Four local organizations in northeastern Japan have demanded that treated water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant be disposed of by means other than ocean discharge.
The groups are the consumers cooperative and fisheries cooperative associations of Miyagi Prefecture, and the consumers cooperative unions of Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has so far accepted nine Ukrainians who have fled their home country following the Russian invasion.
Tokyo officials say the nine people make up three families with children.
Japanese officials and experts say more than 800,000 people live in areas that may be subject to evacuation warnings if Mount Fuji erupts.
A volcanic disaster management council is working to draft a new evacuation plan based on a revised hazard map for such an eruption released last year.
The operator of the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train plans to reopen services in more of the sections that have been closed following a derailment caused by a powerful earthquake.
East Japan Railway Company, or JR East, said on Wednesday that service will resume between Tokyo and Fukushima stations on Saturday, and between Sendai and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto stations on Monday.
NHK has learned that a third-party committee of experts has found no safety problems so far with a procedure to repair spinal cord injuries by transplanting cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
A team led by Okano Hideyuki and Nakamura Masaya, both professors at Keio University, performed the world's first procedure in December.
NHK has learned the University of Tokyo will temporarily accept students and researchers facing difficulty continuing their academic work in a safe environment due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The university says it is preparing to accept up to dozens of individuals regardless of their nationality. But it will flexibly consider the upper limit, depending on future developments.
Japanese prefectural chiefs have asked the central government to thoroughly implement existing procedures to protect nuclear plants from possible attacks.
The National Governors' Association compiled a set of emergency requests in response to the Russian attack and seizure of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine earlier this month.
Japan is strengthening its regulations on cryptocurrencies to make sure international sanctions on Russia are effective.
The government plans to submit to the current session of the Diet proposed changes to the foreign exchange law.
Japan is to ban exports of luxury goods to Russia in order to put pressure on oligarchs -- wealthy business tycoons thought to be close to President Vladimir Putin.
The list covers 19 items, including cars worth more than 6 million yen, or about 48,000 dollars and motorcycles worth more than 600,000 yen, about 4,800 dollars. It also encompasses pianos worth more than 200,000 yen, some 1,600 dollars, natural pearls, high-end Japanese whiskey and watches with a value exceeding 40,000 yen, or about 300 dollars. The export ban goes into effect April 5.
A court in Japan has found the former head of one of the country's largest universities guilty of tax evasion.
Nihon University's former Chairman Tanaka Hidetoshi was accused of concealing a taxable income of about 118 million yen, or roughly one million dollars, and evading 52 million yen, or 420,000 dollars, in income tax in 2018 and 2020.
The Bank of Japan carried out an operation to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds at a fixed yield for a second straight day. The yen, meanwhile, recovered somewhat after its sharp fall on Monday.
The BOJ has been buying bonds at a yield of a quarter of a percent in an effort to keep long-term interest rates from rising. It says it bought 528 billion yen, or about 4.3 billion dollars, worth of Japanese government bonds on Tuesday. It said it will keep doing this through Thursday.
Officials at Japan's central bank have revealed details of their thinking about inflation and monetary easing. They say there is a chance inflation could reach their target of 2 percent, but they are sticking with their massive monetary easing because wages are not rising in line with price increases.
On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan released a "Summary of Opinions" document outlining discussions at a two-day policy meeting earlier this month.
The Bank of Japan is buying government bonds in unlimited amounts at a fixed yield for a second straight day. The yen, meanwhile, recovered somewhat on Tuesday after its sharp fall on Monday.
The BOJ is buying bonds at a yield of a quarter of a percent in an effort to keep long-term interest rates from rising. It said it will keep doing this through Thursday.
A court in Tokyo has sentenced a former lawmaker to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for illegally brokering public loans for businesses more than 100 times between March 2020 and June 2021.
The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday handed down the sentence to Toyama Kiyohiko. He was also fined 1 million yen, or about 8,100 dollars. The 52-year-old was a Lower House member with the governing junior coalition partner Komeito. He once served as a state minister of finance.