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00:00Welcome to Newsroom Tokyo. I'm Yamasawa Rina and I'm Raja Prada.
00:16Here are the headlines.
00:17Weather officials are warning of potential blizzards and transport disruption
00:21as another wave of heavy snow heads for the Sea of Japan coast.
00:25Officials from the US and Iran are set to meet for high-stakes nuclear talks on Friday.
00:32An expert tells us what to expect.
00:35And the AI boom is causing a serious shortage of memory chips
00:39and the smartphone industry is feeling the pressure.
00:43Weather officials in Japan are urging people to brace for more heavy snowfall from Friday through Sunday.
00:50They're calling for caution over possible traffic disruptions.
00:54The Japan Meteorological Agency said on Thursday heavy snow is expected to peak
01:01along the Sea of Japan coast on Sunday from northern to western parts of the country.
01:07Parts of northern to western Japan have already seen record snow accumulation.
01:16And there's a possibility that more snow could pile up.
01:23Blizzards are forecast for northern parts of the country, mainly on Friday.
01:28The agency says the snowfall could be of warning level intensity, especially on the Sea of Japan side.
01:35It also says accumulation may take place even in the Kyushu region and along the Pacific coast from western to eastern Japan.
01:45The areas rarely get much snow.
01:48The agency is calling on people to be alert for avalanches, snow falling from roofs and damage to buildings and farms.
01:57Officials from Ukraine, Russia and the United States have been meeting in Abu Dhabi for a second round of high-level peace talks.
02:04They come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the number of his country's soldiers killed in the Russian invasion has reached a grim new milestone, 55,000.
02:16The meeting Wednesday included Zelensky's chief of staff, a U.S. special envoy, and Russia's chief of the military intelligence service.
02:24It follows trilateral talks last month.
02:27The key question is how flexible participants are willing to be over the issues of territory and security guarantees for Ukraine.
02:35The Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, who also attended, called the talks substantive and productive.
02:42Rustem Umerov said they had focused on concrete steps and practical solutions.
02:48The U.S. Secretary of State told reporters Wednesday the list of unresolved issues has been substantially reduced.
02:55The bad news is that the items that remain are the most difficult ones.
03:00And meanwhile, the war continues.
03:02So all I can say in that regard is that we are investing at a very high level a substantial amount of time and energy to this endeavor.
03:08We are going to continue to do everything we can to see if there's a breakthrough.
03:13The talks are set to continue Thursday.
03:17As peace talks were underway on Wednesday, NHK World spoke to the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office in Kyiv.
03:25The senior official is appealing for continued international support.
03:30A compromise for us, in my opinion, would be a cessation of hostilities along the current line of contact.
03:40Pavlo Parisa says Ukraine will not accept unfavorable conditions such as the unilateral withdrawal of troops from the front lines to end the fighting with Russia.
03:52He insists his country will not surrender.
03:55Pavlo Parisa says Russia plans to fully capture the Donetsk region by the end of March or early April.
04:03But he describes this as unrealistic and says Ukrainian forces will continue to counterattack.
04:10He also criticizes Russia's targeting of his country's energy sector in the middle of winter, calling it nothing short of terrorism.
04:20Pavlo Parisa says it's vital that other countries keep supporting Ukraine, such as by providing missile defense systems.
04:29In other news, U.S. President Donald Trump has struck an upbeat tone following a phone conversation with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
04:38He says they discussed a range of issues, including Taiwan, Ukraine and the situation in Iran, and called their relationship extremely good.
04:47Trump says the call on Wednesday, their first since November, was long and thorough.
04:53He says they also spoke about China's purchases of U.S. oil, gas and additional farm products, describing the talks as all very positive.
05:02A statement released by China's foreign ministry says Xi stressed the Taiwan issue is the most important in their relations.
05:09And it says he warned Trump to be prudent about arms sales to Taiwan.
05:13The White House decided in December to approve an arms sale package to Taiwan valued at more than $11 billion.
05:21Beijing has strongly opposed the move.
05:24The statement also says Trump said he understood how China feels about Taiwan.
05:29The U.S. President is slated to visit China for a summit with Xi in April.
05:38After days of speculation, Iran's foreign minister says nuclear talks with the U.S. will go ahead in Oman on Friday.
05:54U.S. President Donald Trump has been dialing up the pressure on Tehran.
05:59He warns failure to make a deal will result in an attack far worse than the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last June.
06:07But as both countries alternate between military threats and diplomatic maneuvering, the prospects of a breakthrough are far from clear.
06:14We are ready for diplomacy, but they must understand that diplomacy is not compatible with threats, intimidation or pressure.
06:23Diplomacy has its own principles.
06:26Abbas Arauchi is set to meet U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
06:32The talks come amid a tense standoff between the two countries.
