April 1, 2020
The Bank of Japan released its Tankan quarterly survey for March on Wednesday. The diffusion index for large manufacturers’ current business stood at minus eight, down eight points from the previous survey in December when it was zero. It is the first time in seven years the index has dropped be...
A research team from Waseda University and the University of Hyogo calculated the economic impact of severe restrictions on corporate activities in Tokyo to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. If businesses in the 23 wards of Tokyo, excluding industries necessary for daily life such as retail...
Subaru Corp. announced Wednesday that it would temporarily suspend all production of cars in Japan and overseas. The move came as the coronavirus pandemic has affected parts supply networks and global demand has declined. As a result, production is expected to be cut by 71,000 cars. The company’...
About four years ago in this column I introduced the research of social psychologist Chie Kanagawa and her colleagues, who asked Japanese and American female students, “Who are you?” every 45 seco...
This April sees the 21st year since the long-term care insurance system started. Over the next 10 years, however, about 90% of the leaders of major municipalities believe it will be difficult to maint...
Competitive sports events around the world continue to be on hold. Worst of all, there is no indication of when and how matches will resume. As self-restraint is practiced and restrictions are impleme...
The Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed due to the new coronavirus pandemic, will begin July 23 next year. While officials considered other dates, including a spring Games, the global sports schedu...
Ngo Thi Quyt may be 95 years old, but that is not stopping her from making free face masks for the poor. Quyt, who is known as a charitable woman living in Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District, is tak...
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA (Reuters) — When Satyaki Mitra’s father developed a mild fever in mid-March, the graduate student in Philadelphia wasn’t especially worried. He told his 57-year-old father, liv...
Around the end of February, a false rumor spread in Thailand that if people ate Japanese sashimi, they would be infected with the new coronavirus. The rumor was prompted by a Facebook post put up by...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned Americans to brace for a “hell of a bad two weeks” ahead as the White House projected there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the...
The new fiscal year started on Wednesday in government offices and major companies. Many of them have canceled or postponed ceremonies that would ordinarily be held at this time of year for new employ...
Infections with the new coronavirus have been spreading among young people in the 10 to 29 age group, particularly in urban areas. Although the risk of young people developing serious symptoms is re...
With the new goal determined, it is desirable to make progress toward the success of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics once again. The Tokyo Olympics, which have been postponed due to the spread o...
It is inevitable that police and prosecutors are criticized for turning their backs on the search for the truth. The Otsu District Court has acquitted Mika Nishiyama, a former nurse aide at a hospi...
Attention is now focused on whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will declare a state of emergency in Tokyo, where new coronavirus infections are rapidly climbing. Even if a state of emergency is decl...
TV Asahi announced on Tuesday that Rio Komiya, 17, the actor who plays Kiramai Red on the series “Mashin Sentai Kiramager,” has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Komiya noticed a differ...
The number of visitors from Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures to Tokyo last weekend has decreased by about 40% compared to a weekend in early February, Yahoo Japan Corp. said. The move is bel...
At least a dozen people involved in the service industry that operates late at night to early morning in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, have been infected with the new coronavirus. Most of them are reported...
The government asked Tuesday information technology giants, dubbed GAFA, and Japan’s Telecommunications Carriers Association to provide data to help stem the spread of the new coronavirus. GAFA i...
As the new coronavirus is spreading in Tokyo, the Tokyo metropolitan government’s board of education is considering extending the period during which public high schools in the capital are closed. ...
With the postponed Tokyo Olympics set to open in July 2021, the training regimes for the six male and female athletes provisionally chosen to represent Japan in the marathon events will have to be th...
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed past 3,600 Tuesday, eclipsing China’s official count, as hard-hit New York City rushed to bring in more medical professionals and ...
Veteran comedian Ken Shimura died Sunday night of pneumonia, after being infected with the new coronavirus. He was 70. Shimura was on many TV shows with the comedy troupe The Drifters, starring in t...
Johnson & Johnson said on Monday that it and the U.S. government will invest $1 billion to create enough manufacturing capacity to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to stop the...
The Tokyo Games organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee agreed Monday that the opening ceremony for the postponed Tokyo Olympics will take place on July 23, 2021, The Yomiuri Shim...
A crowd gathers in a small basement a short walk from Kichijoji Station in Musashino, Tokyo, to browse a selection of books from about 80 tenants. Tenants rent boxes about 30 centimeters square to d...
The Tokyo metropolitan government said Tuesday it has confirmed 78 new cases of coronavirus infections, surpassing the record of daily confirmations of 68 set Sunday. The total number of virus infect...
The reduction of flights triggered by the coronavirus epidemic has created the rare sight at Haneda Airport of grounded aircraft lined up on its apron. The planes form two rows, even during the dayt...
The government is coordinating efforts to get domestic manufacturers to increase the production of ventilators — machines vital for treating patients with serious symptoms of the novel coronavirus. ...
It will be soon one year since the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law came into force in April last year to expand the acceptance of foreign workers. Asked about the effectivene...
It is important to use the new school textbooks effectively to deepen students’ knowledge. The results of the screening of junior high school textbooks to be used from next spring have been release...
The Environment Ministry is using twitter and its website to explain how to properly dispose of masks used by those infected with the coronavirus without having to directly touch it. For those who ...
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. 
SHIZUOKA CITY — This year marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of “Mobile Suit Gundam” plastic models, which first hit the shelves in 1980. Manufactured at the Bandai Hobby Center plant in ...
The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra (YNSO)’s 2020-2021 season will be led by Sebastian Weigle, his second season at the helm as the orchestra’s principal conductor. This season will have 46 co...
At this point, more and more stage performances and live concerts have been canceled following the government’s request to exercise self-restraint on holding events. With that in mind, livestreaming...
