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00:00Welcome to Newsroom Tokyo. I'm Yamasawa Rina.
00:15And I'm Raja Prada.
00:16Here are the headlines.
00:18China is tightening export controls to Japan for dual-use goods that could include rare earths, key to the economy.
00:25U.S. President Donald Trump is gushing about the potential of Venezuela's oil production.
00:33An expert said it may take time for the taps to be turned on.
00:37And we follow two men carrying on the work of late Japanese doctor Nakamura Tetsu in quake hit parts of Afghanistan.
00:46China says it's getting stricter about some of the goods it sells to Japan.
00:51Beijing says dual-use items, things that can serve both commercial and military needs, will be subject to stronger controls.
01:01Now, that may include rare earth materials.
01:04If so, experts say it may be enough to put a dent in Japan's GDP.
01:09China's commerce ministry says it's banning exports to what it calls Japanese military users.
01:15It also says the items cannot be sold for military purposes or used in a way that could enhance Japan's military capabilities.
01:24Rare earth hasn't been mentioned by name, but it is a dual-use material, essential for both military tech and everyday products.
01:32If it is included, it wouldn't be the first time Beijing has tightened the screws.
01:36In 2010, it also imposed strict restrictions on rare earth exports.
01:41At the time, 97% of the world's rare earth came from China.
01:46The move hit Japanese companies hard, especially in the electronic and auto sectors.
01:55Then came a second blow.
01:58That same year, a Chinese fishing boat collided with the Japan Coast Guard in the East China Sea.
02:04In reaction, China further limited the export of rare earths to Japan.
02:08The international price for the material soared.
02:11It caused rare earth imports from China into Japan to plummet.
02:16In an effort to diversify its supply network, Japan turned to countries like Vietnam and France.
02:22But as of 2023, 69% of Japan's rare earth still comes from China.
02:29Prices surged again last year when Beijing yet again tightened exports due to a conflict with the United States.
02:35It sent prices soaring once more.
02:39And again, Japanese companies like this one were caught in the crossfire.
02:45It's really worrying that China can, on a whim, decide to just not export it anymore.
02:50As a company, there's nothing we can do about it.
02:53It's a tough situation.
02:55It's not like you can replace rare earth with something else.
02:57One expert says if rare earths are included in these new controls, it'll deal a heavy blow to the Japanese economy.
03:05It's difficult to procure rare earths from other countries.
03:13If Japan can't get it from China, that will affect a lot of manufacturing and production here.
03:18Think electric vehicles, semiconductors, medical machinery and aeronautics, for example.
03:24If Chinese rare earth imports stop for just three months, Japan will suffer a huge loss of around 660 billion yen, or 4.2 billion dollars.
03:41The Japanese government also says it's concerned by the move.
03:45China's latest measure, targeting only Japan, differs significantly from international practices.
03:55It is extremely regrettable and unacceptable.
04:00Kiara says Tokyo has lodged a strong protest with Beijing and demanded it withdraw the measure.
04:08Diplomacy isn't always about handshakes and suits.
04:12If you're looking to build ties with Beijing, pandas are a good sign.
04:18South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is currently on a visit to China.
04:23He held talks with Premier Li Chang on Tuesday in the capital.
04:28They agreed to strengthen ties economically and in other areas.
04:33And Seoul says those other areas include giant pandas.
04:37South Korea reportedly has four of the black and white bears on loan from China.
04:44And Beijing is apparently open to sending more.
04:49Selfies can also be seen as a good sign.
04:53On Monday, Yi took a snap with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
04:58The phone, a Chinese model she gifted to Yi last year.
05:02Still, the South Korean President will likely need to perform a balancing act because next week he'll be in Japan.
05:11He's scheduled to meet Prime Minister Takai-chi Sanae, but ties between Tokyo and Beijing have recently soured in light of comment she made about Taiwan.
05:23He told reporters last month that taking sides would only escalate the dispute.
05:28The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven Nations have discussed the situation in Venezuela.
05:36Japan's top diplomat stressed the need to restore democracy after the U.S. military captured President Nicolas Maduro and flew him to New York.
05:46Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu said Japan has always respected freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
05:56And he called on the G7 to ensure the safety of their own citizens in Venezuela.
06:04Japan's foreign ministry says U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave his G7 counterparts an overview of the latest developments in Venezuela and the outlook.
06:16U.S. President Trump has turned his attention to Venezuela's oil reserves after the American military seized the country's president in a secret operation.
06:36Yuko Fukushima from our business team is here with the details.
06:39So Yuko, where does Venezuela fit in right now in terms of global?
06:42It only accounts for about 1% of the total at the moment.
06:47But Venezuela's reserves are known to be among the largest in the world.
