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00:12Welcome to Museum Tokyo. I'm Yamasawa Rina and I'm Yamaguchi Hiroaki. Here are the headlines.
00:18Former South Korean President Yoon Son-ho is sentenced to life in prison for leading an
00:24insurrection by declaring martial law. People in Gaza usher in the holy month of Ramadan
00:31with the hope it brings some respite from Israeli attacks. And we look at how generative AI is
00:38disrupting the software sector in many countries, but Japan could be different.
00:45A Japanese expert panel has recommended the Ministry of Health approve the production
00:50and sale of two IPS cell-based products, on condition that their efficacy is confirmed
00:56within seven years. Induced pluripotent stem cells are a Nobel Prize-winning regenerative
01:04therapy with huge potential. The products in question could help treat heart disease
01:09and Parkinson's disease, respectively. The Japanese government is expected to formally approve them,
01:16paving the way for the first-ever practical application of products using IPS cells.
01:24Now turning to South Korea, where a court has sentenced former President Yoon Son-ho
01:30to life in prison, is for leading an insurrection by declaring martial law.
01:37Yoon Son-ho is sentenced to life in prison.
01:42Yoon has been charged after issuing the declaration in 2024 and sending the military to the national
01:49assembly with the aim of detaining lawmakers. In previous trial sessions, the special counsel
01:57team demanded the death penalty for Yoon for destroying the constitutional order of liberal democracy.
02:03The former president said the martial law declaration was a peaceful message to the people and that he
02:11had instructed the military to avoid clashes with civilians. On Thursday, the Seoul Central District Court
02:19recognized the charge of colluding in the insurrection. It said Yoon had tried through violent means to
02:27prevent the assembly from exercising its functions and had fundamentally undermined the core value of democracy.
02:36The court has also handed down a 30-year prison term to former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun.
02:45And now we are joined by our correspondent in Seoul bureau,
02:49Ishi Riki, who's been covering the trial. So Riki, what was the reaction of former president Yoon Son-ho in
02:56the trial?
02:57When the verdict was sentenced.
03:02At the moment the verdict was delivered, Yoon remained standing, his expression unchanged.
03:09But as he left the courtroom, he was smiling and speaking with another defendant.
03:15He seemed relieved after avoiding the death penalty. Domestic and international media outlets had gathered at the court
03:23to follow the proceedings with the heightened security measures in place.
03:28It's a reflection of how much interest this trial has generated. Outside the court, rallies were held both for and
03:37against the former president.
03:38A rally of Yoon supporters drew more than 1,000 people. A man in his 20s told me he had
03:46traveled four hours by baths to attend.
03:49He said declaring martial law is a constitutional right, granted exclusively to the president and called for Yoon's acquittal.
03:58Meanwhile, several hundred protesters also rallied nearby.
04:03They called for the removal of what they described as insurrectionist forced, who they said were responsible for the martial
04:11law declaration.
04:13It was another reminder of how much the declaration and Yoon's trial have divided public opinion in South Korea.
04:22So after today's ruling, do you think people will start to move on?
04:28That seems unlikely. As I said, the forward from Yoon's martial law declaration has exposed the division in South Korean
04:37society.
04:38And today's verdict is probably going to make those divisions even deeper.
04:44Yoon has consistently proclaimed his innocence and he's widely expected to appeal.
04:50If an appeal's court upholds the verdict, the case may ultimately go to the Supreme Court.
04:58Yoon still has support among some conservative functions, particularly younger voters.
05:05Those supporters will probably keep holding rallies like the one we saw today.
05:10And the gap between conservatives and progressives will likely grow.
05:15Society here is becoming more and more polarized.
05:20In a recent survey, more than half of the respondents say they would not marry someone with different political views.
05:28Even schools are affected.
05:31One high school student I interviewed said they could not be friends with someone who thinks differently.
05:37It has fallen to politics to address this polarization.
05:42And politics have yet to find a solution.
05:45If anything, the opposite is true.
05:49We've hardly watched nationwide local elections scheduled for June.
05:53The ruling and opposition parties have both gone on the attack.
05:57So today's ruling probably won't lower a line under the turmoil caused by Yoon's martial law declaration.
06:06The division exposed and still remain and are only getting worse.
06:12South Korea now stands at a critical juncture.
06:15And politicians, the media and individual citizens need to think long and hard of how to move forward.
06:40The BBC and other Western media are reporting that the former Prince Andrew,
06:46now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
06:54Mountbatten-Windsor has stripped of his title of prince over his links to Jeffrey Epstein,
06:59a financier who died after being indicted on sex abuse charges.
