June 3, 2020
The Tokyo metropolitan government held a meeting of its task force on Tuesday night and issued its own warning, called “Tokyo Alert,” which is issued when the novel coronavirus infection shows signs of spreading again. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike called on residents to refrain from going out to en...
Japan, Germany and France will this fiscal year begin jointly developing a reusable rocket that can return to Earth after launch. Reusable rockets are expected to reduce the cost of missions and provide a welcome boost to the space industry. The project also aims to utilize a Japan-Europe framewo...
Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, met with senior officials of the Tokyo chapter at the party’s headquarters on Monday to discuss Gov. Yuriko Koike seeking reelection in the July 5 gubernatorial election. Nikai intends to support Koike, forcing the chapter, which ...
MANILA (Reuters) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has suspended his decision to scrap a two-decade-old troop deployment agreement with the United States due to political and other development...
VIENNA (AP) — Austrian authorities have presented the winning plan to redesign the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, turning it into a police station and trying to make it unattractive as...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Almost 30% of companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange posted net losses in January-March, due mainly to the fallout of the novel coronavirus crisis, i...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government has started allowing companies to use cloud-based digital signatures for approving minutes of board meetings, it was learned Monday. The Justice Ministry notifi...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The number of corporate bankruptcies related to the coronavirus crisis exceeded 200 in Japan on Monday. The first coronavirus-related bankruptcy in the country, involving croq...
Actress Mayu Watanabe, 26, retired from show business at the end of May, her agency has announced. Known by the nickname Mayuyu, the actress reportedly decided to leave the industry due to health r...
The government has distributed 48 million cloth masks as of May 29, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a Monday press conference. In response to the spread of the new coronavirus, the gov...
Low-price smartphone operators affiliated with major mobile phone companies are introducing new billing plans with much lower prices and easing restrictions on communications speed. The move is see...
The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to introduce a system by the end of the month in which visitors to event venues and other locations will be notified via email or other means if novel coronavi...
Pacific flying squid season has opened in the waters off Hokkaido’s southern coast, and the first catches of the squid were landed on Tuesday at Hakodate Port in Hakodate, Hokkaido. The contract pri...
A week has passed since the state of emergency over the new coronavirus was lifted, and department stores, restaurants and other businesses have gradually reopened. However, many of them are only ope...
Companies launched their recruitment activities for spring 2021 university graduates on Monday. While online job interviews are becoming widespread due to the coronavirus epidemic, hiring schedules a...
The Basho Memorial Museum is located in the Fukagawa area of Tokyo where haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) lived in the Edo period (1603-1867). Visitors to the museum can learn about the achievemen...
The number of people in Tokyo newly confirmed with the novel coronavirus hit 34 on Tuesday, the most since May 14. Of the 34, 15 were found in Musashino Central Hospital in the city of Koganei wher...
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Tuesday approved the use of saliva in PCR tests to check for infection with the new coronavirus, and notified prefectures of its decision. Patients within ...
Visitors from outside Tokyo and Osaka increased significantly in the respective cities’ commercial districts on Saturday and Sunday, the first weekend since the state of emergency was lifted. In t...
The government and the ruling coalition moved toward a decision Monday to shelve the idea of changing the start of the school year from April to September, which had been under consideration for next...
The Japanese and Russian governments will resume discussions as early as this week on joint economic activities in the northern territories, which have been suspended due to the novel coronavirus, The...
The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, which were temporarily closed due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, opened to the public Tuesday for the first time in about two months. Few people wer...
Fireworks illuminated the skies over various parts of Japan on Monday night, in simultaneous displays organized to wish for a swift end to the coronavirus crisis. The cancellation of annual firewor...
The following charts give a visual representation of the spread of the novel coronavirus in Japan and around the world. The first shows the extensiveness of cases in relation to a nation’s populatio...
Keep track of the coronavirus epidemic as it unfolds in Japan. Relevant stories and graphics appear below covering events up to and including the current state of emergency and the future outlook. ...
Japan is considering easing the entry ban on Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand in the first relaxation of travel restrictions that were imposed due to the spread of the new coronavirus, gov...
A 52-year-old man in Fuchu, Tokyo, on May 20 received his first public assistance payment and paid off bills, including his rent, that had fallen into arrears. “Now, I can make ends meet,” he sa...
Roughly 90% of the people who received positive results with simple coronavirus antibody test kits tested negative when a more detailed test utilizing large equipment was administered, says a team led...
TOCHIGI — Nasu-hiougiayame, a variant of the indigenous Iris setosa, have started to bloom in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, and you can see them until the middle of June. These irises were identified...
The functions of international organizations are deteriorating in the wake of intense discord between the United States and China. If the two major powers persist in putting their own countries first,...
The Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks will remain closed for the time being, operator Oriental Land Co. said Monday. The company said it will decide when to resume operations of the ...
A research team appears to be closing in on the answer to one of the mysteries of the universe – why did antimatter disappear but matter remained? It is believed that when the universe was create...
The nation began moving toward normalization of social and economic activities on Monday, as municipal governments of major urban areas across the country ease business-suspension requests made to pre...
The Japan News has partnered with media startup inkl, a news service that curates articles from the world’s leading publishers for users to read on mobile devices. A selection of articles from The Japan News and The Yomiuri Shimbun is now available to read on inkl, which hosts titles from about 20 countries. 
Casual, candid chats with the performers after watching a fascinating play is always a big reason for going to small theaters. If you’re looking forward to doing that again in the post-pandemic days...
What should museums in Japan do to assure their survival and significance after emerging from the extended period of closures forced upon them by the restrictive measures to contain the impact of the...
The final issue of the popular manga series “Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)” created by Koyoharu Gotoge and featured in Shueisha Inc.’s serial manga magazine Shonen Jump (Weekly Jump) went on ...
