The magnitude 7.6 earthquake and massive tsunami struck the Noto Peninsula on January 1st, destroying many buildings.

More than 230 people have been killed in Ishikawa Prefecture, and an estimated 15,000 there have evacuated from their homes.

Much accurate information about the disaster and where to seek safety quickly went out on various platforms, including NHK.

But there were also rumors and false information.

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was a major source.

One post that advised Noto Peninsula residents to evacuate got more than 3.1 million views.

But the images of tsunami shown in the accompanying video were actually from the earthquake in northeastern Japan 13 years earlier.

This post presents a conspiracy theory the quake on New Year's Day was created artificially.

It was viewed more than 1.8 million times.

The footage is from a news conference by the Japan Meteorological Agency several years back.

Officials appear to be announcing the detection of a tremor caused by the testing of North Korean nuclear weapons.

This post came out immediately after the quake hit.

It looked like an urgent call for rescue.

But the attached video showed images taken in a different place from the address in the post.

NHK has found there were more than 30 such fake posts showing the same address.

Combined, they received more than 2 million views.

We asked an expert about why disinformation is so prevalent on social media.

"Businesses on the Internet are designed to make a profit by attracting the attention of users.

It's called the 'attention economy,' and success is measured by the number of accesses.

Fake information can draw a lot of attention, so it fits easily with this business model."

The government responded quickly, saying false reports could hinder relief efforts.

"We are requesting that major social media and other digital platform operators take appropriate measures regarding terms of use,

including the deletion of information that is clearly untrue and socially disruptive."

But social media content is now an essential element of news gathering for most media outlets.

NHK has a round-the-clock system for checking the accuracy of information in social media posts.

In the aftermath of the quake, the team was inundated with a huge amount of information that needed to be verified.

"We look into things such as whether a poster actually lives in Noto, whether they generally post suspicious or random things,

whether similar posts have been made by others, we also check whether the image or footage is not being reused from a past event."

So what can we as individuals do in regard to fake news?

"It's essential that we not contribute to the spread of disinformation.

People are likely to share information out of a conditioned reflex when they get emotional.

My advice is that, when you see information that's alarming, put down your cell phone and take a deep breath."

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is known as the Steel City.

It's home to a giant in the industry - US Steel, whose history goes back over 120 years.

Mike Evanovich has worked there for more than 2 decades.

He also heads the local United Steelworkers union.

"We have 583 people workers in here."

Evanovich says the buyout came as a shock.

"You know you take a giant company that has been around so long, it's iconic, everybody knows US steel and to just sell it off.

It just, it hurt. I feel that you are going to lose. There is a lot of pride in there. Guys take a lot of pride in their work that they do.

I feel that a change in ownership is going to diminish the amount of pride that they have with their work."

There is much concern about what comes next.

"There's the worry of just uncertainty."

"Our livelihoods are on that on the line right now."

"We have a contract in place until 2026, which they're going to honor but then after that we've never negotiated with them."

The union opposed the deal after it was announced in December.

It said US Steel was ignoring the concerns of its workers as it pursued the firm's sale to a foreign company.

Meanwhile the buyer, Nippon Steel, sees the takeover as necessary for growth because the US market has the potential for expansion.

The purchase would make it the No. 3 steel producer in the world.

The head of the firm tried to reassure workers, saying the existing labor agreement with the union will be "100 percent protected."

"I can't think of any negative repercussions for the American side in this acquisition of US Steel."

But there has been an uproar among some politicians.

"I just have to say it's absolutely outrageous that they have sold themselves to a foreign nation and a company.

Can't do that. Steel is always about security as well, too."

The Democratic senator from Pennsylvania has vowed to do everything to block the deal, calling it wrong for workers and the state.

Meanwhile, a Republican counterpart from Ohio raised the alarm about national security.

He released a statement saying, "a critical piece of America's defense industrial base was auctioned off to foreigners for cash."

But a former US Defense official has a different view.

Heino Klinck says the deal is not a threat to U.S. national security...

and that a rejection of it on that grounds with a close ally like Japan would send the wrong message globally.

"I think, frankly, I'm concerned that if the deal were to fall through on national security grounds,

this would provide ammunition to the Chinese to spread more disinformation and misinformation

about how the Americans are just not trustworthy."

But the issue may be heating up.

President Joe Biden, whose re-election bid this fall counts on both union support and winning Pennsylvania,

says the deal deserves "serious scrutiny."

It is likely that the fate of US Steel will be a recurring theme on the campaign trail.

An AI device that can tell parents why their baby crying!

