeping on eye on this in the philippines, especially during the christmas weekend. Meanwhile whats happening over japan, we have a low pressure system located back toward the west ushering a lot of warm air. It was quite warm in tokyo during the morning hours. But i want to point out something here. You may notice this purple lighted section of the frontal map. Thats an occluded front. Thats where we see a lot of instability and the point where we see the stronger winds. That is the concern right now for those located along the sea of japan. Not only looking at the possibility of seeing blizzards conditions but right now were seeing strong winds blowing through the a area and thats creangng some p problems in the region. Well have t to keep an eye out for ththat. Snow possible to towarard the north. The rain should taper off later in the afternoon on friday, except for the north. Youll be feel more precipitation through the next few days. Christmas day colder but partly cloudy for places like tokyo, nagano and kyoto bumping up a little more on sunday. We have a low pressure off the Pacific Coast of mexico and california and it is bringing in a decent amount of rain and unstable weather. Be on the l look outfor that an maybe some snowflakes into utah later on this weekek. Up toward the north, anonother w prpressure s system close to th Pacific Northwest in places like british columumbia looking foro possibility of snowfall. Heavier rain up toward the north. A christmas weekend looking relatively wet for these locations, vancouver, salt lake city, a White Christmas by sunday, also for denver, showers in San Francisco friday into saturday. Further to the east, low pressure weather up toward the great lakes, the look out for some snow in toronto. Hope you have a good day wherever you are. Heres your extended outlook. That the top of the hour wi be the final watching france 24. Time for 60 minutes live around the world. Im genie godula. These are the headlines. German police offer a 100,000 euro reward for information linked to the main suspect in the Christmas Market attack in berlin. A manhunt is on for 24yearold tunisian anis amri. Still leavings eastern aleppo as the evacuation in syria continues. With rare snowfall slowing
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