06:36Last month, Trump ordered a strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to be deployed to the Middle East.
06:43On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said an F-35 fighter had shot down an Iranian drone in self-defense after it approached the carrier.
06:53Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has responded to the U.S. military build-up by doubling down.
07:04The Americans should know that if they start a war this time, it will be a regional war.
07:12Trump is also digging in.
07:15We have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there, very close, a couple of days, and hopefully we'll make a deal.
07:22If we don't make a deal, then we'll find out whether or not he was right.
07:27Here to break that down for us is Keio University professor Tanaka Koichiro.
07:32He's an expert on international relations and energy security in the Middle East with a focus on Iran.
07:39Professor, thank you very much for joining us.
07:41Nice to see you.
07:42We've been told these talks will happen on Friday, but there still seems to be disagreement between the two countries about what's up for discussion.
07:54The U.S. has been raising issues besides Iran's nuclear program.
07:59Is that likely to be a barrier for negotiations?
08:02I'm afraid to say so, yes.
08:05The reason why, I mean, the Iranians are considering that this is going to be the continuation of the previous talks, which was torpedoed by the Israeli preemptive strike back in June 2025.
08:17So it's going to be a resumption from where they left.
08:20So that would mean that for the Iranians, it's only about the nuclear activities and programs that they have.
08:27And for the United States, I mean, they have their special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who had been, say, touring Israel prior to the discussions with the Iranians.
08:40And apparently the Israelis want this idea of eliminating the ballistic missile capabilities of Iran first.
08:47And I think that's going to be a very tough issue that the talks are going to face if it happens.
08:53So, Professor, you mentioned missiles.
08:56Why is Washington now focusing on Tehran's ballistic missile capabilities?
09:00Well, if you look back at what happened in June 2025, yes, the Israelis struck Iran.
09:05The Americans also bombarded Iran's nuclear facilities.
09:08But in retaliation, the Iranians launched a couple of dozens of ballistic missiles towards Israel.
09:16And the Israelis and the Americans did claim that they have, I mean, intercepted most of them.
09:21But apparently more than they have announced have really reached Israel.
09:27And they have been terrified by the ability that the Iranians have showed.
09:30So if they are going to strike again, I mean, regardless of what the intentions would be,
09:35they need to eliminate the Iranian ballistic missile capabilities first.
09:39So that is the issue now.
09:41So, Professor, we've been talking a lot about Washington's demand.
09:44But how is Tehran approaching the negotiations?
09:47Well, I mean, they cannot, say, match the Americans.
09:50Match the American military power in part.
09:53So what they're hoping for the best is to deter the future attacks if it's going to happen.
09:59And the only way to do so is first to keep on negotiating or at least trying to negotiate with the Americans over the agenda that they can accept.
10:09Not the ballistic missiles, not about the proxy militant groups around the Middle East, but only about the nuclear capabilities.
10:18And secondly, they would also want to see the regional powers like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkey, and as well as countries like Oman,
10:27to intervene in the favor of the Iranians so that the Americans would think twice about launching their military strikes against Iran.
10:38They're fearful that it's going to spread into their region.
10:42Professor Tehran also facing serious pressure at home.
10:48If Trump pushes ahead with military intervention, is there a possibility the regime could collapse?
10:55Well, first of all, the Islamic Republic is extremely stressed over what happened in late December to January, early January.
11:04And if there's a military intervention by the Americans and also by the Israelis or other forces that will not only take on the military capabilities of Iran,
11:17but also take out the leadership of the entire Islamic Republic.
11:22My gut feeling is that there are high possibility, high probability that the regime, the Islamic Republic, is going to fall.
11:30But apart from that, I would also like to caution that it's going to only to lead to chaotic situation inside Iran.
11:37And it may spread out from Iran, across the borders, across the Persian Gulf.
11:42And then it will also affect the Arab countries, Arab states of the region.
11:49So the concern is the escalation of the tension.
11:53Khamenei has warned that a war with Iran would have a significant impact on not just the neighbouring countries, but the wider world.
12:02What kinds of consequences could we expect?
12:05Well, first of all, the region could be engulfed in a quagmire.
12:10And that's one reason that the Omanis and the Qataris and the others are trying to stop the American intervention.
12:17But there is also a possibility that if the military capabilities of Iran, the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, are left intact,
12:26they may take over the country through a military coup once Mr. Khamenei is eliminated.
12:33And that could also leave a lot of room for discussion and also uncertainties for the neighbouring states of Iran.
12:41So we have to focus on the negotiation, which are likely to happen on Friday.
12:47Yes, yes.
12:48And also we have to be reminded that the Persian Gulf region is an extremely important source of energy for us and also for East Asian countries.
