hello, welcome to "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo with the latest at this hour. the osaka district court found a bureau chief of the ministry not guilty in involvement in postal fraud. >> i have believed that i could get such good results. i'm so pleased at the judgment.

>> 54-year-old former bureau chief murako was charged with forging a certificate to help a fictitious organization gain recognition as a group for the disabled. she consistently denied having any connection to the matter. the court cleared her of any wrong doing and dismissed the prosecutor's allegations. the prosecutors said that ministry officials acknowledged her involvement, but a number of them denied this. and joining us in the studio with some insight on this story is our reporter. so, the court sharply criticized the prosecutors for the way they did their investigations of this case. presumption of guilt, how did they proceed? >> actually it looked as if the prosecutor themselves were judging in court. here is the gist of the prosecutor's argument. a man who headed a fictitious organization wanted a welfare

ministry certificate that woul identify it as a group that represented the disabled. the kind of certificate allowed such organization to send mail at discount rates. and the men asked a lawmaker to help him obtain the certificate. the lawmaker asked her at the time to issue it. the support year instructed muraki to issue the certificate. she made a subordinate produce it. the prosecutors based the case chiefly on the statement made during the course of the investigation. it's that muraki told him to issue a certificate because a lawmaker asked them to do it. but he went back on his statement in court. finally, the court pointed out that the prosecutor's press hamiura to admit what others told him, though his memory was fake. the court did not accept most

witnesses' testimony and evidence on the ground that the way prosecutors had investigated the case was inappropriate. >> translator: it became clear in trial that the story prosecutors was insisting was completely different from the truth. >> koji, this is not the only time when the faulty investigations by japanese prosecutors and police have come to light recently. what's the background to this? >> well, the credibility of defendants' confessions have been called into question in a number of cases. in march a man was found guilty of murder was acquitted in the retrial. the murder took place 20 years ago. at the time, a 4-year-old girl disappeared and was found dead north of tokyo. in the retrial the court ruled that the defendant was forced to

give a false confession. the man said in a hearing by lawyers that he confessed because prosecutors refused to listen to him. >> translator: prosecutors kept making me say i killed the girl even though i denied it from morning till night. they persistently told me i definitely did it and owning up would be a relief. >> now, how are cases of forced confessions and false convictions affecting the debate over capital punishment in japan? >> there are more country that have abolished capital punishment or suspended it than countries that practice it. so, japan is in the minority because it enforces the death penalty. the japanese justice minister, who personally opposed capital punishment, allowed the media to film an

execution facility in tokyo last month. the minister said she hopes the opening of the chamber will encourage deeper debate on the death penalty. a survey in may indicated that 76% of respondents were in favor of capital punishment. many cited the rights of victims and believed families. they also said that some crimes should be punishable by death. such measures, however, must be taken to prevent false convictions. if japan is to maintain this penalty, unlike the case which took place many years ago, the postal fraud case occurred just last year. >> right. >> under japan's new system, japanese citizens randomly chosen as lay judges may have to decide whether or not to sentence people guilty of murder or other heinous crimes to death. that makes it all the more important to work out measures

urgently with public involvement to prevent false convictions. the recording and videotaping of the entire process of interrogations of criminal suspects by police and prosecutors is one option. actually, it's already a legal obligation in many u.s. states, south korea and hong kong. >> thanks very much. nhk reporter. a japanese bank that mainly lends to filed for bankruptcy on friday. the failure will lead to the first implementation of a law that caps government guarantees on deposit paybacks. the ceiling is set at just below $120,000 for each deposit holder.

