The Japanese government on Tuesday decided to set, within a year, standards for compensating businesses that suffer losses due to rumors that may emerge when Japan starts discharging treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. As neighboring countries such as China and South Korea have expressed worries over the…
Japanese Emperor Naruhito looked back on the second year of the coronavirus pandemic in a New Year video address Saturday, calling for people to “share their pain and support each other.” Commending the vaccination rate in Japan while also acknowledging the emergence of the Omicron variant, the 61-year-old emperor expressed condolences for those who died…
The Tokyo metropolitan government raised its COVID-19 alert to the second-highest of four levels Thursday as the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to drive up infections. It is the first time since September last year that the alert has stood at the second-highest level. The lifting by one notch comes…
Japan’s western prefecture of Osaka is expected to report around 6,000 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, far outstripping its all-time daily high of 3,760 over the weekend, an official with knowledge of the matter said. In recent weeks, various parts of Japan have been reeling from record coronavirus infections due to the rapid spread of the…
Demonstrations against Japan’s tight border restrictions on nonresident foreigners implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have been staged in several countries, with people urging the Japanese government to reconsider the measures they have dubbed as lacking a scientific basis. Protests initiated by “Stop Japan’s Ban,” a group launched on Twitter, began Tuesday, as foreign…
Japan will further shorten the quarantine period to seven days from the current 10 for people who have been in close contact with someone infected with the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday. The new policy was announced as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus continues to spread rapidly, making it…
A knife-wielding man in fancy dress started a fire on a Keio Line train in Tokyo on Sunday night, leaving 17 people injured, one seriously, authorities said, as revelers were heading to the city center for Halloween. Police arrested the 24-year-old man, who identified himself as Kyota Hattori, at the scene on suspicion of attempted…
In this April 25, 2021 file photo, a voter casts a ballot in a House of Representatives by-election in Sapporo, Hokkaido. (Mainichi/Taichi Kaizuka) TOKYO — Turnout for Japan’s Oct. 31 House of Representatives election is estimated at 55.33% in single-seat constituencies, according to a Mainichi Shimbun survey as of 8 p.m. that day. The figure…
Fumio Kishida was re-elected as Japan’s prime minister on Wednesday after his governing party scored a major victory in key Diet elections. Kishida called a quick election in which his governing party secured 261 seats in the 465-member lower house — the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber legislature — enough to maintain a free hand…
Business sentiment among workers with jobs sensitive to economic trends in Japan jumped in October to its highest level since January 2014 as the government lifted the state of emergency over the coronavirus and eateries and retailers began recovering from the pandemic fallout, official data showed Tuesday. The diffusion index of confidence measuring the current…
