A group of South Koreans are helping to fill homes during the winter months with heat. Japanese government leaders on a race against time. They are using all Resources Available to try to have two nationals believed to be captured by Islamic State released. Theyre stressing to the militant group that millions of military aid promised to the middle east is solely for humanitarian purposes. Translator we will use the trust and all the channels we have cultivated in the middle east. We will try every means available. The video released on tuesday shows two men who are believed to be freelance journalists kenji goto and haruna yukawa. A purported Islamic State member threatens to kill them unless the japanese government pays a ransom of 200 million within 72 hours. Officials in tokyo assume the deadline is around 2 50 p. M. Japan time on friday. State minister for Foreign AffairsYasuhide Nakayama is taking charge of a task force based at the Japanese Embassy in jordan. He met on wednesday with king abdullah. And the king gave his readiness to cooperate fully. An Islamic State spokesperson is pressing the japanese government to meet the demand before the deadline. Nhk exchanged online messages with the representative on wednesday. The man said hes aware that state minister for Foreign Affairs, Yasuhide Nakayama was sent to jordan. Analysts say it suggests the group is closely watching the situation. The man wouldnt say if they have been in contact with the japanese government but he said Islamic State will achieve what it wants to do. And he reiterated that the militant group is not motivated by money alone. The wife of one of the two men being held captive has been contacted by whats believed to be members of Islamic State. A source told nhk that people affiliated with the militant group have sent her several emails. The wife of kenji goto has been receiving messages since november. The source says the first message only said Islamic State had captured the japanese journalist with no mention of a threat to kill him. And militants revealed information only known to goto and his family. She received a ransom note earlier this month demanding more than 17 million. Sources say the messages resemble emails sent by the group in other hostage takings. Goto left japan on october 22nd with plans to enter syria. He went missing about three days later. Kenji got has filed stories from many war zones. He has filed many stories about children caught up in conflicts. Goto visits this Junior High School in tokyo every year to talk about his work. Hes inspired many students. [ speaking Foreign Language ]. Goto has published five books, including one thats set in afghanistan. He spent a year following the story of a 10yearold girl who was deprived of education through war and poverty. Goto wrote in his book that he believes children are the only hope for afghanistans future. And he said the International Community should do whatever it can to help them. Goto has also been involved with the Japan Committee for unicef. He sent this photo three years ago from a refugee camp in jordan. He wrote in an attached message these children, too, deserve christmas presents. Translator gotos priority was displaced children. He believed very strongly in this issue. The unicef official says he is also praying for gotos safe return. Prime minister David Cameron has offered britains full support in efforts to bring the two japanese hostages home. Cameron met with japans foreign minister Fumio Kishida at the British Parliament on wednesday. They spoke for about ten minutes. Kishida described the hostage taking as unforgivable. He said japan will not bowe to terrorism and will keep contributing to the global fight against terrorism. He asked that britain share any information that would help secure the release of the hostages. Kishida later made a similar request over the phone to irans foreign minister zaf zaf he described them as a threat to the middle east and islamic International Community. He promised irans full support in resolving the crisis quickly. Foreign and defense ministers of japan and britain have agreed to Work Together to strengthen counterterrorism measures. Kishida and defense minister gen nakatani met with Philip Hammond and defense secretary michael fallen. We have a huge number of areas to discuss today not least the challenge of International Terrorism of which we are all reminded particularly by the hostage incident. The two ministers also expressed their readiness to cooperate with japan to help resolve the hostage crisis. Translator we hope to share information on the background of the hostage taking. The perpetrators, and the captives. And information that will determine conditions in the future. The ministers agreed to work for only conclusion of a pact of the Japanese Selfdefense forces and the British Ministry to provide each other with fuel and water in a disaster. Andthy will also Work Together on defense equipment and missile technology. Chinas premier paid a visit to the World Economic forum in davo switzerland where he expressed a bit of possess mitchell about the countrys economy. Ai uchida joins us with the details. He may have cause for pes mississippiem. He said that chinas economy may face downward pressure in 2015. Li said the situation in his country is part of a global slow down that is hurting chinese exports. But he said china will swift gears without losing momentum. Li said china will reach that goal by continuing to implement Structural Reforms and improve efficiency. Now lets check on markets for this thursday morning. Investors are cautious ahead of the Key European Central Bank meeting