And managers at japanese firms are investing in Robot Technology that could help at the fukushima plant and assist with reconstruction in the region. Prime minister shinzo abe has reiterated his commitment to rebuilding northeastern japan. People in the area are still trying to recover from the powerful earthquake and tsunami, and the nuclear accident. Abe spoke on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the disaster. Translator tomorrow will mark the fourth anniversary of the great east japan earthquake. I would like to once again offer heartfelt condolences to those who perished. The Prime Minister said efforts to reconstruct the affected area will continue for years to come. Translator next year in march, the fiveyear intensive reconstruction plan or reconstruction period will end and a framework plan for the next five years will be compiled by this summer. I have instructed my cabinet members to work on this as if they were all reconstruction ministers. The government will continue to support people in the affected areas so that they can get back on their own feet and live their lives with hope for the future. Fukushima will be a new center for recovery and cities and towns will be rebuilt. We will make fukushima a hub where the most advanced Research Research technology and industry in robotics and Renewable Energy will be created. As we move in to the fifth year since the Nuclear Power plant accident, it will continue to help people so that they will be able to support themselves and for this in addition to compensation for rebuilding businesses, it will extend support to cover areas so that people will be able to restore their livelihoods. A policy package for the rebirth of fukushima will be determined by may at the earliest. And by summer well have a vision for the future of fukushima compiled. The accident at Fukushima Daiichi is posing another challenge. Prime minister abe says the government will lead efforts to secure ways to store Nuclear Waste longterm. Translator we the generation that produced the radioactive waste, must try to ensure that we will not pass it on to the next generation. We must reexamine our practices and base our Scientific Evidence the government will take the lead and give instructions so as to realize final disposal. More than 18,000 people died or went missing in the disaster. Over 3,000 have died because of indirect effects such as illness or stress while livings evacuees. Nearly 230,000 people still live in temporary housing. Now we have in our studio our senior political commentator masayo nakajima. So what did you see were the main points of abes News Conference . Well the point is that Prime Minister abe revealed that his government will make another new fiveyear intensive reconstruction period plan. The government had earlier designated that the initial five years from the disaster in 2011 as an intensive reconstruction period. That period comes to end next year. So local governments and residents have been worried about whats going to happen after that period. So the government was expected to reexamine how it should proceed with reconstruction beyond the fiveyear period. Prime minister abe made it clear in his News Conference that his government will make another fiveyear reconstruction plan starting in fiscal year 2016. I believe that the Prime Minister did not want to give any more anxiety to local governments and residents. And as to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, we heard its determination to manage contaminated soil and waste, what do you have to say about that . Well, the government plans government plans ss start shipments the government is going to start shipments of Nuclear Waste to intermediate Storage Facilities in fukushima prefecture. But the pending issue of how to set up final and permanent disposal sites for waste remains to be solved local governments, and residents have shown their american about this. Prime minister abe said in his conference that it is his governments responsibility to take a lead in finding the place for the permanent disposal site for contaminated waste. He said that the government will propose possible places for sites with Scientific Evidence. He also addressed the criticism about radioactive leak into the sea, which was not disclosed for months. Right. Local residents and the fishing industry criticized the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, that is Tokyo Electric Power company. Abe criticized the tepco, you know, the tepco seems that it tried to conceal the fact. He said that the government will take the lead in decommissioning of the Nuclear Power plant, and management of contaminated water. He said he demanded that tepco to take additional measures to control the flow of the contaminated water. Thank you our senior political comment tater masayo nakajima. Now japanese scientists are warning people in the countrys northeast to be alert for another possible big earthquake. They say tectonic plates in and around japan are continuously moving, but the pattern of the movement is completely different since the march 2011 earthquake. Researchers say two plates slipped by more than 20 meters when the quake occurred. They say this could lead to a buildup of geological stress which means there could be more tremors. They say since the quake one of the plates has moved eastward 95 centimeters near miyagi prefecture. Another moved 48 centimeters. They believe the plates are moving to release the stress. The head researcher at the Geospatial Information Authority used the gps Device Installed on the sea bed to analyze movements of part of a continental plate. He found the mantle underneath the earths crust can be an accurate movement of an earthquake. Translator