And a web-based reservation system helping parents with sick children avoid taking time off work!

Today's On-Site Report introduces Baby Tech products from Japanese companies that are making life easier for parents.

Just over six month s ago, the Shimokawa's gave birth to their first child, Souta.

About a month ago, they began feeding him baby food.

While he usually seemed to enjoy it, recently he has started getting upset while eating.

Not knowing what the problem was, they continued to have issues during feeding times.

But a couple months ago, they began using a device that is helping them to better understand Souta.

In this case, the display indicates that there's a 100% likelihood that he's feeling angry.

The device interprets the sound of a baby's crying and tells parents whether their child is

angry, sleepy, uncomfortable, bored, or is feeling hungry.

This led his mother to assume he must be upset about being not also receiving breastmilk.

So, she breastfed him a little before once again trying baby food.

This time, he not only seemed to enjoy it, he ate everything she had prepared for him!

Having this device has been really helpful because it allows us to better understand how our child is feeling

and that makes problem solving quite a bit easier.

The device was developed by Hattori Tomoyuki.

His company makes products to help support parents who are raising young children.

When we were raising our first child, we would often receive advice from a variety of different people.

But it was hard to know who to listen to and that could be especially stressful for us.

That's when I thought, it would be nice if there was a way to offer evidence-based support to parents.

The first thing they developed was a smartphone app that allows parents to record their baby's important information

such as daily diet, and sleep times.

Over a few years the app gained over 800,000 users.

Many of them said that one of their biggest concerns was no knowing the reason why their infants were crying.

That's when Hattori began asking app users to send in audio recordings of their babies crying

as well as to tell him what they thought the impetus was.

By using big data to train and test his AI system,

Hattori discovered that the frequencies in a baby's crying differed depending on how it was feeling.

This led his team to develop an algorithm to find and identify even the slightest differences in a baby's crying.

After inputting data sent in from approximately 800,000 users,

Hattori says his company's device can now predict the meaning of a baby's crying with 80% accuracy.

In 2021, the company received the Innovation Award at CES, the world's largest technology event.

I think it would be wonderful if our company can use new technologies, such as AI,

to provide the knowledge and skills that experienced parents possess after having multiple children

to new parents who are working hard to take care of their first-borns.

This children's d ay care center in Tokyo is connected to a health clinic.

It specializes in taking care of sick children whose parents are unable to take time off of work to stay home with them.

Usually, the children spend their day just as they would at a normal day care,

but health care professionals are available to check on them and provide care if and when necessary.

This young boy came down with influenza a few days ago.

While children with the flu are given the same level of care,

staff keep them in separate rooms to prevent it from spreading to other children.

Despite there being approximately 2000 of these facilities across Japan,

they are only being used at an average of 30% capacity and many are struggling to remain open.

One of the biggest reasons for this lack of use, is a paper-based registration process and an inconvenient reservation system.

The first step requires parents to submit a hand-written registration form to their local city hall.

Then, when their children aren't feeling well, parents must call a reservation hotline.

However, since each call takes several minutes and the number of staff available are limited, sometimes it's impossible to get through.

Not being able confirm a reservation forces many parents to give up on the service

because they must decide quickly if they need to take the day off from work.

To deal with this issue, a private company developed a web-based service

that allows users to book these special child care facilities online 24-hours a day.

When users open a custom app, they can immediately see facilities located around them as well as check their availability.

In addition to entering their child's current symptoms,

users can also enter their medical history and vaccination records which will automatically be saved for future use.

Since the phone system is only open from morning to evening, you can't make reservation if you're child gets sick late at night.

So being able to do it 24-7 online is extremely helpful!

The service was created by Sonoda Masaki, who is also a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist.

After talking with many of his patients, he realized that something that was inevitable for all parents

was having a negative impact on their lives and sometimes their careers.

Some parents have even ended up quitting after taking multiple days off

because they didn't feel they could be a good parent and a good employee at the same time."

I wanted to do something to help prevent them from having to make such an unfair decision.

Since the service started in April of 2020, more than 100,000 children have been registered,

and there have been a total of over 300,000 online reservations made.

On the daycare side, it is now possible to check reservation status and medical conditions online,

greatly reducing the workload on staff.

If the number of children admitted to these day care centers goes up,

subsidies from local governments will also increase and help ensure they can remain open.

Sonoda's company generates revenue by receiving service fees from the facilities that use his web-based system.

Currently, our online reservation service has been implemented by just under 10% of the 2,000 facilities across Japan.

However, we plan to increase that number going forward.

We want to build a future where society as a whole can contribute to taking care of and providing for our children.