12:57And we cannot forget that the quagmire that might happen is going to really, really affect us.
13:03Thank you very much for analysis, Professor.
13:05You're welcome.
13:11Google's parent company is preparing to double its investment spending this year.
13:23And much of that money will be spent on artificial intelligence.
13:27Right.
13:28Big tech companies have been ramping up spending on AI for some time.
13:31But now the impact is rippling across industries and technologies.
13:35Yuko Fukushima from our business team is here to talk about disruption in the smartphone industry.
13:39Yuko.
13:40Yes.
13:41Alphabet posted a 30% year on year jump in net income in the three month period through December.
13:46And this was largely due to strong demand for its AI related cloud services and search engine business.
13:53And now it's placing an even bigger bet on artificial intelligence.
13:57The company said its capital investments in 2026 mainly in AI related infrastructure will likely total about $180 billion, double the sum invested in 2025.
14:10But the rapid AI buildup has left executives across the tech industry grappling with a common problem, a shortage of memory chips.
14:18Speaking at an earnings briefing last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company believes memory chip prices will increase significantly and is considering various options to deal with the situation.
14:31Global tech research company IDC is also sounding the alarm warning that the world's semiconductor system is experiencing an unprecedented memory shortage.
14:41IDC points the finger at AI data centers.
14:44More and more are coming online and each one needs a massive amount of high-end memory chips.
14:50Investors are betting that all that demand will generate big profits for memory makers.
14:56The stock price of Kyokushia, a major Japanese supplier, has been surging up more than 10 times since May last year.
15:03Inbe Masafumi, an analyst at IDC says the impact of the AI boom is not confined to high-end semiconductors.
15:10Chip shortages are disrupting the entire industry and that in turn is affecting the smartphone industry.
15:17Memory chip manufacturers can charge a higher price for those used in AI data centers.
15:25So I suspect that the chip makers would want to supply these kinds of chips to AI data centers rather than for use in relatively cheap, older tech products like smartphones.
15:38It seems to me chip makers are putting orders for smartphone use on the back burner.
15:44IDC is predicting a decline in smartphone shipments between 3 and 5 percent, depending on how long the memory shortage lasts.
15:53Inbe says that chip crunch will not only impact the number of units sold, but also the price.
16:00Generally, memory chips account for about 10 to 30 percent of spending on overall parts that make up a smartphone.
16:07So the manufacturing cost for those chips is pretty big.
16:10And when the price of those memory chips doubles or triples,
16:14smartphone makers have no way to generate profit except by raising the price of the final product.
16:21And Inbe says rising costs are set to hit the market for low-priced smartphones hard.
16:27He says manufacturers could respond by using lower spec components like lower resolution cameras and fewer sensors.
16:34But he says that will not be enough to cover the surge and memory chip prices.
16:40Basically, our company expects the smartphone market to grow, meaning the number of shipments will increase.
16:47And we predict the growth will be supported by demand from Latin America and African countries,
16:53where the overall income level is still low.
16:56So the hike in chip prices will weaken the incentives for consumers with low spending power to buy new phones in those countries.
17:04As for the outlook on memory chips, Inbe's supplies eventually picking up again, but with a twist.
17:14Companies busy making AI memory chips will likely open factory lines to make chips for smartphones in the first half of this year or by the end of the year at the latest.
17:25But I think many of them will stop making memory chips previously used for low-end smartphones.
17:32That means the makers of cheaper phones will have to start using memory chips used for high-end phones.
17:39I think it is inevitable that this will push up the overall price of smartphones.
17:46People have been speculating for years on how the rise of AI will impact us all.
17:53But it looks like the first truly global disruption will be felt in our smartphones.
17:58Older technology, but for many of us, essential.
18:02Staying with the chip industry, the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, says it will produce three nanometer semiconductors in Japan.
18:11This comes as governments around the world compete for stable procurement of advanced chips in the name of economic security.
18:18The Taiwanese chip giant's CEO, C.C. Wei, notified Japanese Prime Minister Takai Tisanae of his plan during their meeting on Thursday in Tokyo.
18:27If realized, it would be the first output of three nanometer chips in Japan and the most advanced.
18:34Takaichi vowed to extend government support for the plan.
18:38The Taiwan-based chipmaker's first factory in Japan went into full operation in 2024 in the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto.
18:47The company is now building a second plant.
18:50The three nanometer chips are expected to be used in high-demand applications such as AI data centers and autonomous vehicles.
18:57And now to the markets.
18:59Well, it looks like investors are becoming a bit wary of the AI boom.
19:03The Nikkei slid about nine-tenths of a percent led by chip-related firms.
19:07Traders worry whether there is really the demand to meet the huge investment by tech companies.
19:12And that was also the case with South Korean money managers.