06:51In a social media post on Tuesday, President Trump said Venezuela will turn over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States.
07:01The amount is equivalent to several dozen days of output for Venezuela, which produces about a million barrels of oil daily.
07:09Trump says it will be sold at the market price.
07:12He also says he will control that money to, quote, ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.
07:20Trump has accused the Nicolas Maduro administration of using oil revenue to fund drug trafficking and terrorism.
07:27And he ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers into and out of the Latin American nation.
07:34Last month, the U.S. seized the targeted tankers.
07:37On Tuesday, Trump said he plans to hold talks with oil company executives.
07:42He says there's a lot of oil to drill and that this will bring down prices.
07:48Reuters news agency reports Trump will meet with them at the White House later this week to discuss ways to revive Venezuela's oil sector.
07:55I talked to Nick Redmond, who is an expert on geopolitical issues.
08:00I started by asking him what the real intention is behind the U.S. operations against Venezuela.
08:07Decisions like this tend to happen for several reasons rather than one.
08:10For President Trump, clearly oil is important.
08:14There are also questions of the drug campaigning.
08:16And as much as anything, this is about sending a broader signal that this administration is not going to engage in business as usual
08:23and to discourage and put others on notice.
08:25Then there's also an aspect of regional geopolitics, who the U.S.'s partners are and who its rivals are, Cuba at the forefront, but Venezuela is standing behind it.
08:35Focusing on oil, U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to tap into Venezuela's oil reserves.
08:41So who stands to benefit from this and who will likely lose out?
08:47It's U.S. companies that Trump would like to push forward to develop those resources.
08:53For those companies, it must be quite a difficult moment right now because they're not really clear what the business environment is.
09:00So they can't have any certainty over return on investment.
09:03They know that security in Venezuela has been a problem in the past and might be so again.
09:08And they know that the infrastructure is dilapidated.
09:12So when you add in the fact that these reserves are not particularly cheap or easy to develop and bring online, it's certainly worth looking at.
09:20But it's not an absolutely no-brainer decision to go in there.
09:23On the losing side, obviously, Russia and China as the countries that have some stakes in Venezuela.
09:29You mentioned that there could be a lot of challenges for U.S. oil companies.
09:33What is the situation of the oil industry in Venezuela at the moment?
09:37It's very heavily under sanctions, been so for a long time.
09:41Production in the 70s was nearly 4 million barrels a day.
09:44It's barely a million barrels a day now.
09:47So decades of underinvestment, decades of mismanagement.
09:51This is not a quick turnaround by any means.
09:54And I think it's worth thinking about some of the others.
09:56So Libya, more than 13 years after Gaddafi fell, is actually producing less oil today than it did back then.
10:03Iraq, after the invasion, took six or seven years even to get back to the pre-level.
10:09And even now, it's quite a modest producer.
10:10It's about 4 million barrels a day.
10:12So the precedents also don't look like there's going to be an oil bonanza in Venezuela at any point that Donald Trump is in office.
10:20How realistic is it for the U.S. oil majors to control the oil industry in Venezuela?
10:28Partly this will depend on what actually happens politically.
10:32Politics is everything right now.
10:34We're making a lot of assumptions, taking the Trump administration at their words, as they were issued on January 3rd at Mar-a-Lago.
10:42But there's a gap between what they said and what we're actually seeing on the ground in Venezuela.
10:47It's still very early days.
10:49And the key thing is going to be what happens in Caracas.
10:51What happens with that administration?
10:54Do they want to play along with the United States?
10:57Will they stay together?
10:59Will a few members be peeled off?
11:00Or will it actually break apart?
11:03And there's a real possibility of chaos in Venezuela right now.
11:06Well, many experts, including Redmond, are skeptical Venezuela's oil production will increase as quickly as President Trump seems to hope.
11:15Redmond expects output they're increasing from the current 1% of global share to even 3% by 2030 seems like a stretch.
11:24And now to the markets.
11:25Well, both global oil indexes WTI and Brent are down.
11:30Analysts say uncertainty over a future increase in supply from Venezuela added to negative sentiment.
11:35Traders were already bearish as they see an oversupply in the market.
11:39In stocks, the Nikkei in Tokyo fell more than 1% amid those reports about China's tighter expert controls.
11:46Some also sold on profit-taking after the index renewed its record high on Tuesday.
11:51In other parts of Asia, the cost being sold dead and at a record that was driven by semiconductor makers reflecting a rally by their peers in the U.S. overnight.
12:01In China, the Shanghai Composite was almost unchanged as investors wait for the country's inflation data later in the week.
12:09And that's the biz for this Wednesday.
12:10The cost of living is surging in Iran.
12:21And the anger is giving rise to unrest.