07:27In other news, multiple U.S. media outlets are reporting U.S. President Donald Trump's
07:33administration may soon launch a massive military operation against Iran.
07:39The news website Axios said on Wednesday,
07:43the administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize.
07:49The report said that within the previous 24 hours,
07:52an additional 50 combat aircraft had been sent to the region.
07:56It quoted sources as saying a U.S. operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign.
08:05The report also says it would probably be a joint offensive with Israel that is much broader in
08:12scope than their attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities in June last year.
08:17CBS News reports that top national security officials have told Trump,
08:22the military is ready for potential strikes on Iran as soon as Saturday.
08:26However, the report adds that the timeline for any action is likely to extend beyond this weekend.
08:33The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump has not yet made a final decision on
08:40whether to attack. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt told reporters on Wednesday,
08:45there are many arguments for a strike against Iran.
08:50The president has always been very clear, though, with respect to Iran or any country around the world,
08:54diplomacy is always his first option, and Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump and
09:01with this administration.
09:03Levitt also spoke about Tuesday's high-level talks between the U.S. and Iran.
09:08She said the two sides are still far apart on some issues.
09:12Levitt said Tehran is expected to present more detailed proposals in the next few weeks,
09:18adding that Trump will continue to watch how things play out.
09:22Meanwhile, Iranian media report Iran and Russia will conduct a joint naval exercise on Thursday
09:28in the Gulf of Oman and the Northern Indian Ocean.
09:34The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has begun.
09:37Residents in Gaza are praying it brings some respite from Israel's attacks,
09:43which have continued despite a ceasefire deal struck months ago.
09:51Worshippers gathered at a mosque for prayers ushering in Ramadan.
09:56The first day of fasting was on Wednesday.
10:00NHK's crew visited a market in central Gaza the previous day
10:04and found people stocking up on Ramadan goods and food.
10:08It comes as Israel continues to attack the enclave, accusing Hamas of breaching the ceasefire.
10:16I pray for a good Ramadan so people can enjoy themselves and return home with a complete end to this
10:24war.
10:25I hope the situation for those living in evacuation shelters improves.
10:31Health officials say more than 600 people have died since the truth took effect in October.
10:39U.S. President Trump has set up a board of peace to oversee the transitional governance of Gaza.
10:55A senior U.S. government official has offered further evidence to support claims that China
11:01conducted a nuclear explosive test six years ago.
11:06Christopher Yaw was speaking at an event at a Washington think tank Tuesday.
11:10He is a former intelligence analyst who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering and now works at the U.S.
11:18State Department.
11:20On June 22nd, 2020, we are aware that China conducted a nuclear explosive test.
11:29The probable explosion occurred right near the Lopnoor nuclear test site.
11:38That's China's nuclear test site.
11:42Yaw says an observatory in neighboring Kazakhstan detected a magnitude 2.75 quake.
11:49He said a data analysis of those tremors is consistent with the nuclear test.
11:54Yaw also claims China used a method called decoupling to decrease the effectiveness of seismic monitoring.
12:02The U.S. first made allegations about the test at an international disarmament conference in Geneva earlier this month.
12:09The Chinese foreign ministry denied the claims.
12:12Last week, it called them completely groundless and accused Washington of fabricating a pretext for its own tests.
12:20The comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty organization has now weighed in.
12:25In a statement released Tuesday, it says the seismic events were small, meaning it is not possible to assess the
12:33cause of these events with confidence.
12:36Speaking the same day, Yaw nodded that President Trump has said Washington would return to testing on an equal basis.
12:43This suggests America may carry out its own nuclear test at the same scale as China and Russia.
13:00NHK has learned that next-generation nuclear reactors may be part of Japan's commitment to invest in the U.S.
13:08Yuko Fukushima and business has the details.
13:11So, Yuko, this comes after the two countries announced the selection of the first set of projects in the $550
13:18billion endeavor earlier this week.
13:21That's right, Hiroaki.
13:22The plan for huge Japanese spending in the U.S. was agreed in tariff talks between both countries last year.
13:28Sources say working-level talks continue on the next round of investment targets.
13:32Several ventures related to energy and critical minerals are said to be on the table, with advanced reactors among them.
13:40Sources say the nuclear project would offer export opportunities to Japanese companies.
13:46Copper refineries are also part of the latest discussions.
13:49Surging demand for the metal used in electrical equipment and wiring has strained supply worldwide.
13:56Plants to manufacture battery materials are another option in the talks.
14:00The latest push to identify projects come ahead of a meeting between the leaders of both countries.
