To see whats happening at the Nuclear Plant without going inside. The rescue workers in western japan are rushing to find people trapped in landslides. Record amounts of rainfall at hiroshima loosened the ground sending several hillsides thundering intoes residential areas below. 32 people were killed, nine others are missing. The torrential rains started out in the morning and it just kept coming. More than 200 millimeters fell in two hours. Thats more than the average amount for the entire month. All that rain made the ground unstable, then hillsides gave way, sending mud sliding into homes and leaving a trail of debris. Firefighters and police are trying to find people swept away. The ground selfdefense force has also joined the rescue operation. Prime minister shinzo abe cut short his summer break to respond to the emergency. Translator my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy. Id like to extend my sincere sympathy to all those who are affected. Abe has dispatched keiji furuya to hiroshima. Hell lead the relief and rescue work there. To learn more about how the weather led to this disaster we turn to meteorologist jonathan oh. Hello. I can show you the radar returns from earlier in the day and you can see here some of the really darker shades of red and purple indicating rainfall rates at 80 millimeters per hour. When you have that type of rain situation on an already saturated area of moisture on the ground, you will see this type of problem and i want to show you some of the rainfall reports for threehour periods up to 217. 5 millimeters of rain and other areas again soaked with even more rain. It looks like that were going to be dealing with precipitation as we go into thursday. Look at this, we do have the stationary front located to the west of japan and so while the peak of the rainfall may be weakening off just a bit, were still looking at rainfall up to 100 millimeters in northern kyushu, and so unfortunately it does not look like that dry weather will be in store as we go into thursday. More in World Weather in just a bit. Lets now turn to the latest in biz with ron madison. Well, investors around the world certainly have been watching closely to see if Prime Minister shinzo abe can live to his promise to, as he puts it, bring japan back. The man largely responsible for jumpstarting the economy and fulfilling that pledge is the economic revitalization minister. He is juggling a number of challenges from economic reform to negotiations to reach a freetrade pact with asia pacific nations. A renowned business magazine has chosen him as one of the worlds 50 most influential leaders. Hes the one tasked with making abe nom micks work. We had an exclusive interview with the minister and he stressed even though japan posted negative growth of 6. 8 in the june quarter due to the consumption tax hike theres no need for undue pessimism. Translator its important when identifying actual Economic Trends to look at the average growth of a certain period. So from january to march and then april to june, when you see this big jump and a dip, you have to make sure to look at the average and compare that to what happened, for example, the year before. The key is what happens from july to september. Many analysts predict we will see 4 growth in that period. We have not given any official projections, but we do believe well see a good recovery. I think we should not be too worried. Translator the administration is facing a crucial decision by the end of the year. Whether to further raise the consumption tax from the current 8 to 10 . He says the best scenario would be to hike the tax as planned, but the government needs to take a closer look before going ahead with the initial plan. Translator if we raise the conshunl tax and the economy slumps this, of course, is hazardous. So what we must do is, we must look at what kind of impact any increase in the tax will have on the japanese economy. At the same time, we have to bear in mind that this additional tax money offers a steady revenue source, so if we decide not to raise the tax we will then have to come up with another approach toward rebuilding our financial health. We need to do this in order to maintain the confidence of the market in japanese bonds. And if we decide to postpone the tax hike we will need to then show when we will increase those rates. Translator lowering the Corporate Tax rate is one of the main pillars of Prime Minister abes growth strategy. Amari says the administration is determined to lower the Corporate Tax rate to a level that allows companies to be globally competitive in a fiveyear time frame. Translator weve decided to lower Corporate Tax rates to less than 30 in the next few yea years. In order to achieve this weve been discussing a gradual cut. In other words, we would reduce the tax rate by about six Percentage Points over the next fiveyear span. However, if the economy starts looking better than expected, the change may be brought forward, meaning we may move more quickly. But were still undecided on the pace of the tax reduction. This will depend very much on how the economy recovers. We plan to discuss this towards the end of this year. Reporter the Abe Administration has been pushing to reach a freetrade pact with 11 other asia pacific nations. But ministers of the negotiating countries have not been able to meet this summer. Amari says its crucial that countries keep moving forward and do not rehash issues that have already been decided. Translator