>> the incubator bank of japan is now in the process of liquidation. debts are expected to exceed assets more than $2 billion. loans that cannot be paid back by borrowers weighed down on the bank's finances. the former chairman was arrested in july for allegedly obstructing an audit by the financial authorities. the investigation lead to a complete review of the bank's books, and resulted in the discovery of its huge debt. the cap on the deposit guarantees went into effect five years ago, but so far no cases of paybacks have occurred. incue banker bank customers will become some of the first ones to lose principal and interest if they exeed the limit. to prepare for refunds the bank

will operate at 16 of its branches on monday. let's look back and see what led to the bank's failure today. >> reporter: the incubator bank of japan was established in 2004 to specialize in lending to small and medium-sized businesses. the driving force behind its establishment was takashi kimura a former official and adviser to the financial services agency during the administration of prime minister kosumi. he became the bank president in 2005, and went on to become its chairman. the bank provided loans mainly to small firms but the nature of its business gradually changed. it was soon buying loans from non-banks, and acquiring stakes in borrowers to boost the scope of its lending. but its aggressive stance backfired.

in the year that ended in march 2010, the bank slipped into the red for the first time in four years, forcing kimura to step down as chairman. meanwhile, the financial services agency had been conducting an inspection of the bank for ten months. it was an unusually long time for such an inquiry. in the end, the agency concluded that the bank had committed serious violations of law including obstruction of audit. in july, kimura and four officials were arrested on charges of violating banking laws. the bank had been trying to rebuild it selfed up a new president, go egami. >> what about the bankruptcy's possible impact on japan's financial sector? our market reporter emily wang has that side of the story. >> the bank's failure is expected to have only a limited impact on the stability of

japan's financial institutions as a whole. fundamentally, institutions here have a fairly healthy balance sheet. the sector had gone through a financial crisis back in the 1990s, and since then banks have worked off much of the bad loans with the help of government capital injections. because of that, japanese institutions have stays relatively sound compared to those in the u.s. and europe, even through the financial crisis after the collapse of lehman brothers. the governor said in a statement that he thinks that bankruptcy will not have a major effect on the continued stability of japan's financial system. in addition there are reasons specific to the incubator bank that make the failure less of a risk. first of all, the bank does not hold a current account at the boj that is used for interbank transactions. the bank is not part of the network used for fund transactions using automatic teller machines, and only a few percent of its account holders have savings that exceed the

payback cap and that means that most of the account holders are likely to be repaid in full. masaaki kanno, at jp morgan securities japan, points out that the bank's relatively small scale of business is one reason why the impact of its failure will probably be limited. >> of the failure of the bank is likely to have only a limited impact only because the bank's role is rather limited in terms of its role in the settlement system and the size of the bank's activities. >> for today the market's reaction to the news seems to be subdued. the bank has had problems for a long time now, and analysts say those issues had been factored into the markets. back to you. china's trade surplus topped $20 billion in august for the third month in a row. economists say the trend may increase international calls for a revaluation of the chinese

yuan. chinese customs authorities announced the exports in august were up more than 34% from a year earlier to nearly $140 billion. imports rose to $120 billion. leaving a trade surplus of less than $20 billion. the chinese government has been criticized for its monetary policy of maintaining a low exchange rate for its currency to boost exports. >> the japanese government has expressed concern that the economy is facing growing downward pressure because of the yen strength and falling stock prices. but it has left its overall economic assessment unchanged. the government said in its monthly economic report released friday that the economy was picking up and pointed to signs of a self-sustaining recovery. it said both capital spending and personal consumption recovered, adding na the unusually hot summer and a subsidy program for purchases of ecofriendly cars pushed up sales

of air conditioners and vehicles. but the government noted that the pace of export growth stalled in part because of sluggish shipments to asia, especially as china's economy was losing steam. the report concluded that the yen's up trend and declining stocks were making the environment around the economy increasingly challenging. japan's economic growth from april to june was revised up to 1.5% and that is an annual terms and over a percentage point higher than the initial estimate given in mid-august. the cabinet office said on friday that real gross domestic product grew 0.4% from the previous three months. this marks a third straight quarter of expansion. the revision is an upgrade from the preliminary report, but the pace of expansion was much slower than the 1.2% shown from january through march. one factor pushing up growth was increased company spending on plants and equipment which was