14:07Japan's Prime Minister, Takai-ji Sanae, is scheduled to visit the U.S. and meet President Donald Trump next month.
14:14Well, a leading force in generative AI has released a new tool that is shaking the software sector to its
14:21core.
14:21While AI disruptions are becoming a regular event, the scale of this AI shock has led some industry watchers to
14:28call it the SaaS apocalypse.
14:31SaaS stands for Software as a Service.
14:35These companies offer cloud software services over the Internet.
14:38They take care of business chores like managing schedules, calculating expenses and simple accounting.
14:43It's also a business with a large cloud hanging over it.
14:47This is indexed for software and services companies in the S&P 500 in the U.S., down sharply since
14:55the end of January.
14:56Share prices tanked after Anthropic announced new features to its generative AI agent.
15:03Anthropic ranks among the top generative AI companies in the world.
15:07But whereas OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini provide services targeting consumers, Anthropic focuses on business clients.
15:16So what happened at the end of January?
15:19Well, Anthropic announced it had added new features to its generative AI tool called Claude.
15:25Their big claim is that upgraded Claude can now do complex professional tasks, including reviewing legal contracts, generating financial statements
15:35and connecting to pre-clinical research databases.
15:39Yamashina Hiroshi is one of the experts looking at the sector, and he says when Anthropic rolled out its new
15:44features, investors panicked and started selling their software stocks.
15:49Anthropic, the new cloud called Framework, as well as other companies like OpenAI and Google, suggest that their new tools
16:00will disrupt the kind of software development environment, as well as the kind of SaaS services as well.
16:08So the agentic AI is considered to take over some markets of these SaaS companies at this moment.
16:15And some worry that eventually generative AI will replace all the services offered by these SaaS companies.
16:22But Yamashina says in Japan, things are different.
16:26We are facing with a very serious shortage of the system engineers.
16:32And because of that, we think that AI is not working as a kind of replacement of this existing software
16:41or SaaS companies.
16:42But it is more like a productivity improvement towards such as a software company to fill the gap between the
16:54supply demand condition.
16:56And because of that skill shortage, Yamashina believes Japan will actually rely even more on software companies.
17:03That's quite a different business environment from the U.S., where engineers and software vendors are being replaced by AI.
17:10He points out many Japanese companies don't even have an IT department.
17:15Because of the sluggish 30 years economy, we understand that many of the Japanese enterprise do not have the system
17:26department to cope with, to handle with AI agents internally.
17:34When thinking about using agentic AI, companies should have the IT engineers who can develop that application.
17:42So in most of the cases that we understand, they do not have such resources to handle complicated AI agents.
17:50So I guess software companies could actually even grow with the emergence of AI agents in Japan.
17:58Right.
17:59In our understanding, many of the software companies and IT services companies already started to implement agentic AI,
18:07added to their services and developments of software.
18:09Thanks to that, they are now offered a kind of hybrid services of their existing software products and agentic AI
18:21already.
18:22Looking ahead, you know, this emergence of super AI agents, is there a real risk that software companies,
18:30and all the software companies will be replaced by AI agents?
18:35What is your outlook on software stocks going forward?
18:37To understand that, we will have to clarify who is doing what kind of software.
18:44Of course, for the single function, the very straightforward software, we may think about possible replacement by agentic AI.
18:57But on the other hand, most of the SaaS companies, software companies,
19:01offer a very complicated back-office software, including accounting, tax reporting, HR, and so on.
19:11And it's not just a coding problem.
19:14Yamashina says complex business customs, especially in Japan, present a significant barrier for AI agents.
19:21He's confident survivors will emerge from the SaaS apocalypse.
19:24Companies with specialized data and knowledge.
19:28And on to the markets.
19:29Well, in the currency market, the dollar strengthened accounts yet.
19:32Investors were looking at the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting,
19:35and they saw the bank is in no hurry to cut rates.
19:38Here's how the pair is trading now.
19:41In the stock market, the Nikkei and Toko added about six-tenths of a percent.
19:45Some bought exporters on back of the stronger dollar because they get proceeds in the U.S. currency.
19:51Others bought on better-than-expected data showing a solid U.S. economy.
19:56And many traders came back from vacations in South Korea.
19:59The KOSPI ended an all-time high during budget makers after a three-day holiday.
20:04The key index in Australia also scaled a record high on robust earnings by banks.
20:11Miners joined the rally on higher commodity prices.
20:14And that's the best for this Thursday.
20:17Thank you very much for that, Yuko.
