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Typhoon Bavi is forecast to make its closest approach to the Sakishima Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, from early to late morning Saturday while maintaining its severe intensity.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is making arrangements to visit Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador in early August for talks with his counterparts, informed sources said Thursday.

Four children of Sachio Senmoto, co-founder of one of the predecessors of telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp., had failed to pay taxes on lifetime gifts from their father, it was learned Thursday.

FamilyMart Co. will open its first flagship store in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Friday, the Japanese convenience store chain said Thursday.

The Bank of Japan kept its economic assessments unchanged for all nine regions of the country in a quarterly report released Thursday.

A total of 148 people, including criminal law scholars, in Japan issued a statement Thursday opposing a bill that would criminalize the act of damaging the Japanese national flag.

The municipal assembly of Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, on Thursday unanimously approved an ordinance to impose a tax on owners of vacant housing in the city.

Japan's health ministry on Thursday proposed forgoing tightening regulations on heated tobacco products to the same extent as for cigarettes, as part of a review of measures against passive smoking.

The House of Representatives' steering committee decided at a board meeting Thursday to put the government's bill to revise the Imperial House Law to a vote by the full Lower House on Friday.

An 18-year-old man has been arrested for his suspected involvement in a cyberattack on the operator of the Kaikatsu Club internet cafe chain, according to investigative sources.

The average summer holiday budget has increased for the first time in three years in Japan, standing at 58,902 yen for 2026, a survey by research company Intage Inc. showed Thursday.

Japan's National Police Agency signed an agreement with three major e-commerce site operators Thursday to share information and prevent fraudulent transactions.

A draft of the Japanese government's upcoming annual economic and fiscal policy guidelines, nicknamed "honebuto," has spurred a jump in long-term interest rates, forcing the government to revise some of the wording.

A male prosecutor in Tokyo had a relationship with a woman whom he had questioned in a political funds scandal involving the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, informed sources have said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that a U.S. aircraft carrier had been attacked by "the Islamic Republic of Japan," apparently intending to say the Islamic Republic of Iran, while speaking about U.S. actions against Iran during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey.

Japanese chipmaker Rapidus Corp. plans to price its advanced semiconductors with a circuit line width of 2 nanometers no higher than the price of similar chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Rapidus President Atsuyoshi Koike has said.

Japan's health ministry plans to defer, for the time being, tighter regulations on heated tobacco products that have been under consideration as part of its review of measures against secondhand smoke, informed sources said Wednesday.

Japanese soccer star Kaoru Mitoma is suspected of running a red light before his vehicle collided with a bicycle in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, injuring a 48-year-old woman, investigative sources said.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday it has started a survey of some 370 domestic media companies that operate news websites in order to gather information on the unauthorized use of articles by search services utilizing generative artificial intelligence and article usage fees.

The major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan decided Wednesday to oppose a government-backed bill to revise the Imperial House Law that is aimed at maintaining a sufficient number of Imperial Family members.

Japan's House of Representatives is expected to approve a bill to revise the Imperial House Law as early as Friday after opposition parties on Wednesday agreed to return to parliamentary debates in the Lower House following concessions by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to their demands.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, affirmed bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas, including security, during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday.

The Diet, Japan's parliament, on Wednesday enacted a bill designed to stabilize rice supply and demand.

Japanese opposition lawmakers submitted a bill to provide relief to surviving civilian victims of the Pacific War to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, or parliament, on Wednesday.

An international conference to discuss the management of Pacific bluefin tuna stocks started in Nagasaki, a city in southwestern Japan, on Wednesday.

Five Japanese mobile phone carriers said Wednesday that they will postpone offering mobile phone numbers with the new prefix of 060, initially slated to be introduced in July or later.

Representatives from 127 countries and regions plus the European Union are expected to attend this year's Aug. 6 ceremony in Hiroshima to honor the victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city, the municipal government said Wednesday.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hit his 300th career home run in U.S. Major League Baseball on Tuesday, becoming the first Japanese MLB player to achieve the milestone.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi paid tribute to her late predecessor, Shinzo Abe, whom she sees as her mentor, on Wednesday, exactly four years after his assassination.

Regional banks across Japan are facing risks of their loans to credit card payment processing service firm Zentoshin, which has gone bust, becoming irrecoverable.

Japan logged a current account surplus of 3,968.3 billion yen for May, supported by robust export growth, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday that it expects to post record consolidated sales and net profit for this year after a recovery from the fallout of last year's system failure.

Japanese companies operating in China have been urged to exercise caution over exports of dual-use goods to Japan, after Chinese authorities arrested two Japanese nationals for suspected export control violations.

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan with debts of at least 10 million yen in January-June surpassed 5,000 for the first time in 12 years on a first-half basis, reflecting labor shortages and inflation, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said Wednesday.

Japan received reports of 19,417 personal data breach cases in fiscal 2025, the second-highest annual total on record, only eclipsed by the previous year's 21,007 cases, according to a report by a government commission.

As Wednesday marked four years since the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the western Japan city of Nara, visitors paid their respects to him at a floral tribute stand at the shooting site.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday credited his high-tariff policy with prompting Toyota Motor Corp. to decide to move production of its Tacoma pickup truck from Mexico to the United States.

NATO and its Indo-Pacific Four partners agreed in a meeting on Tuesday to strengthen their coordination in areas such as defense industry cooperation and cybersecurity.

The foreign ministers of Japan, the United States and South Korea shared concern over the recent launch of a ballistic missile by a nuclear-powered Chinese navy submarine at a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday.

A closely watched high-speed magnetic levitation train line project in Japan still faces many challenges, including huge construction costs seen totaling 11 trillion yen, although it has cleared a major hurdle with much-awaited consent from a prefectural governor.

The Philippines has reached a broad agreement with Japan on the transfer of five Abukuma-class destroyers from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force after their retirement, Philippine National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said Tuesday.

The leaders of Japan's two ruling parties on Tuesday confirmed plans to give up on enacting a bill to cut the number of House of Representatives seats during the current parliamentary session, which is slated to end in less than two weeks.

Japanese police arrested three people Tuesday, including a former executive of a now-defunct nonprofit organization that supported patients of incurable diseases, on suspicion of illegally brokering an overseas organ transplant case for fees.

The Japanese government is considering establishing a new bureau at the Defense Ministry in charge of dealing with international policies, including the promotion of cooperation with like-minded countries, government and ruling bloc sources said Tuesday.

Tokyo police last month sent to prosecutors papers on Fujipassc Co. and three men linked to the Japanese construction company for allegedly bribing a Cambodian government employee.

A local court on Tuesday sentenced a former worker at an elderly care home in the city of Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, east of Tokyo, to 20 years in prison for murdering a resident of the facility in 2020.

Japan's composite index of coincident economic indicators rose 0.4 point from the previous month in May, marking the third consecutive month of growth, according to preliminary data released by the Cabinet Office on Tuesday.

A celebration ceremony for an airport named after blockbuster Japanese animation series Pocket Monster, or Pokemon, was held in the city of Wajima in the central Japan prefecture of Ishikawa on Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Clippers of the U.S. National Basketball Association said Monday that they have signed star Japanese player Rui Hachimura.

Yasutomo Suzuki, governor of the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka, on Tuesday approved construction of the Shizuoka section of the Chuo Shinkansen high-speed magnetic levitation train line, effectively ending a nearly nine-year impasse that had delayed the rail project.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday expressed her intention to submit a document summarizing her aide's explanations over the campaign video and crypto asset scandals.