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A bear was spotted in a residential area in Sendai, a major city in northeastern Japan, on Sunday, prompting local authorities to issue a warning to nearby residents.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, on Sunday urged all parties concerned to observe the ceasefire over the fighting between Israel and Lebanon.

Relatives of a woman and her daughter who were killed in a runaway car crash in Tokyo's busy Ikebukuro district in April 2019 remembered their loved ones on Sunday, exactly seven years after the tragedy.

The smartphone of the arrested father of an 11-year-old Kyoto Prefecture boy who has been found dead had a history of searching for ways to abandon a body, investigative source said Sunday.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, are slated to resume later this month working-level talks on cutting the number of the House of Representatives seats by 10 pct.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is actively engaging in summit diplomacy with leaders of other Asian nations and countries in Europe and the Middle East amid the prolonged crisis over Iran.

Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. plans to introduce new disclosure rules for midsize companies that have not published specific measures to improve capital efficiency, its president, Ryusuke Yokoyama, has said in a recent interview.

With Sunday marking seven years since a woman and her daughter were killed by a runaway car in Tokyo's busy Ikebukuro district, the lead police investigator at the time has said that he probed the accident with the bereaved family's grief in his heart.

An object that may be a ballistic missile has been launched from North Korea, Japan's Defense Ministry said Sunday.

Japan is on pace to log its highest annual measles cases this year since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 236 patients confirmed by early April compared with the post-pandemic full-year high of 265 marked last year.

Junya Ogawa, leader of Japan's main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, has called for "dialogue and consensus" to better the world at an international conference of center-left political parties.

Japan and the European Union have held the first dialogue designed to reinforce their cooperation for the defense industry.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has sent a message to an international meeting expressing her country's determination to take "all possible measures" to improve the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

A powerful earthquake measuring up to upper 5, the fourth-highest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, struck northern areas of Nagano Prefecture in central Japan on Saturday.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles at a meeting in Melbourne on Saturday agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation to ensure security in East Asia.

The Bank of Japan faces a dilemma of choosing between reining in inflation and propping up the economy as it considers whether to raise the policy interest rate at its next policy-setting meeting April 27-28.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, remain apart over a revision of pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven major industrialized countries on Friday discussed plans to increase financial aid to resource-rich nations through the World Bank and other entities as part of efforts to build supply chains for rare earths and other critical minerals that do not rely on China.

Tokyo police on Friday arrested the president of Linux Japan, an information technology service provider in the Japanese capital, on suspicion of abandoning a body.

Japan and eight other economies agreed Friday to decrease this year's catch quota for saury in the northern Pacific by 5pctyear-on-year.

A spokesperson for the Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command, which is responsible for areas near Taiwan, said on social media Friday that a Japanese Self-Defense Force vessel had sailed through the Taiwan Strait.

Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, held a rally in Tokyo on Friday ahead of a review conference of the signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, scheduled to be held in New York from April 27.

Interest payments on Japanese government bonds in fiscal 2034 are projected to be about 8.4 trillion yen higher than previously estimated, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is considering skipping a visit to war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its three-day spring festival that starts Tuesday, informed sources said Friday.

A regional lender based in the Kinki western Japan region and the parent of another local bank announced a capital and business alliance Friday.

Prices of rice sold at some 1,000 supermarkets across Japan in the week through Sunday averaged 3,873 yen per 5 kilograms, down 60 yen from the prior week and falling for the ninth straight week, the agriculture ministry said Friday.

Major Japanese convenience store operators Lawson Inc. and FamilyMart Co. have reported record operating profits for the year that ended in February, while Seven & i Holdings Co. logged only modest growth.

Police referred a man and a woman to prosecutors Friday on charges of reselling tickets for World Baseball Classic games in Tokyo this year, as well as for the U.S. Major League Baseball Tokyo Series last year, at prices up to nine times their original costs.

The father of a boy in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, who was found dead earlier this week after going missing last month has admitted that he strangled the son, investigative sources said Friday.

Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako hosted a garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Friday, inviting some 1,750 people.

A meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 major economies was held in Washington on Thursday, but it did not produce a joint statement.

The Japanese government plans to have the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, own and operate the successor to the Antarctic research vessel Shirase, officials said Thursday.

Japan's Justice Ministry said Friday it will set up a panel of experts to set guidelines on civil actions to seek damages for unauthorized use of performers' voices and images created by generative artificial intelligence.

Japan's House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the country's parliament, unanimously voted for legislation to set numerical standards for defining dangerous driving resulting in death or injury at a plenary meeting Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday ruled out the possibility of the government using a planned national intelligence council for political purposes.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission filed a complaint against five oil distributors Friday over an alleged price cartel for gas oil sold to transport and other companies in Tokyo.

Some local governments in Japan have already started their Cool Biz workplace power-saving campaign for the hotter months earlier than usual, amid concerns over energy supplies due to Middle East tensions.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said Thursday that soaring crude oil prices complicate the central bank's monetary policy.

Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, gold medalists for the pairs figure skating event at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, on Friday announced that they will retire from competitive skating at the end of this season.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi met with visiting representatives of some 30 NATO member countries permanently stationed at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, or JA, group, voiced concerns Thursday about the possible impact of the conflict in the Middle East on the harvest of rice in Japan this autumn.

The Japanese government on Thursday released a draft road map on public-private investment that features a goal of acquiring some 25pctshare of the global market in self-driving vehicle sales in the 2030s.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposed Thursday that a House of Representatives council on the electoral system include a plan to reduce the number of seats in the lower chamber of parliament in future discussions.

Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, said Thursday that four N700S series Shinkansen bullet trains that are set to be used also for the inspection of related equipment are named "Doctor S."

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Thursday that the government will release 50 million medical gloves from its stockpile to medical institutions starting next month.

Finance ministers from 11 countries, including Japan, Britain and Australia, issued a joint statement Wednesday, calling on the United States, Israel and Iran to fully implement their ceasefire.

Japanese police on Thursday arrested 13 Japanese men in their 20s to 50s on suspicion of involvement in a crypto asset fraud scheme after being transferred from Indonesia.

The crews of Japan-linked ships stuck in the Persian Gulf are keeping a close eye on U.S.-Iran talks, a Japanese shipping-sector labor union official has said.

Japanese public prosecutors on Thursday sought a five-year prison sentence for Seiichi Katsurada, president of the operator of a tour boat that sank off Hokkaido in 2022, killing 26 people aboard.

Nearly 40pctof people in Japan support the government's bill to enhance the country's intelligence capabilities, a Jiji Press opinion poll showed.

Japan's seasonally adjusted core machinery orders in February rose 13.6pctfrom the previous month, driven by large-scale orders worth more than 10 billion yen each, Cabinet Office data showed Wednesday.