Protect peace. Among the mourners were the parents of a japanese couple who died. They expressed sorrow over recent terror attacks plaguing the world. Translator i feel sorry for the bereaved families. When i think of what theyll have to go through. In january, supporters of the Islamic State militant group detonated bombs and opened fire in the capital, jakarta, killing four people. Hong kongs legislature opened a new session on wednesday. Three lawmakers were suspended after protesting against china at the oath taking. Before they can take their seats new lawmakers must swear allegiance to the Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region of the peoples republic of china and its basic law, hong kongs constitution. The oath refers multiple times to hong kong as a special Administrative Region of china. But two members of a proindependence group rewrote their oaths and pledged to protect the interests of hong kong as a nation. They were prominent figures in the prodemocracy protests in 2014. I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the hong kong nation and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the values of hong kong. The clerk of the Legislative Council instructed them to take the oath again. The two then displayed a blue flag with the slogan hong kong is not china. Another legislator added a line in his oath about fighting for genuine universal suffrage. The clerk did not accept their oaths and the three were locked out of the session. Prodemocracy groups challenged the suspension of the three lawmakers. They say the clerk had exceeded his authority. Probeijing legislators hold a majority of seats in the Council Following an election last month. Legislators critical of Mainland China include conventional prodemocracy members as well as advocates for hong kongs independence. Beijing has brushed off a protest by seoul over the sinking of a coast guard vessel by a chinese fishing boat. The incident comes as south korea is trying to crack down on what it says is Illegal Fishing off its west coast. Chinas Foreign Ministry says the korean vessel that was rammed last week had no right to patrolling the waters in question. It said a bilateral fishing agreement applies there. Translator the allegation by south korea cannot be justified. We launched sole representations through diplomatic channels. They said the coast guard had detected Illegal Fishing in its territorial waters. Seoul said its ship was hit by a fishing boat after chasing it out of those waters. The sinking is string of incidents off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. Earlier this week seoul said it plans to use greater force including weaponry to combat Illegal Fishing. Beijing says that will only worsen the situation. An association representing survivors of the atomic bombings has regnse renewed its pledge t toward a World Without nuclear weapons. A ceremony to mark the 6 0th anniversary of its finding. About 16 o people from atomic bomb survivor groups nationwide attended the event on wednesday in tokyo. The participants observed a moment of silence for atomic bomb victims. Translator the mission we survivors have received from history is to establish a fortress of peace so that humanity will never repeat the mistake. Fujimori urged people to add their signatures to an International Petition calling for a Treaty Banning Nuclear weapons. It was established in 1956. Antinuclear sentiment was fierce in japan after the u. S. Tested a Hydrogen Bomb in the South Pacific two years earlier. Crew members aboard a japanese fishing boat were exposed to radiation and one died soon after. The group has been sending delegates to International Conferences to promote its cause. In 1982, the chairperson of the Organization Made a historic speech at the united nations. No more war. The average age of abomb survivors is over 80. A major issue is ensuring future generations carry on its campaign. The association is urging children of survivors to take over the movement. Two governors in japan are discussing the idea of moving a venue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and paralympics. Ballooning costs have the tokyo governor seeking cheaper venn view a venue alternatives. One possibility is to move rowing rowing events from tokyo to the northeast. Plans of rowing and canoeing events at an existing facility. He indicated the prefecture is ready to pay its share of the cost. Translator im confident that it will be much cheaper than the planned new facility in tokyo. Murai said the facility could be used for High School Athletic competitions. He also said olympians could stay at temporary Housing Units built for evacuees after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Repair work is under way at one of the houses prior to the visit on saturday. The tokyo governor says she wants the 2020 games to be an opportunity to show how much progress the made. Translator the reuse of the temporary hassing will be a strong message. I will take it into consideration when i visit miyagi. A tokyo metropolitan Government Panel has proposed changing three olympic venues to cut costs, but the International Rowing federation is opposed to moving the location for the sport and the Olympic Organizing Committee says it would be a burden on the athletes. She will meet with the president of the International Olympic committee, tomas bach, in japan next week. She plans to convey her decision on the proposal then. There was