A Japanese government panel has recommended a record increase for the country's average minimum wage.

The labor ministry panel, which includes representatives from unions and corporate management, discussed this fiscal year's increase in the minimum hourly wage on Monday last week, but they couldn't reach a conclusion. The members met again on Monday and discussed the issue for about seven hours.

Japan's government on Monday confirmed security forces in Myanmar are detaining a Japanese man.

The government is calling for his prompt release.

Scorching heat prevailed again on Monday over wider Japan, with temperatures soaring above 39 degrees Celsius in Obama City on the Sea of Japan coast.

The Meteorological Agency says clear skies and burning sunshine engulfed western and eastern Japan, among other regions. The foehn phenomenon, in which winds blowing down from mountains become dry and push up temperatures, also reinforced the heat along the Sea of Japan and inland areas.

Aoki Holdings, a major business wear retailer, is suspected of having shown a document containing a list of requests tied to its sponsorship of the Tokyo Games to a former board member of the Games' organizing committee.

The former executive of the organizing committee, Takahashi Haruyuki, headed a company that received large sums of money from Aoki Holdings. The two companies signed a consulting contract in 2017.

Many parts of Japan were blanketed by sweltering heat on Sunday. Weather officials forecast that the heatwave will continue for the next seven days.

Daytime temperatures reached 38.6 degrees Celsius in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, 38.4 in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, 37.4 in Kyoto City and 35 in central Tokyo.

Wide areas from northeastern to western Japan are expected to have another day of extreme heat on Monday with temperatures rising to 38 degrees Celsius in some areas.

The Meteorological Agency says daytime temperatures will likely reach as high as 38 degrees in the western Japanese cities of Tottori, Matsue, Toyooka, Kyoto and Fukui.

Evacuees from Ukraine have held a cooking class in Tokyo to teach Japanese people how to make traditional Ukrainian cuisine.

The five evacuees have fled the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk and elsewhere.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 31,541 new cases of the coronavirus and eight deaths on Sunday.

The number of new infections was up 3,429 from a week ago, and is the capital's highest figure for a Sunday. It was the 12th consecutive day that the count was higher than the previous week.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has left Tokyo to attend the review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The meeting is set to begin in New York on Monday.

Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to take part in an NPT review conference.

A survivor of Hiroshima's atomic bombing has called for global nuclear disarmament.

Sakuma Kunihiko, who heads an atomic bombing survivors group, shared his experiences ahead of a review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Japanese authorities have issued a heatstroke alert for prefectures from northeastern through western regions as an intense sunshine is bringing another sweltering day on Sunday.

As of 11 a.m., temperatures stood at 36.5 degrees Celsius in the city of Komatsu in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, and the city of Hirakata in the western prefecture of Osaka. The mercury hit 33.5 degrees in central Tokyo.

High school students in Tokyo organized an online forum to learn about the current situation in Ukraine, and to discussed how Japanese students can lend their support.

The students organized the event after learning about how young people in Ukraine are losing their lives in Russia's ongoing invasion, fighting on the front lines away from their families and friends.

Sunny skies over wide areas from northern Japan to the Kansai region are expected on Sunday.

As temperatures are expected to rise, weather officials are issuing warnings of heatstroke dangers.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will travel to the United States on Sunday to attend the review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The meeting is scheduled to start on Monday at the UN headquarters in New York. Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to take part in a review conference.