the important thing is that among the 12 countries, japan and the u. S. , which cover 80 of the gdp of this group, should reach a firm basic agreement. On top of this, we also need to make sure that anything that has been decided is not reopened again. If we restart discussions on issues that have been resolved, it will totally upset the confidence and trust toward our agreements. Of course stakeholders of each country will have their say, but we should not go back to discussing what has been agreed. I think this is the responsibility of the leaders, to explain and persuade the Interest Groups within their countries to help make the deals work. All right. On to the markets now. Investors in asia were not actively trading. They were sidelined ahead of a symposium in wyoming which kicks off on thursday. Most benchmarks showed minor gains following overnight rallies and global stock markets. Investors will be keen to hear what janet yellen has to say, especially about the future of u. S. Monetary policy. Here in tokyo the nikkei average inched up a touch, finished at 15,454, holding on to a twoweek high in what was a tepid trading session today. Some participants bought shares on a weaker yen. Others, though, chose to lock in profits on the recent surge. Taiwans benchmark index climbed a half a percent, finished at 9,288, a second straight session of gains there. Financial shares led the advance on a brighter Business Outlook for local banks. In shanghai the composite index seeing declines a quarter of a percent. 2,240. Chinese regulators approved 11 Additional Companies to list and these firms are scheduled to start accepting subscriptions next week. Investors nervous about possible Fund Outflows for allocation to new issues. Month after month finance Ministry Officials have seen more goods coming into japan than going out. The trade balance has been in the negative for 25 months in a row now. Exporters believe demand from overseas may be starting to recover. The trade deficit for july came to about 9. 4 billion. The figure narrowed by 6. 6 in yen terms over a year earlier. But the balance has been negative since july 2012. Still, exports rose for the first time in three months. Theyre up 3. 9 from july of last year. Ministry officials point to an increase in auto exports. Imports meantime increased 2. 3 . Utilities in japan have had to bring in more fuel for thermal Power Generation since the Nuclear Accident three years ago in fukushima. The number of foreign visitors to japan in july hit a record monthly high. A weaker yen was a factor and an easing visa requirements for people from some nations in Southeast Asia gave a boost. Officials at the Japan NationalTourism Organization estimate almost 1. 27 Million People from overseas visited japan last month. Thats up 26. 6 from a year earlier. The number of visitors from Mainland China and indonesia, more than doubled. While the figures for travellers from malaysia and the philippines were both up more than 63 . Foreign visitors exceeded 10 million for the first time last year. The number continues to rise this year as tokyos airport is increasing its International Flights. More cruise ships are also calling at japanese ports. And theres some good news for travelers flying out of japan. Officials at Japan Airlines and all Nippon Airways have decided to cut fuel surcharges on International Flights for tickets issued in october and november due to lower fuel prices. Its the first cut that weve seen in 14 months. The surcharges are added to International Airfares based on the price of fuel and are reviewed every two months. Jal and ana will slash fuel surcharges for oneway flights connecting japan with north america and europe by 16 to about 200. Fees for flights connecting japan with hawaii and india will be lowered by about 15. 5 to roughly 130. Chinese Authorities Say they have fined ten japanese auto parts makers for violating the countrys antimonopoly law. State run media say the penalty is the countrys largest ever for antitrust violations. Officials of the National Development and Reform Commission say they have ordered the companies to pay a fine of about 200 million. The ten suppliers include electric industries, yazaki and den so. The commission claims the firms have fixed parts for automotive bearing and components. Officials say two other japanese makers charged with price fixing are exempt from the penalty because theyve cooperated with investigators. The Authorities Say theyre also looking into u. S. And german automakers on suspicion of violating the antitrust law. Electric industry Officials Say they will consider whether to pay the fine. Officials from yazaki and denso have accepted the order and say theyll do their utmost to prevent a recurrence. And that is going to do it for biz this hour. Lets check in on the markets. The family of a missing american journalist has confirmed he was killed by muslim militants fighting in syria and iraq. Members of the Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of a man they called james foley. They said the death was in revenge for the u. S. Air strikes against their group in northern iraq. Nhk world is following developments for us. Reporter james foley was abducted in syria nearly two years ago. He worked as a freelance journalist for the online news site global post and for the wire service afp. The 40yearold had also reported from iraq, afghanistan, and libya. Foleys family asked for privacy so they could mourn his death, but