a large power outage in tokyo on wednesday afternoon. Tokyo electric Power Company says more than half a million households were affected. Translator a fire in an underground power grid caused electrical failure. A total of 580,000 were affected. We apologize for causing tremendous trouble and inconvenience for our customers as well as everyone in the affected areas. The fire broke out near tokyo. The utility says it damaged underground cables. Its investigating how the fire started. The Company Finished rerouting the power supply in about an hour. No injuries have been reported so far. Government offices in central tokyo were affected. The Tokyo High Court and District Court were without power for about 30 minutes. Officials had to reschedule some of the trials. The he the head of the Japan Sports Agency was in a meeting with hanada who won a bronze medal in canoe in rio de janeiro. They looked surprised when the lights went out but continued talking. Traffic lights were out at about 200 locations and police were deployed to control traffic. Train service was also disrupted and some people were trapped in elevators. All right. Lets take a look at the latest in Business News now. Investors around the world are looking for clues about when the u. S. Central bank will go ahead with its next rate hike. Federal reserve officials have released the minutes of last months policy meeting. Ai uchida joins us now from our business desk with all the details. Ai, what do the minutes say . Catherine, they actually indicate a split among policymakers over the question of when the fed should raise its key interest rate. The minutes are from a meeting in september when they decided to hold rates steady. Even so, several members believe the rate hike would be warranted relatively soon. Thats in their words. If labor Market Conditions continue to improve. The policymakers determined that the u. S. Economy was growing at a faster pace in the Third Quarter than in the first half of the year. They came to that conclusion after sifting through data. The numbers indicated that labor Market Conditions had strengthened in recent months. Most of the policymakers favored waiting for further evidence of continued progress toward the inflation target before deciding on a rate rise, but some participants believe that making the move relatively soon would be appropriate if the economy continued to improve. The minutes show that the decision for a rate hike was a close call. The feds next policy meetings are in november and in december. Many investors thought that those minutes did little to clarify the timing of the next rate hike and wall street ended largely flat on wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial average ending up just slightly. Slightly higher whereas the techheavy nasdaq ended down slightly lower. Lets see whats happening here in tokyo. This morning, were going to go to Ramin Mellegard for that at the tokyo stock exchange. Good morning, ramin, tell us what youre seeing over there. Good morning, ai. The main focus was the fed minutes but giving really few hints as to the next rate hike, but, of course, we did see a slight pop higher in the dollar which, of course, bodes well for exporters here. Lets have a look at how the nikkei and topix are kicking off. Thursday october 13th. And the nikkei up 0. 55 and the broader topix up 0. 51 . Now, just a reminder, the nikkei actually fell more than 1 on wednesday and raising all the gains that we saw in the previous day. Weak u. S. Earnings results weighing on sentiment. Corporate tieups in japan are continuing to make headlines. Many were surprised to hear t t toyota and suzuki announced theyre considering collaborating in a wide range of areas such as environment and safety technologies. These include ecofriendly and selfdriving vehicles. Now, many japanese businesses are are really trying to streamline some key sectors. Weve already heard from the likes of yamaha and honda, for instance, streamlining their scooter business, and if you like beer, one of japans biggest brewers is also taking a stake in u. S. Craft beer maker, brooklyn brewery. Thats going to be interesting. Now, later today, continuing on that earnings streak, uni qlo is going to take center stage. Its operator will release earnings reports after the markets close. These days retailers including Department Stores have had a bit of a rough time as consumption is stagnant across many sectors, ai, so a lot of Market Players are going to be paying close attention to Earnings Results which are coming thick and fast now. Ai . Ramin, you mentioned the stronger dollar. Tell us how some of the Currency Pairs are reacting today, especially following those fed minutes. Exactly. As i mentioned there, we did see a slight pop higher. Lets have a look at the exact levels. We can see what im talking about. 104 now. 104. 3637. And thats as some traders now really speculating that the fed minutes reinforced expectations that the central bank would raise rates in december. Now, lets get a quick look at the indexes that are open now across the asiapacific. Im talking about seouls kospi which is just in the negative and australias s p asx 200 down 0. 