higher than many forecasts. another was the slower pace in cutting inventories. a government official said the economy continues to show signs of recovery but expressed caution about the future due to a strong yen and also uncertainties overseas. negotiators from the united states and china are to start talks soon on resuming exchanges. the discussions were halted because of u.s. sales of weapons to taiwan. >> chinese have clearly signaled their interest in resuming military to military discussions, and we are right now exploring how best to do that. >> u.s. defense department spokesperson geoff morrell spoke to reporter on thursday. he suggested the exchanges may resume this year. president barack obama and hu

jintao have expressed an interest in restarting the talks and says two leaders will meet early next year. the suspension of the exchanges earlier this year resulted in the cancellation of a scheduled visit to china in june by u.s. defense secretary robert gates. japan's annual defense report tresses the importance of the military alliance with the united states and expresses worries over china's recent military buildup. the government's 2010 white paper on defense policy submitted to the cabinet on friday. the report says the u.s. forces stationed in japan act as a deterrent and emphasizes importance of the u.s. marines stations in okinawa, saying they contribute to regional peace and stability. the chinese military buildup of reason years lacks transparency. this is a concern not only to japan but the region and the international community. an international meeting has

failed to agree on introducing tighter restrictions for pacific bluefin tuna fishing. the final decision is postponed to the end of the year. the subcommittee meeting of the western and central pacific fisheries commission concluded four days of meetings on friday. representatives from eight countries and territories including japan and south korea discussed ways to prevent overfishing of pacific bluefin tuna. all participants except south korea agreed to reduce fleets and days of operations to below levels seen between 20 2002 and. the changes would take effect in 2011 and stay in place for two years. they agreed to cut back on the young pacific bluefin tuna catch. south korea says the regulations will seriously affect the fishing. its tuna haul, the second largest after japan's. the japanese negotiator from the fisheries agency sis the country

will step up its efforts to encourage south korea to approve the new regulations. >> translator: japan needs to take the initiative to manage fisheries' resources. this country consumes about 70% of the pacific bluefin tuna catch. >> a session of the western and pacific fisheries commission will be held in december in hawaii. a final decision is expected at that time. managing the bluefin tuna industry is in the pacific ocean is a huge challenge given the number of countries that are involved. it's also complicated because most of those countries, such as japan and south korea, are fishing cultures. >> japan is the world's largest consumer of bluefin tuna. it uses about 80% of the world's catch of the fish. demand for bluefin tuna started to rise in the 1970s in parallel with the country's rapid

economic growth. now people can buy the fish at supermarkets and low cost sushi bars. japan's annual bluefin tuna consumption reached 43,000 tons in 2008. half of the catch is imported. but concern about tuna overfishing has been growing worldwide. in march, a proposal to ban the international trade of atlantic bluefin tuna was debated at the convention on international trade in endangered species. >> in favor of the proposal as proposed by monaco, 20, against the adoption of the proposal by monaco, 68. abstentions, 30. >> fishing nations and supporters voted the proposal down. it was a clear sign a resolution to the debate over fisheries management was a long way off. since then, experts in japan

have been calling for international regulatory measures on marine resources based on scientific research. japan said in may it will introduce its own regulations. it plans to limit the catch of small bluefin tuna weighing below two kilograms in the western and central pacific ocean and it will also stop fishing with large, indiscriminal nantz nets when tuna are spawning. at the conference japan called on participants, particularly south korea, to make a concerted effort to reduce their pacific bluefin tuna catch. tuna is south korea's top export in the agricultural and marine sector. the country hunts the fish mainly in the pacific ocean. its entire blue fin catch is exported to japan. participants are expecting south korea's response will come this december at a larger international meeting in hawaii. >> earlier we spoke with a

fish riz official at the worldwide fund for nature, japan. she went to the conference. she says wwf japan welcomes the efforts to protect juvenile bluefin tuna. >> leadership of japanese delegation reached and agreed to reduce their fishing mortality of juvenile age class fish below the level of 2002 and 2004, which means practical to reduce the impact of overfishing to pacific bluefin tuna. the fishing mortality for the juvenile age class of the bluefin tuna have been increases rapidly after 2002 or 200437 it is crucial for the fishing nations to decide and implement