later in the day. They are expecting policymakers there will announce plans to buy government bonds to reverse the trend toward deflation and stlugish economic growth. Lets go to Ramin Mellegard who has an update on the latest moves. What can you tell us . With investors waiting for that meeting the tone of the markets has been a little bit mixed. The nikkei was trading in and out of positive and negative territory. But lets look it the closing levels 17,262 down. 10 . And the topix down almost a half percent. The mixed reception for the exporters as the dollar bounced up and down. So some of the big exporter names were trading lower. I was tracking the likes of bridgestone, canon as well as mazda. Toyota trading lower as car makers says it expects slower sales this year due to sluggish sales domestically. Toyota down. 5 . Sony was a focus but bucking the trend after it announced early retirement plans for some of its work force and investors took that as a positive that sony would restructure its business. Sony up. 2 . With all eyes on the ecb meeting a lot of eyes on currency trading. Starting with the dollar yen. 118. 2527. And its been trading in a bit of a range here. Slightly higher than earlier but not such a big move. The euro is a touch stronger against the dollar. Briefly hitting a oneweek high against the dollar. Lets have a quick look at asian indexes as well. The shanghai composite getting focus earlier. It is down. 5 after having posted its biggest one day gain in five years. So tokyo and shanghai underperforming somewhat and thats all for me. Back to you. Thanks a lot for that update. President barack obama has called on congress to finalize the Transpacific Partnership free trade deal. He made the appeal in the state of the union address. China wants to write the rules for the worlds Fastest Growing region. That would put our workers and our businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen . We should write those rules. We should level the playing field. Thats why im asking both parties to give me trade Promotion Authority to protect American Workers with strong new trade deals from asia to europe that arent just free but are also fair. U. S. Trade representative Michael Froman spoke in washington the day after obamas speech. We look to congress to pass bipartisan trade authority. Its clear that administration and congress are on the same page in negotiating high standards in our trade agreements. Froman said this conclusion of the deal is now in sight. He said that other participating countries must be able to trust the u. S. Experts have said that other participants, including japan, will not finalize the deal until the u. S. Government has stronger negotiating authority. Japanese leaders want to spark the economy. But they have a demographics problem. Japan has a low birthrate and aging society. They are looking at robots and drones. Drones and Industrial Automation could soon do some of the work the people do. The government will look into using drones to survey the condition of roads and bridges. Thats something humans do now. To fully automate Factory Production lines, the government will team up with japanese businesses and universities to set International Standards for technology. They want to catch up with germany and the u. S. , the current leaders in this technology. A Public Private partnership is planning to invest 850 million in robotrelated projects over the next five years. It aims to expand the robot market four fold to 20 billion. Last year, fewer new condominiums went on the market in the greater tokyo area than the previous year. Experts say the decline is the result of the consumption tax hike last april. The Real Estate Economic Institute says about 44,900 new condo units went on the market in 2014. Thats in tokyo and in three neighboring prefectures. And thats down 20. 5 from 2013. Still in december the number of new condo units for sale in the area increased year on year for the first time in 11 months. The institute says more than 9,300 units went on the mark in the area last month. Thats an increase of more than 13 from a year ago. Researchers say highrise condos in the tokyo bay area and suburban units accounted for most of the growth. Despite the december figures, experts forecast that rising Construction Costs will put a damper on growth. They say the total number of units hitting the market in 2015 will be about the same as last year. Magazine publishers in japan are dealing with big changes to their business. Theyve seen sales of traditional publications drop by 60 over the past two decades. So they are making the shift to the electronic realm. Nhk worlds miho achiwa reports. Reporter when it comes to fashion, many young people use smartphones and Tablet Computers instead of versional magazines to get information on the latest trends. Translator i can easily get information through my smartphone. Translator a magazine is too big to carry around. Reporter at this beauty salon translator what kind of style would you like . Reporter hair dressers now use tablets instead of magazines to show their customers a range of hair styles. Translator we can see the latest hair styles online. Theyre easy to look through because you can scroll the screen. Reporter hearst is a japanese subsidiary of worldleading media firm, hearst corporation. In addition to its printed magazines, the company is strengthening its publication of emagazines. Translator we have to redo everything with emagazines, font size, layout and content order. Reporter some emagazines in japan are based on established printed titles. Often the layout is just the same as the original