during the quake the mantle moved west dragging the seabed with it. I think plates near the surface are also being pulled toward the west. Suito thinks geological stress is building up around the boundary of the plate of tohoku region in northeastern japan. He warns that major earthquakes and ensuing tsunami waves could occur stretching from the northern to the eastern coast. Translator the probability of further quakes is said to be decreasing. But i dont think thats right. Suito says four years after the disaster people still need to be on alert. And many survivors of the march 11 earthquake are struggling to move on. More than 220,000 of them are still living in temporary housing. Officials at the Reconstruction Agency say the number has dropped by 35,000 since last march. But they say many evacuees all over the country are still living in temporary homes or with relatives. Officials have prepared more than 53,000 Housing Units for displaced people and 99 of them are still in use. Now, lets see whats happening in the world of business. Heres ron madison from the biz desk. Ron . Well miki german leader Angela Merkel spent her last day in japan learning about truck manufacturing. She visited an auto factory run by a japanesegerman joint venture before she headed back home. The mitsubishi truck and bus factory is in kawasaki city near toque yo. German auto giant daimler has a 90 stake in the plant. It turns out engines developed from german technology. Merkel learned how factory workers install engines and tires. Company officials showed her a truck thats powered by electricity, and other vehicles sporting advanced technologies. One of the trucks is designed for female drivers. After the tour merkel said germany and japan have had many things in common but they do share some differences, as well. She said its important to strengthen ties between the two countries. All right. To the markets now. European stocks opened lower this tuesday amid renewed worries about greeces debt situation and weak economic readings from china. Heres how main benchmarks in europe are looking at this hour. All of them are still trending downward. Weve got declines for both london and frankfurt of about half a percent, as well paris is losing just about half a percent at this hour. Investors are adjusting their positions before wednesday. Thats when greece will start technical talks with its creditors to agree on its economic reforms. Meanwhile in asia poor readings from chinas factory sector weighed on the mark e9s. Chinas shanghai composite closed down just about half a percent, 3,286. Banking shares in particular were sold off. Here in tokyo the nikkei dropped to a twoweek low. It closed down nearly 0. 7 . 18,665. The index erased gains as investors booked some profits. Heres where other asian markets closed their sessions as well. Hong kong down just about 1 . In fact it hit a twomonth low. Jakarta rebounded from a twoweek low on bargain hunting closing up 0. 3 . Seoul finished the day lower, though, 0. 4 . Well seeing some pretty big moves in currency markets. The euro extended its losses to a fresh 12year low against the dollar. Right now its at roughly 1. 0746. Analysts say dealers are buying the dollars on the back of globally divergent monetary policies. In contrast Central Banks in the eurozone and japan are pledging monetary easing. So the dollar has been rising against the yen, as well. Theyre now at roughly 121. 88. During tokyo trading hours the greenback actually broke above 122 yen for the first time in just about eight years. Well chief negotiators in the Transpacific Partnership free trade talks are getting back down to business. Theyre trying to bridge gaps on protection of intellectual property and other issues. Negotiators from the 12 participating countries are meeting for seven days in hawaii. Japans chief delegate Koji Tsuruoka spoke to reporters before the meeting. Translator the japanese delegates will do everything they can to get a deal done. And to make sure its in the best interests of japan. Tsuruoka said negotiators are paying close attention to a debate in the u. S. Congress. Lawmakers there divided over a bill that would give the president power to fasttrack trade deals. But the debate is now likely to be delayed. Well factory managers in china continued t face deflation. The Producer Price index plunged nearly 5 last month. The figure has declined for three straight years. The data from the National Bureau of statistics showed the index was minus 4. 8 in february from a year ago. Thats down half a percentage point from the previous month. Its the biggest drop since october 2009. The decline came as weak Real Estate Investment in the country dampened prices of construction materials. Low crude Oil Prices Also pulled down the cost of plastic products, and synthetic fibers. Its a different story for consumers, cpi in china rose 1. 4 from a year earlier. Thats up 0. 