20:18Now let's go to Cholapan Sanarula in our Bangkok studio
20:22for stories making headlines across the Asia-Pacific.
20:28Thailand's foreign minister says his country wants to serve as a bridge,
20:32bringing Myanmar back into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
20:36The suggestion comes a few weeks after a general election in Myanmar
20:39delivered a landslide victory for the military-backed political party.
20:44Thai foreign minister Siasak Phuong Kiet Kao made the comment
20:47after a meeting with Myanmar's military-appointed foreign minister Tan Sui.
20:52The pair held talks on the Thai resort island Phuket.
20:55ASEAN has barred Myanmar from sending junta leaders to its main summit
20:59since the military took power in a coup in 2021.
21:03Siasak said Myanmar has to play its part if it wants a seat back at the table.
21:07He said the junta must reduce the violence and end attacks on civilians.
21:13The Myanmar side must help Thailand too,
21:17meaning they should respond to the concerns of ASEAN and the international community.
21:28The election in Myanmar took place over three phases in December and January.
21:33The junta said it was a part of a transition to civilian rule,
21:36but the international community questioned the legitimacy of the poll
21:39when the junta excluded pro-democracy parties from running.
21:43ASEAN foreign ministers debated whether to endorse the election,
21:46but did not reach a consensus.
21:49Japan Coast Guard personnel have put on a training session
21:52for officials from a group of Southeast Asian countries.
21:55The aim was to enhance the capabilities in tracking and monitoring suspicious vessels.
22:01The session in the Java Sea involved a Coast Guard aircraft
22:05that was dispatched to the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
22:08The ten officials who attended included representatives
22:11from the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency
22:13and organizations in the Philippines and Malaysia.
22:16The Coast Guard members demonstrated how to use a radar
22:19to gauge the size and location of a ship.
22:22They also explained how to operate a camera
22:25that can automatically track certain objects.
22:28Indonesia faces the Strait of Malacca, a key shipping lane.
22:31Japan hopes that by cooperating with Southeast Asian nations,
22:35it can contribute to peace and stability
22:37in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.
22:44Our aim with these exchanges is to protect the rule of law at sea
22:49and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.
22:57Japan has a long history of supporting Indonesia's maritime capabilities,
23:01but Jakarta is now deepening its maritime ties with China,
23:05which is increasingly active in the South China Sea.
23:09Muslims across Asia are welcoming the holy month of Ramadan.
23:12In Indonesia and Pakistan,
23:14home to the world's two biggest Muslim populations,
23:17hundreds of millions of observers are coming together in celebration.
23:25Muslims account for nearly 90% of Indonesia's population of over 280 million.
23:31During the month of Ramadan,
23:33they're fast during the day,
23:34restricting meals to the hours between sunset and sunrise.
23:37Ahead of the first day,
23:39crowds in the capital Jakarta descended on the Istiklal Mosque,
23:43the biggest in Southeast Asia.
23:45In Pakistan,
23:46roughly 97% of people practice Islam.
23:49They began observing Ramadan on Thursday,
23:51following the neighbors in Afghanistan,
23:53who started the holy month a day earlier.
23:55With most restaurants closed during the day,
23:58normally bustling food businesses in central Islamabad fall quiet.
24:02Religious fervor typically intensifies during Ramadan,
24:05sometimes erupting in violence.
24:07A series of recent suicide bombings
24:10has added to concerns about the potential for bloodshed.
24:13Police have responded by heightening security in areas
24:16where large crowds are expected after sunset,
24:18including mosques and marketplaces.
24:21That's up our bulletin.
24:23I'm Chollah Pansan viad like in Bangkok.
24:24Welcome.
24:58Now, let's take a look at weather forecasts for cities around the world.
25:37We'll see you next time.
26:08We'll see you next time.
26:41Before we go, we turn to a community in western Japan and their tradition for the Lunar New Year.
26:47They made decorations from branches adorned with ornaments made from mochi rice cake.
26:54It's all part of praying for good fortune in the year ahead.
26:59An annual festival began at a Shinto shrine in the city of Matsue.
27:05Local people, including children from an elementary school, pounded steamed rice to make mochi.
27:12Then they attached pieces to spice bush branches.
27:21I made this for the first time. It's lovely.
27:27They used longer branches to make versions for shops and Japanese inns.
27:32The festival runs through Wednesday next week.
27:37And that's it for this edition of Newsroom Tokyo.
27:40You can catch this program on our website.
27:42I'm Yamaguchi Hiroaki.
27:43And I'm Yamasa Marina.
27:45Thank you very much for watching.
27:46Please join us again tomorrow.
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