The leaders from the Group of Seven major powers will reaffirm their unity against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine at their three-day summit in Italy from Thursday.By 時事通信社

Russia's full-scale military aggression against Ukraine, deep into its third year, is adversely affecting students learning Japanese by causing blackouts.By 時事通信社

A newly built ferry began its regular operations Saturday to link the Chinese city of Shanghai with Osaka and Kobe in western Japan.By 時事通信社

The welfare ministry plans to begin as early as summer Japan's first fact-finding survey of municipalities' responses to unclaimed bodies and remains.By 時事通信社

The Japanese government is set to start full-fledged discussions as early as this month on the idea of extending public health insurance coverage to include childbirth from fiscal 2026.By 時事通信社

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida faces tough time constraints at the Diet after a delay in the passage of a political funds bill through the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament.By 時事通信社

A memorial ceremony was held Saturday to mark the 23 years since a knife attack at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, that killed eight children.By 時事通信社

Victims of the 2008 fatal rampage in Tokyo's busy Akihabara district were remembered Saturday, the 16th anniversary of the indiscriminate attack, which left seven people dead and 10 others injured.By 時事通信社

Sharp Corp. said Friday that it has signed a basic agreement to grant telecommunications carrier SoftBank Corp. exclusive negotiating rights for the partial sale of its Sakai plant in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan.By 時事通信社

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that his government will continue to provide support to achieve the existing goal of fully opening the Chuo Shinkansen magnetic levitation train line as early as 2037.By 時事通信社

Gainax Co., known for producing the popular anime series "Neon Genesis Evangelion," said Friday that it filed for bankruptcy at Tokyo District Court on May 29.By 時事通信社

The Japan Coast Guard said Friday that it had conducted its first joint drill with its U.S. and South Korean counterparts off the Tango Peninsula in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan.By 時事通信社

Four Chinese coast guard ships entered Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the city of Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.By 時事通信社

Japan's composite index of coincident economic indicators rose 1.0 point from the previous month to 115.2 in April, up for the second consecutive month, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report Friday.By 時事通信社

The share of females among Japanese national public servants hired as of the April 1 start of fiscal 2024 hit a record high for the sixth straight year, standing at 39.2 pct, the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs said Friday.By 時事通信社

Daihatsu Motor Co. has reported an operating loss of 5 billion yen for fiscal 2023, its first red ink since fiscal 1992, when Japan was in an economic slowdown following the bursting of the country's asset bubble.By 時事通信社

Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is thinking about recommending administrative punishment against MUFG Bank and two related securities companies over their handling of customer information, informed sources said Friday.By 時事通信社

The Japanese Foreign Ministry has protested an apparent maritime survey by South Korea in Japan's exclusive economic zone south of the Sea of Japan islets known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.By 時事通信社

Spending by households with two or more members in Japan in April averaged 313,300 yen, rising 0.5pctfrom a year before in inflation-adjusted real terms, internal affairs ministry data showed Friday.By 時事通信社

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday instructed his government to draw up as soon as possible legislation to introduce an active cyber defense system justifying pre-emptive actions against cyberattacks.By 時事通信社

Japan's parliament on Friday enacted a bill to revise the swords and firearms control law to ban acts of explaining online ways to manufacture guns and encouraging unlawful possession of such weapons, making such acts punishable.By 時事通信社

A Japanese research group has said that it became the world's first to succeed in producing regulatory T cells, which suppress excessive immune responses, from human induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells.By 時事通信社

The Imperial Household Agency released on Thursday 21 photos of Japanese Emperor Naruhito's family taken during their recent stay at a farm in Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, and seven photos of cats related to the family.By 時事通信社

Canadian police Thursday identified a man fatally stabbed in Vancouver in the early hours of Wednesday as 32-year-old Wataru Kakiuchi from Japan.By 時事通信社

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seen visiting Kazakhstan early in August to hold his country's first summit with five Central Asian nations, informed sources have said.By 時事通信社

The Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO, held an event in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Thursday to help Japanese and Ukrainian companies pursue business opportunities.By 時事通信社

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Thursday it will set up a joint research foothold at Kyoto University in July to find solutions on social issues.By 時事通信社

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, said Thursday that it observed a tsunami that occurred off Torishima, an island in the Izu chain in the Pacific, in October last year using the long-distance fiber-optic cable it placed for research purposes on the seabed off Cape Muroto in the western prefecture of Kochi.…

The Japanese government plans to take all possible measures to ensure continued wage increases that exceed inflation, according to a draft of its annual economic and fiscal policy guidelines.By 時事通信社

An advisory panel to UNESCO has highly evaluated Japan's bid to get the Sado gold mine site in Niigata Prefecture registered as a World Cultural Heritage, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs said Thursday.By 時事通信社

The Japanese government plans to set an upper limit on the number of people to be covered by a proposed three-year foreign workforce development program, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday.By 時事通信社

Japan will aim to introduce robotaxis by fiscal 2026 as part of a road map for promoting self-driving technology, digital transformation minister Taro Kono said Thursday.By 時事通信社

Suzuki Motor Corp.'s Spacia minivehicle became Japan's bestselling car for the first time in May, the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association said Thursday.By 時事通信社

Bank of Japan policymaker Toyoaki Nakamura said Thursday that it would be too early for the BOJ to decide on an interest rate hike at its next policy-setting meeting on June 13-14.By 時事通信社

Japan's industry ministry released an annual report Thursday criticizing China's ban on imports of fishery products from Japan, which it introduced after Japan began releasing treated water from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the sea last August.By 時事通信社

Major Ukrainian information technology company Eleks plans to strengthen its operations in Japan, company officials have revealed.By 時事通信社

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday that he will attend a summit of the Group of Seven major democracies in Italy next week.By 時事通信社

Tokyo police have arrested a 21-year-old university freshman for allegedly engaging in lewd acts with an 11-year-old girl who had run away from home.By 時事通信社

Japan's House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill submitted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to revise the political funds control law.By 時事通信社

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante will visit Japan this week to attend the first meeting of the Japan-U.S. Defense Industrial Cooperation Acquisition and Sustainment Forum, or DICAS, a spokesperson for the Defense Department said Wednesday.By 時事通信社

A Japanese study has found that the lower the income, the more likely people have high blood pressure in Japan.By 時事通信社

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Japan for stalled talks between the two nations to resolve their dispute over four Russian-held islands that Japan claims as its Northern Territories and to conclude a peace treaty to formally end their World War II hostilities.By 時事通信社

Japan's transport ministry on Thursday conducted an on-site inspection of Suzuki Motor Corp.'s headquarters after irregularities were found in the company's vehicle testing to obtain type approval.By 時事通信社

Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. has said it will launch The Nikka Nine Decades premium whisky, whose reference retail price is set at 330,000 yen per bottle, to mark the firm's 90th anniversary.By 時事通信社

Tokyo DisneySea on Thursday opened its new Fantasy Springs area featuring popular Disney movies within the theme park in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.By 時事通信社

Osaka Gas Co. has shown the press its test equipment to synthesize methane from water and carbon dioxide in a research institute in the western Japan city of Osaka.By 時事通信社

UA Zensen, a federation of labor unions in the Japanese retail and service industries, Wednesday urged employers to create a manual of instructions to address the harassment of workers by customers.By 時事通信社

Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp. launched a debate Wednesday to update Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s medium-term business plan, which includes how to secure compensation costs following its nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011.By 時事通信社

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it plans for now to suspend production of three vehicle models involved in certification irregularities from Thursday to June 28.By 時事通信社

Lifetime disposable income for households with wives who continue working post-childbirth is 167 million yen higher than that for those who quit their jobs and remain unemployed, a Japanese government estimate showed Wednesday.By 時事通信社