6 of a percentage point from the previous month. It is far short, though of the governments target of around 3 for the year. Well many people in northeastern japan have struggled to keep their firms viable since the march 2011 disaster. Some have survived thanks to help from a governmentbacked body thats been buying up their debt. Officials set up the organization in 2012 to help small and mid sized businesses. They bought about 660 million in credits owed by the firms. Theyve also helped reschedule loans and cut interest. Theyve received more than 2,000 inquiries from competents. So far theyve decided to help in more than 550 cases. The Officials Say nearly half of the recipients are in miyagi prefecture. Managers at many firms have been forced to rethink their approach to business in the wake of the disaster. Now some are focusing on Robot Technology that could help meet the challenges at Fukushima Daiichi. Reporter a new industry is in the making in fukushima. Its a robot business. This remote controlled robot can work in disaster areas where we, humans, cant. Norika and other entrepreneurs started a company that develops robots. Theyre finishing a prototype. Translator i think what weve done is pretty impressive. I didnt think wed come this far. Reporter but why robots . The reason is the fukushima Nuclear Power plant accident. It forced many residents to flee the area. Baba and his team wanted to build their own robots to help dismantle the reactors. So people can return home. Translator whats important is that we people in the region do this locally. Reporter some firms are using this opportunity to get out of the subcontracting business and become independent. Before the quake, this factory used to make tanks for Nuclear Plants for major firms. But the tsunami destroyed all the machines in the plant. Orders stopped coming in. The firm was swept to the brink of bankruptcy. Translator we lost our clients. So we had nothing to make or sell. I wondered whether i should continue to run the business. Reporter his company had been a subcontractor for 70 years. But he decided to produce robots on his own, and help rebuild his hometown. Translator everybody said from the very beginning, a Little Company like ours cant make things like robots. We studied a lot. We stuck to our decision. And things eventually started getting easier. Reporter his firm is now trying to develop a firefighting robot. He says it can go in to a burning forest. He wants to improve his robots so it can handle some of the decommissioning work at the nuclear plant. Translator we want robotmakers like us in fukushima to create more jobs. And sell their robots across japan. And even abroad. Thats our eventual goal. Reporter fukushimas robot industry isnt just about reconstruction from the disaster. It may grow into a business that can compete with global players. Okay. That is going to wrap it up for biz this hour. Lets get you a check of the markets now. Members of a United Nations panel want the International Community to do more to ensure gender equality. Thats the main topic at the annual meeting of the u. N. Commission on the status of women. Women should be at the center and front in all spectrums of our life and development and peace agenda. The u. N. Plans to set a new target for sustainable development. The idea is to achieve that over the next 15 years. The u. N. Says eliminating discrimination and violence against women will play a crucial role. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon said Climate Change the economic crisis and its placement caused by conflict hit women harder. Japanese lawyer yoko hayashi became head of the u. N. Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women. Hayashi said women in some countries are playing a more active role in society but she knows there are nations where religious extremists persecute them. The Japanese Foreign minister has drawn a distinction between japan and germany after world war ii. Fumio kishida says the two countries should not be directly compared in terms of how they try to reconcile with their neighbors. Kishida was referring to comments made by german chancellor Angela Merkel. She met with japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe on monday in tokyo. Merkel said she was not in a position to advise japan on postwar reconciliation. Then she explained germanys efforts to openly face the history of the holocaust. Kishida said he understands that merkel also cited gestures by france toward germany after the war. He said she stressed the importance of neighboring countries reaching out. Translator japan and germany differ in terms of what happened during the war, under what circumstances they engaged in postwar settlements, and which countries they have as neighbors. Its inappropriate to simply compare the two nations. Kishida said members of abes cabinet share their predecessors view that japan caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly in asia. People in tokyo are marking the 70th anniversary of a massive u. S. Air raid during world war ii. About 100,000 people died in the attack. Prince and princess akishino attended a ceremony at a memorial in eastern tokyo. It holds the remains of victims who were never identified. Prime minister shinzo abe said the lives lost in the war will never be forgotten. Translator based on our commitment to peace, we will humbly face up to the past learn from the lessons of the tragic war, and do whatever we can to contribute to Permanent Peace in the world. More than 260,000 buildings burned down in the attack by b29 bombers on march 10th, 1945. A facility next to the hall holds a list with the names of about 80,000 victims. Translator i lost five members of my family including my parents and siblings. I still cant manage to come to grips with their deaths. Translator i hope there wont be any more wars. The buildings of this Elementary School were Still Standing after the attack. Students had a chance to listen to a survivor. Translator i was shocked and sad to hear that such a tragedy happened, where we live. I want to help make sure theres peace. Its extremely stormy across much of the nation. We are talking about heavy snowfall, and heavy rainfall and strong winds battered houses and buildings across dada causing some structure damage and also about 50 centimeters has fallen in the past 24 hours. The reason is that we have mixed winterlike cold air and a typhoonlike strong low pressure system in the north. And this one will likely sit here into the next couple of days. Now take a look