magazine. But here, its been changed for the smartphone. Simply by tapping the screen, users can get product information on items theyre interested in. Major publisher has launched a new web magazine thats not based on a printed title. The firm put the wave fashion magazine for women straight online this month. Its also the first time for the publisher to employ a chief editor from outside the company. Naoka osukas books are popular among women in their 30s and 40s. You can read an emagazine any time you want and you can take part by sharing information with your friends. Reporter with emagazine, the publisher can also respond to the readers questions immediately. The publisher also makes and uploads videos. The chief editor shows how to wear certain items with style. This can be hard to do in still photos. Translator ready . Go. Translator when you tie the belt, keep the side with the buckle shorter than the other side. Translator lifestyles have changed. Its almost as if a publisher doesnt exist if it doesnt have an active online presence. Reporter companies with expertise in printed publications are having to rethink their strategies to ensure using their Products Online is convenient and attractive. Miho achiwa, nhk world, tokyo. Thats all for now on business news. Ill leave you with a check on markets. A group of volunteers in south korea is reaching out to give some home heating help. Theyre offering hundreds of thousands of coal briquettes to people who cant afford them during the winter months and theyre helping to ensure that everyone stays warm. More from nhk worlds kim chanju. Reporter the thermometer indicates it is currently minus 5 degrees and with wind chills it feels much much colder. And as you can see, volunteers are busy delivering coal briquettes in this freezing Winter Weather to lowincome residents. Many lowincome people live in this area of northern seoul. Today, about 70 volunteers participated in the delivery program. Translator its cold and my face gets black. Its tough, but i participate every year with my friends from work. Reporter one person leads this project. He says coal briquettes reminds people of the old days. Translator when the country was poor most people used coal briquettes to get through the cold winter. Reporter won launched this project for coal briquette for neighborhoods in 2004. It started as a local program with about 400 participants in a district on seouls outskirts. The media and websites reported on the project. Eventually it grew into a nationwide program. Operation costs are covered by donation from the general public. One man was motivated by an experience he had in his 30s. He was a labor consultant on issues involving coal miners. He said some are freezing and almost dying from the cold. They were really happy when he gave them coal briquettes. Translator the program is now so large that it has around 50,000 volunteers and a striking number are young. Its a Good Opportunity for experiences and learning the spirit of sharing. Reporter this winter the volunteers include mourning family members lost in the sewol ferry last april. One is. His 16yearold son died in the tragedy. Translator we received a lot of support from other people. Thats why im taking part in this initiative. Reporter some mourners gave briquettes to an old man still suffering from a Traffic Accident four years ago. It left him physically disabled. As he cannot work he has a hard time making ends meet. Translator i have a hard time getting by but young people come by to help. That energizes me. Im almost crying with joy. Reporter coal brick yets are being delivered to a total of 200,000 households across south korea this winter. Every year won receives many letters of gratitude. For the past 11 years, they have motivated him to keep the program going. Coal briquettes are not only a way of the keeping warm by a symbol of sharing. Kim chanju, nhk world, seoul. Its time for a check of the weather. Its rainy season in bolivia and people there are dealing with severe floods. Mai shoji joins us with the details. Some parts of the world are dealing with the rainy season right now and its full on across bolivia as we speak. Take a look at an image from there. There is some severe flooding going on. It continued in central bolivia today. At least 15 people have died. And thousands of hectares of crops have been lost after weeks of heavy rains. In the hardest hit areas, residents are forced to wade through the flood waters. Firefighters have been evacuating children and elderlies using small boats. Just last year in 2014 deadly floods hit the same area, killing at least 60 people. These areas are used to the rainy season and heavy rains. But too much is causing these situation and im afraid to tell you that the situation is not going to ease. There is no improvement because the rain will continue starting thursday afternoon hours. And more rain in the northern locations here as well. Already about 300 millimeters of rain has been falling in the past seven days. So any additional rainfall could trigger further flooding. Across here in north america we have snow to talk about. And thats going to be piling up as much as 40 centimeters across the four corners region. And thats descending into northwestern texas. Even texas will see 20 centimeters of heavy snowfall and that is combined with gusts reechg 60 Kilometers Per Hour. So blowing snow conditions will certainly reduce the visibility. Very dangerous for driving. And you can see very heavy rainfall in houston today as well. Also, snow will be piling up in the New England States across new york and d. C. Were going to be seeing about 4 centim