12:24Reports say dozens of people have died.
12:27Protests began in late December.
12:30People want the government to curb high inflation triggered by U.S. and European sanctions.
12:35Iran's Tasneem News Agency says 10 people have died in clashes.
12:40But a U.S.-based human rights group puts the number at 36.
12:45President Trump suggested last week the U.S. would intervene.
12:51Foreign countries will not help us.
12:53And we don't want an intervention because it is not in anyone's interest.
12:57The Iranian government says economic measures are on the way, but security officials warn they'll crack down on any violence.
13:09People in eastern Afghanistan still need support after an earthquake last August.
13:16Help is coming from an NGO founded by Japanese doctor Nakamura Tetsu.
13:21He was tragically shot and killed just over six years ago.
13:25But those who knew him are carrying on his good work.
13:28And HK Pro's Ota Yusuke reports.
13:34The disaster killed more than 2,200 people and displaced more than 20,000.
13:41Relief trickles into mountainous areas.
13:45But two members of Peace Medical Services, Fahim Sherzado and Didar Moustak, are doing everything they can.
13:53After all, it's what Dr. Nakamura would have wanted.
14:00No matter how many years have passed since he died, Dr. Nakamura will never disappear from people's hearts.
14:09His ideas and working style.
14:10I think we should move forward while cherishing the foundations he left behind.
14:18Few people have changed Afghanistan for the better, quite like Dr. Nakamura.
14:25First as a doctor and later through life-changing irrigation projects.
14:30In a country ravaged by drought, he firmly believed one canal is worth more than a hundred clinics.
14:39It is not possible to cure hunger or thirst with medicine.
14:50That's why our activities have changed significantly beyond the narrow framework of medical care
14:57to clean drinking water and food.
15:00Nakamura spent seven years building a 25-kilometer canal.
15:09The rough land was reborn, supporting hundreds of thousands of people.
15:16But in 2019, Dr. Nakamura was tragically shot and killed.
15:23Armed men attacked his car.
15:25They are still at large.
15:27But his spirit lives on in the work of others.
15:33We followed Fahim and Didar last September as they delivered urgent relief to quake-hit areas.
15:43We decided that food supplies were needed most, so we transported them.
15:48People here are poor and in trouble.
15:56They need all sorts of things.
16:02But no one came.
16:05They've been helping ever since the disaster,
16:08regularly driving more than three hours to reach areas in need.
16:12They embody a phrase often used by Dr. Nakamura himself.
16:19If no one else will go, then I will.
16:25This winter will be especially harsh.
16:28Fahim and Didar listen carefully to those who must endure the cold.
16:33The pair have delivered more than 3,000 tents.
16:54Dr. Nakamura Tetsu is no longer with us in person.
17:00But his legacy is still the benchmark for humanitarian work in his adopted home, Afghanistan.
17:08Ota Yusuke, NHK World.
17:10All right, let's now go to Cholopansa Narula at our bureau in Bangkok
17:22for more stories making headlines across the Asia-Pacific.
17:25Cholopansa.
17:27In Indonesia, flash floods caused by heavy rain in North Sulawesi province on Monday
17:32have left 17 people confirmed dead.
17:35The country's disaster management agency said torrential rain has caused rivers to overflow
17:40and homes to be swept away in Siotagulangdan, Bureau Islands Regency.
17:45As of Wednesday afternoon, two people were still missing
17:48and the authorities were continuing search and rescue efforts.
17:52The agency added that about 150 houses had been damaged
17:55and nearly 700 people forced to evacuate.
17:59The meteorological authorities say roughly 80 percent of Indonesia
18:02has entered the rainy season, including the provinces of Sulawesi.
18:06The flooding in Indonesia is just the latest in a series of disasters
18:11to hit the nations of South and Southeast Asia in recent years.
18:15Record downpours in November and December across Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia
18:20killed over 2,000 people.
18:22A prominent expert says calamities caused by extreme weather
18:26should be regarded as a major security challenge to these societies.
18:29Professor Joseph Liu from the National University of Singapore says
18:35governments need to act urgently to address climate change
18:38to protect the well-being of their people.
18:42I think the one thing that we are paying very little attention to,
18:48almost no attention to,
18:49is the fact that practically all countries in the region
18:56are falling behind their commitments to decarbonise their economies.
19:03Liu points out that one challenge in achieving their environmental goals
19:07is the fact they are rushing to embrace AI,
19:10which requires data centres that consume huge amounts of electricity.
19:14energy consumption is going to increase exponentially,
19:21just as we should be starting to take more responsibility
19:28for our obligations to control the use of energy
19:34because of the environmental impact.
19:38Liu says governments need to develop more sustainable energy sources
19:42and manage overall consumption
19:44to make sure the lives of their people are more secure.
