The Japanese government has drawn up a rural digitalization plan under its initiative to expand digital technologies nationwide to revitalize rural areas.
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, related cabinet members and experts agreed on the basic plan at a meeting on Wednesday in Tokyo.
A tour boat that sank off Hokkaido, northern Japan, has been shown to the families of the people who were on board.
The "KAZU I", carrying 26 people, sank off the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido on April 23. Fourteen of them have been confirmed dead and the remaining 12 are still missing.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 2,415 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday.
The daily tally is down about 1,500 from a week ago and marks 19 straight days of week-on-week declines.
A rickshaw operator in Tokyo's major tourist spot of Asakusa has resumed English lessons for its staff ahead of Japan's planned resumption of accepting foreign tourists.
Japan plans to accept tourists from 98 countries and regions designated as low-risk areas in terms of COVID-19 infections from June 10.
The Japanese government has announced that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will give a keynote speech at an Asia security summit to be held in Singapore.
Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister in eight years to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, which starts on Friday next week. The conference brings together defense and military leaders to discuss Asia-Pacific security issues.
Japan doubled the limit for daily arrivals in Japan from abroad on Wednesday to 20,000, another step in relaxing COVID-19 border controls.
The move came ahead of the planned reopening of the country to overseas tourists on June 10.
Families of passengers on a tour boat that sank off Hokkaido will be allowed to see the raised vessel on Wednesday afternoon.
The KAZU I, carrying 26 people, sank off the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido on April 23. Fourteen passengers have been confirmed dead and the remaining 12 are still missing.
Japan has doubled the daily limit on the number of people entering the country to 20,000, starting on Wednesday.
The country resumed new entries of foreign visitors other than tourists on March 1. The government raised the daily cap on arrivals to 5,000 on the same day, to 7,000 on March 14 and to 10,000 on April 10. It did so while watching the infection situation in Japan and around the world. They also observed quarantine measures at domestic airports.
Japan's government has disclosed plans to realize a "new form of capitalism" advocated by Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. The plans include doubling people's asset income.
The plans were presented at a meeting of the government's council on "new form of capitalism realization" on Tuesday.
Lawmakers in Japan have enacted a supplementary budget worth 2.7 trillion yen, or roughly 21 billion dollars, to address fuel prices that have surged since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Diet's Upper House members voted Tuesday to pass the package for this fiscal year. The Lower House approved the bill last Friday.
A Japanese court says the offline Tomari Nuclear Power Plant in Hokkaido cannot be brought back into operation. The judge points to poor tsunami safety standards in what is the first ruling of its kind.
More than 1,200 people have filed lawsuits against operator Hokkaido Electric Power Company since 2011. They demanded all three reactors be banned from operating and decommissioned.
Japan's industrial output fell in April for the first time in three months as the lockdown in Shanghai takes its toll on Japan's economy.
The production index was down 1.3 percent from the previous month.
A Japanese Defense Ministry think tank says Russia likely launched its invasion of Ukraine without fully understanding the capabilities of Ukrainian forces.
The report compiled by the National Institute for Defense Studies concludes that Russia began the invasion because President Vladimir Putin was determined to annex Ukraine.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 2,362 new cases of coronavirus infection in the capital on Tuesday.
New case numbers were down about 900 from a week before for the 18th straight day of week-on-week decline.