did confirm he is one of the latest victims of Islamic State. The Group Released a video titled a message to america. It shows a man in a location kneeling next to a masked man who identifies his captive as James Wright Foley and the captive also speaks. I call on my friend, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the u. S. Government, for what will happen to me, is only a result of their complacency and criminality. The masked men then criticizes the u. S. Air strikes against his fellow militants in iraq and he says attempts to defy the Islamic State or call fate they established across iraq and syria will result in a bloodshed of americans. After the beheading the masked man shows another captive he called steven soughtlove who disappeared near the syria turkey border and says the mans fate depends on obamas next decision. U. S. Government officials have briefed the president on these developments. Obama has resumed his vacation but is expected to deliver some sort of statement. Foleys mother diane posted a message on facebook. She said we implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like jim, they are innocent. They have no control over American Government policy in iraq, syria, or anywhere in the world. Obama ordered the air strikes in iraq earlier this month. Since then u. S. Forces have hit dozen of Islamic State targets from checkpoints to weapons and equipment. The president says theyre trying to protect american personnel and facilities and stop Islamic State from massacring members of the ya ziedy minority group. The campaign has saved thousands and helped iraqi and Kurdish Forces push back against the militants. The Islamic State controls parts of syria and iraq. More than 90,000 square kilometers according to some news agencies. They are sunni muslim and enforcing a strict brand of islam, killing or raping people who refuse to convert. Obama calls them a savage group that must be contained. Its not clear how or when foley fell into their hands. Hes one of a number of journalists who have disappeared in syria. Foley was abducted in 2011, covering the conflict in libya. Despite that experience, he went to syria. His mother says he gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the syrian people. Now although the family says hes dead, were still waiting for confirmation from the u. S. Government that james foley is the man who was beheaded in that video. One official says if true they are, quote, au pauled by the brutal murder of an innocent american journalist. That was craig dale. The man tasked with leading the u. N. s response to the Ebola Outbreak has been discussing the challenges ahead of him. David nabaro was appointed senior coordinator for elow ba last week. He says the disease isnt just a humanitarian problem. He says its impacting politics and economies and may have security ramifications. A really comprehensive support operation is necessary that involves all the different assets, tools, capacities, in our United Nations system. Nabarro will travel to west africa this week to assess the situation. Hell visit the four countries affected by the outbreak, liberia, sierra leone, guinea and nigeria. World Health OrganizationOfficials Say the Ebola Outbreak is one of the largest everp. They say its claimed the lives of an estimated 1,200 people. Demonstrators in pakistan are demanding the Prime Ministers resignation. Theyve marched into a heavily guarded government zone in the captain islamabad to make their case. Tens of thousands of supporters of the Opposition PartyPakistan Movement for justice have been staging rallies since saturday in the capital. They were joined by members of an islamic organization. They are accusing Prime Minister nawaz sharif of committing massive fraud in last years parliamentary election. Theyve demanded that he leave office by tuesday. But sharif says hes staying in his post. On tuesday night, protesters staged a sitin in front of the parliament building. They forced their way past bare ra cads around the Government Office district. The government allowed the protesters to enter the area to avoid bloodshed. There have been no reports of violent clashes. The Sharif Administration has instructed Security Forces not to use any weapons and its calling for talks. So far the opposition is showing no signs of wanting to compromi compromise. Workers have begun the difficult task of decommissioning the Fukushima DaiichiNuclear Power plant. One of the biggest hurdles they ares facing is how to remove melted fuel from the crippled reactors. First they need to know the condition of the fuel. Experts believe the fuel has cooled down and turned into debris. But engineers with Tokyo Electric Power company have not. Able to check the actual state of the debris because of the high levels of radiation. Now they might have figured out a way to measure the highly toxic materials. Todays Nuclear Watch focuses on efforts to overcome this problem. Reporter these flashing streaks show the passage of elementary particles called muons. The particles rain down from space. Every minute 10,000 muons per square meter land on earth. Scientists have relied on this particle to probe materials that are beyond our reach. One example is volcanic magma. The technique is called muon imaging or muon tomography. When the particles hit a high density object, such as magma, they lose energy or are absorbed. By measuring these changes, scientists can determine the shape of the magma in a way that resemble