19:16The Kospi slumped almost three-point-nine percent with chip makers Sumson Electronics and SK Hynix weighing on the index.
19:24Investors there followed their peers on Wall Street overnight.
19:27And that's the biz for this Thursday.
19:29Thank you very much for that, Yuko.
19:32Now let's go to Torapan Sanaruna in our Bangkok studio for stories making headlines across the Asia-Pacific.
19:41India has raised taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products, hiking the basic tax rate from 28 percent to 40 percent starting this month.
19:50Tobacco producers and other people in the industry are worried that this will lead to job losses,
19:56increase smuggling or other illegal trades including counterfeit products.
20:00Last year the government cut taxes to stimulate domestic consumption amid high U.S. tariffs on Indian goods.
20:06The tobacco tax hike was meant to make up losses from other taxes.
20:10The move may raise the price of a pack of cigarettes by 55 rupees or about 60 cents maximum.
20:17The impact is going to be huge.
20:21It will not be known immediately but after some time, about two to three months, cigarette sales will go down 100 percent.
20:28Indian smokers are set to number about 250 million.
20:33An international motor show opened on Thursday in Indonesia where sales of electric vehicles are booming
20:40and Chinese car makers will be the focus of the event.
20:43More than 30 auto brands are presenting at the show where Japanese car makers long held center stage.
20:50This year, Chinese manufacturers account for the largest number of brands.
20:54The country's automakers are stepping up their push to sell low-priced EVs.
20:59China's GAC Iron, which is rapidly increasing its sales in Indonesia, will introduce its latest EV model at the show.
21:06New car sales have been dropping in Indonesia recently, but the sales of electric vehicles have increased by roughly six times in the past two years.
21:15The motor show marks the first launch by Japan's Suzuki motors of an electric vehicle in Indonesia.
21:21Japanese car makers long held more than 90 percent of market share in Indonesia, but this fell to around 80 percent last year,
21:29while China's share of new car sales rose above 10 percent.
21:35The Ramon Mack Tsai Tsai Award is widely known as Asia's Nobel Prize.
21:39One of last year's laureates was Father Flaviano Antonio Villanueva.
21:44He was honored for helping homeless and marginalized people in the Philippines, including victims of the country's drug crackdown.
21:51NHK World's Celarina del Mundo Monte reports.
21:56In 2015, he established this facility that he funded through donations.
22:03It provides food, clothes, and other aid.
22:07Many Filipinos still live in poverty despite the country's economic growth.
22:14Homelessness is widespread.
22:16When the facility first opened, it had about 200 users a day.
22:21Now, it's 300 to 350. Not a good sign.
22:26It reveals, depicts that the economy, government, has constantly been lacking to respond to their needs.
22:38Villanueva was born and raised in Manila.
22:41He started using illegal drugs when he was 14 and struggled with addiction into his twenties.
22:49He says he locked himself in a monastery for nine days to quit, enduring withdrawal symptoms.
22:56His experience led him to become a priest.
23:01His mission is about recreating and hopefully empowering their lives.
23:08To make society better, I believe we start caring.
23:12We start caring and break the barriers of apathy and start empathizing.
23:18He also counsels people who lost loved ones during former President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal crackdown on illegal drugs.
23:31More than 300,000 suspected dealers and other people were arrested in the campaign.
23:37Philippine authorities acknowledged that over 6,000 people were killed.
23:44Yolanda Centorius' son was 33 when he was killed in a police operation for his alleged involvement in drug dealing.
23:54He was shot three times.
23:56Authorities said my son was killed because he was harmful to society.
24:07She says Villanueva helped her deal with her grief.
24:13When I opened up about my pain, he listened to me with great compassion.
24:19I was able to say everything that was in my heart.
24:28Villanueva runs a nine-week program where people share their feelings and support each other.
24:34We lost our families, but now we have found new companions.
24:46As part of it, Villanueva is accompanying grieving relatives to this public cemetery.
24:53Many are still searching for the reason why their loved ones were killed.
24:59He says, autopsies need to be done to uncover the truth.
25:03Until there are victims who have been left abandoned, we will continue to call, to journey, and to offer that healing that the world has denied them of.
25:19Villanueva is calling on the government to do more to make that happen.
25:24He says he will keep raising his voice to support people who come to him for help.
25:31Selerina del Mundo Monte, NHK World, Manila.
25:38That wraps up our Bulletin. I'm Cholop Hansan of Rula in Bangkok.
25:43We have to move on to the future.
25:53We have to move on to your 감사.
25:56You can keep working on the bad news.
26:02We have to move on to the future.
26:06so as we have been reporting rena another round of snowfall is set to cover wide areas of japan
26:20as we head toward the weekend now here's a 3d outlook on the weather for selected cities around
26:25the globe
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