Japan's health and welfare ministry says nearly 9,000 survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died in the fiscal year which ended in March. The average age of living survivors is approaching 84.
Every year, the ministry surveys people who are officially recognized as "hibakusha," or victims of atomic bombings.
In Tokyo, officials are struggling with another surge in new cases of the coronavirus. Experts worry that 4 weeks from now, there could be more than 1,000 new cases a day.
Tokyo health officials confirmed 673 new cases on Thursday. That is up 103 from the same day last week.
Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and the US Army are holding one of their largest-ever joint exercises at camps and training grounds across Japan.
The drills started last Thursday. About 3,000 personnel are taking part.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 673 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday.
The figure is up 103 from last Thursday, marking a week-on-week increase for a twelfth straight day.
Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, has opened to trekkers for the first time in two years.
A trail that starts in Yamanashi Prefecture and part of one that starts in Shizuoka Prefecture opened on Thursday.
A member of Uganda's Olympic team who tested positive for the coronavirus upon arrival in Japan has traveled to the western Japanese city that will host his training camp after completing his 10-day quarantine.
The member tested positive at Narita Airport near Tokyo when the team arrived in Japan on June 19, and stayed at a state-designated facility. The member arrived in Izumisano in Osaka Prefecture on a chartered bus on Thursday.
Japanese researchers have started accepting patients for a clinical trial aimed at repairing spinal cord injuries by using induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
Two Keio University professors, Okano Hideyuki and Nakamura Masaya, are heading the research team.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, is set to offer free financial aid for providing coronavirus vaccines to Palestinians.
About 500,000 people in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been fully vaccinated. But the rollout has been slow in rural areas due to the difficulty of delivering the vaccines under the proper temperature guidelines.
A seasonal rain front is bringing downpours to eastern and western Japan. Information on heavy rain inundation and landslides has been issued for Tokyo.
Japan's Meteorological Agency says an inflow of warm, damp air toward the front has made rain clouds develop, mainly along the Pacific coast.
The Japanese government will continue to place on hold acceptance of new applications to set up vaccination sites in workplaces and municipalities.
Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide told a meeting of relevant cabinet ministers on Wednesday that demand to open up such sites at firms and universities, and large-scale ones in municipalities, is greater than anticipated. He said the government will continue suspending the acceptance of new applications.
Coronavirus variants with the L452R mutation that were first detected in India are spreading at a fast pace in Tokyo.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Wednesday confirmed 55 new cases of variants with the mutation. The daily figure is the second largest for infections by such variants and brings the total number of such cases in Japan's capital to 349.
Japan's health minister has expressed concern over an increase in the number of people who are out and about at night in Tokyo amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Tamura Norihisa attended a meeting of a panel of experts on Wednesday.
Japan's southern prefecture of Okinawa says 16 people have died in a cluster of coronavirus infections at a public-run hospital in Uruma City.
The head of the prefectural government's department of public health and medical care, Oshiro Reiko, reported the death toll at a prefectural assembly session on Wednesday.
Chugai Pharmaceutical Company is seeking approval with Japan's health ministry for the emergency use of an antibody cocktail in treating COVID-19.
Chugai says the antibody cocktail combining the virus-neutralizing antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab was found to reduce hospitalization or death by about 70 percent in overseas clinical trials.