drastic fishing management system without any exception to avoid the pacific bluefin tuna situation at this moment. >> that was a fisheries official at the worldwide fund for nature japan. a new business venture ready to hatch in japan, farming bluefin tuna. a japanese university and trading firm are joining forces to solve the problem of dwindling numbers of wild tuna. announcing plans on friday. the trading firm will raise

art officially hatched blue fin in 2002. they say the venture will be the first of its kind as bluefin tuna are only raised after being caught in the wild while still very young. here's some of the news received from broadcasting stations across asia. customs officers in hong kong have seizes more than 380 elephant tusks worth $1.4 million u.s. the undeclared shipment believed to have come from tanzania via malaysia. according to a customs official the items were bound for the chinese mainland, japan, vietnam, where a demand for ivory is high. the tusks were taken from both aen and african elephants to highly endangers species. two men were arrested. authorities in the indian capital and other areas along the river are anticipating

possible floods following a massive release of water from a dam in the neighboring state-it's the large effort. water levels reached a critical mark friday, prompting the evacuation of residents in low-lying areas and raising fear of destruction on one of the older railway bridges it's unclear why the water was released from the dam about. million of muslims around the world are celebrating the end of the fast of ramadan. and in malaysia, thousand as tended an open house event hosted by the purchase at his official residence. he later attended fast-breaking dinner with the constitutional head of state and the queen before joining prayers at the national mosque.

hi there, time for the world weather. what's going on in east asia. we're continuing to see tropical storm now a depression bring gusty conditions across eastern parts of china and we're also going to see that rainfall heavy as well. take a look at the next 48 hours. the depression will bring more rain not only for the eastern coastal areas but all the way down towards the south and into taiwan as well. but not only that, this rain, this moisture's going to be in hang sing, a system over the korean peninsula. intense downpours, maybe flooding rains and the rain will push into japan as we head into the weekend. high pressure to the south of that, we're going to be dry for the rest of ja. . high pressure in charge for northern areas of china and into mongolia. you can see across the indicating where bands, blues the heaviest rains, a lot of

them are month tosoon rains. bangkok, you'll have 34 degrees to your high saturday. 34 in taipei. even tokyo, still warm. 25 with showers in seoul. 31 in beijing. along we go into north america. texas is quieted on down. that moisture from hermine shifted into parts of eastern kansas as well as missouri. picks up steam from another system here and still bringing drenching rains. now, the system, in fact, extends up towards central canada, manitoba, saskatchewan, any cells could bring severe, isolated storms. the upper midwest into the lower midwest, hail, strong gusts, very -- lots of lightning and downpours quite heavy at times. east coast looking to dry out. towards the west, also quiet here. although there does seem to be rain moving into british columbia. here's a look at how

temperatures are on friday. 14 degrees in winnipeg. chilly for you. 27 in denver. hot and muggy in houston. miami, 33. 23 in new york city. more autumnal there. last, let's head over to europe. western europe, looking nice. calm conditions here. also eastern europe, though really, really calm all week, things are going to change. i'll show you why. look at this cloud here. underneath itti a couple of strg systems. the pesky, low pressure system not moving too much. still bringing hard rain across parts of southern italy. now the storms are shifting their way in towards greece as well. and that stormy weather also affecting parts of austria, hungary, the western baltics. few showers into parts of the baltics and finland. look at more rain into norway, sweden as well. that's coming out a large and windy system in the british

isles. plenty of rain for you in london expected on saturday. 19 for the high. 25 in paris. rome, looking at a sunny day. athens sees thunder showers. that's all from me. here's your three-day outlook. and that's all for this edition of "newsline."

i'm hideshi hara in tokyo. we'll be back in a half hour. thanks for joining us on nhk world.