42 . Well see how the other markets fare in a couple of hours. Back to you. Sounds good, ramin, thanks a lot for that update. Well, some members of the Worlds Largest petroleum cartel, opec, and nonmember producers have agreed to enter fullfledged talks later this month. Their aim is to cap production to boost the price of crude oil. Representatives of qatar, other members of the organization of Petroleum Exporting countries and nonmember major Oil Exporters including russia gathered in istanbul on wednesday. They agreed to hold two days of talks in vienna starting on october 28th to discuss the details of an output cap. Opec reached an agreement late last month to limit supplies. Representatives called on nonmembers to join the agreement. Russia is among the participants eager to reduce output. President Vladimir Putin expressed on monday his readiness to control production. An invitation is to be extended to the united states. The country is the Worlds Largest oil producer as Shale Oil Production has continued to expand. U. S. I. T. Giant, google, is eyeing the japanese market for expanding business. It hosted a briefing at its tokyo offices this week on the latest in the companys Artificial Intelligence efforts. About 200 representatives from Japanese Firms were invited to the briefing. The speaker is the cofounder of the firms deep learning project, google brain. Google opened sources ai software as part of its bid of International Standardization of the technology. He was trying to sell audience members on the benefits. You can use it for education, you can use it in industry, you can use it for your own startup company. Almost whatever you want to do. He was followed by an employee from a Japanese Firm whose company has started using a. I. Software to analyze drone images. Translator we want google to continue this service as its much cheaper and faster than Building Technology by ourself. And a Smartphone App that grades daily exercise routines was also introduced. Well, think of japan and the image that comes to mind for many people is small living spaces. Today there is a new trend toward tiny housing in crowded cities and its taking off as younger people rethink what buying a home means. Nhk world explains. Reporter he lives in central tokyo. He and h after the birth of their child, he and his wife bought a condominium. It has one room. The selling point was its location. From home, its just a fiveminute walk to the company where he works. Translator being close to the office was a top priority. I dont finish work at a set time, but i want to take my child to daycare and bring him home as often as possible. Thats why we focused on proximity. Reporter among japanese, real estate is changing. In the past, condos of around 80 square meters were standard for families. Now more buyers are choosing compact units due to their shortterm needs. Translator consumers no longer look at real estate as something theyll use for a lifetime. If a unit no longer suits their lifestyle, theyre willing to rent it out or sell it. Reporter responding with product to the trend. They include items that allow for flexibility in small for example it can easily be removed if the owner leases or sells the unit. And furniture designed for comfort even on tight quarters. Limited spaces. For example, a sofa that quickly becomes a bed. So the living room can be a bedroom, too. And a desk, place them both on top to make a dining table. Depending on the situation, it can be used for work or for meals. The manufacturers sent Product Developers into the field. They visit families living in small condominiums to learn more about their needs. Translator anything inconvenient about living here . Translator theres no bedside table. If we can do solutions that work in small space with multifunction, we know we are good. Reporter like the counterparts in other parts of the world, younger japanese are finding that small living suits them. This change in lifestyle is opening up new opportunities for businesses. Yumiko sei, nhk world, tokyo. And that is the latest in Business News for this hour. Heres a check on markets. Nhk newsline is bringing you special coverage from japans southwestern region of kyushu this week. Were taking a close look at its history, culture and some businesses trying to grow the economy. This hour, we take you to a group of islands, the Environment Ministry is working to be designated a unesco World Heritage site. It recently unveiled a plan to realize this goal. The Amami Islands boast a wide variety of animals and plants. They make their home in a mangrove forest on the biggest island. The ecosystem has marine life that doesnt exist anywhere else. Nhk world has the story of one man whos dedicated his life to preserving the trees that have nurtured this ecosystem. Reporter he manages Mangrove Park but also works as a tour guide. Translator the trees get nutrients through their open roots. Reporter he was born and raised right near the forest. When he was a child. Translator i used to pass through here on my way home. Sometimes i walk through mud. Sometimes friends and i chase each other around. This place was our playground. I didnt even know the word, mangrove. Reporter he didnt realize how beautiful a natural la landscape was until he returned here after living in tokyo during his university days. Translator after i turned to amami, i went to the beach and mountains and realized that this area is blessed with valuable species of animals and plants. I realized i grew up in afternoonan amazing Natural Environment without even knowing it. Reporter he wants to protect the forest and feels it will take the support of many. So letting people know about the beauty of mangroves is an important task for him. He often