19:48As Russia's invasion of Ukraine drags on,
19:51the number of Indians in Russia with work permits
19:54rose by 80% in the first half of last year from a year earlier.
19:58There are filling labour gaps left by Russians
20:01deployed to the military and defence sectors.
20:04However, some have been forcibly recruited into its military
20:07and sent into combat.
20:09NHK World's Abhishek Dulia reports.
20:12A family in Kerala, southern India,
20:16says that one of their members has gone missing in Russia.
20:2233-year-old Benil Babu was reportedly sent to a combat zone
20:27as a soldier in the Russian army after travelling there in 2024.
20:3334-year-old Benil Babu had worked as an electrician in the Middle East
20:46to support his family.
20:49Last year, he was told there was an electrician's job in Russia
20:54and headed to Moscow.
20:56But what his family received afterward was a photo of him in a Russian military uniform.
21:06The work he had been promised did not exist.
21:10Upon his arrival, he was forced to sign a contract with the military
21:15through a broker arranged for him.
21:20I didn't realise it was a place where such a war was going on.
21:24A relative told us it was okay, and we believed it.
21:27If I had known he was going straight into the war,
21:31I never would have let my husband go there.
21:35Babu reportedly repaired weapons on the battlefield.
21:39His family says they were never informed about the length of his contract.
21:44He was promised around $2,500 a month, far above India's average income.
21:55But nine months after he had enlisted,
21:58a colleague who travelled with him to Russia told them Babu had died.
22:04He was reportedly killed in a drone strike at the front lines.
22:10The family never received a death certificate,
22:15nor did they receive Babu's monthly payments.
22:19His wife, Joycey, gave birth to their son after he left.
22:25She says her husband had been looking forward to the day he would see his son.
22:33Some are saying he is missing.
22:36Some say he is dead.
22:37So we didn't get any clarity in that.
22:40I'm still praying that my husband will come and see him.
22:44That's all.
22:47Neither the Indian nor Russian governments
22:50have made an official statement on Babu's death.
22:54His father is calling on both governments
22:57to ensure the prompt return of his body for identification.
23:02India says more than 200 nationals have joined the Russian military
23:09since the invasion of Ukraine,
23:13with at least 12 confirmed dead.
23:16While Russia denies any involvement,
23:19New Delhi has demanded their immediate discharge and safe return.
23:24That wraps up our bulletin.
23:32I'm Cholap Hansa Narula in Bangkok.
23:33We'll see you next time.
23:33Talk.
24:03it's time for a check on the weather we've been talking about the snow falling in parts of the
24:21Japan past few days our meteorologist Sayaka Mori has the details oh there a winter storm
24:28is starting to pound the eastern flank of the nation once again we have a low-pressure system
24:34near Hokkaido and the attached cold front swinging through the archipelago it is expected to bring a
24:39risk for thunderstorms along this front now Sukaiu has over three meters of snow at this moment
24:45that's 40 percent higher than usual but as the system moves through much colder air will be moving
24:51in and snow will spread in a wider area so more snow is likely maybe up to 70 centimeters likely for the
24:58next 24 hours cold air is expected to pound the eastern flank as well so Matsui had a milder day
25:04today however as we going through Thursday it's going to be going down to six degrees so about
25:08five degrees cooler compared to what we saw on Wednesday Tokyo meanwhile we'll see a double
25:14digits it was the coldest day of the season on Wednesday we'd have only six degrees but finally
25:18warming up slightly in the southern hemisphere it's a completely different story a dangerous heat wave
25:25is gripping the constant over Australia Onslow had nearly 50 degrees on Wednesday and the opposite
25:31side Melbourne had the hottest day in six years for the spot now dangerous conditions will continue and
25:38also spread in the country so for example Sydney in the 30s into Friday so that'll be bearable however as
25:46we go into Saturday it's going to be 42 degrees with strong sunshine and then on Sunday you'll see a
25:53significant cool down so temperatures will be up and down significantly stay hydrated now in Europe
26:00freezing temperatures and snow are blanketing many continent a wide area of a continent and some people
26:05are brave enough to dive into the cold water take a look at this the streamers plunged into icy waters
26:12Tuesday to celebrate the Christian holiday of a Tiffany the annual tradition drew people in Prague in their
26:18swimmers a swimsuit where the water temperature was only two degrees Celsius and people in Bulgaria
26:25also celebrated the events in the cold water that's it for me stay safe
26:55do
27:00and
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27:11I
27:11I
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27:15and that wraps up this edition of newsroom tokyo don't forget you can always catch our program on
27:37our website as well i'm roger prada and i'm yamasawa arena thank you very much for watching
27:43please join us again tomorrow
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