The International Olympic Committee's Executive Board has welcomed the new president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee Hashimoto Seiko.

Hashimoto took part in an online IOC board meeting on Wednesday. She was chosen as the head of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games last week. IOC President Thomas Bach held a news conference after the meeting.

A Turkish court has convicted an official of a private airline and two pilots in connection with the escape out of Japan of former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn in late December 2019.

Ghosn skipped bail while awaiting trial for alleged financial misconduct. He flew out of Japan on a Turkish private airline jet and arrived in Lebanon via Turkey.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has offered to cooperate with Japan on the disposal of diluted contaminated wastewater accumulating at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke in an exclusive interview with NHK at the agency's headquarters in Vienna on Wednesday.

A mountain fire in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, has been raging for four days, threatening residential areas in a local city.

The fire broke out in the Nishinomiya district of Ashikaga City on Sunday.

Japan's government is considering lifting a state of emergency imposed over the coronavirus earlier than planned in five prefectures in central and western parts of the country.

The emergency declaration covers Tokyo, Osaka and eight other prefectures. It is scheduled to expire on March 7.

A panel of experts at Japan's health ministry has pointed out that the number of new cases of the coronavirus in the country has been declining at a slower pace since mid-February.

The panel met on Wednesday to discuss the situations mainly in the 10 prefectures currently covered by the state of emergency declaration.

Japan's top government spokesperson says measures against the coronavirus will be eased in stages even if the government lifts an emergency declaration earlier than initially planned.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu spoke to reporters on Wednesday.

Japan's Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications has taken disciplinary action against nine officials of his ministry and reprimanded two others for violating the ethics code for national government employees.

The officials were repeatedly wined and dined by the eldest son of Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide. Suga's son works for a firm involved in satellite broadcasting.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government says it confirmed 213 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday.

The preliminary figure was released as of 3 p.m.

The Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line has fully reopend after a section of the route was affected by a powerful earthquake earlier this month.

East Japan Railway reopened the entire line on Wednesday, 11 days after the quake struck northeastern Japan. Services between Sendai and Morioka stations had been restarted earlier.

Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu has expressed concerns over the human rights situations in China and Myanmar.

In a video message to the UN Human Rights Council, Motegi said, "while remarkable economic growth has been made in the Asia-Pacific, achieving democracy and protecting human rights remain ongoing challenges."

In Japan, governors of four prefectures have asked the central government to end the coronavirus state of emergency a week earlier than originally planned. They asked that it be lifted by the end of February.

The governors of Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto held a video conference with the minister in charge of the coronavirus response on Tuesday. Their request was based on an overall improvement in the situation, including fewer new daily cases.

Spectator stands are being built at 43 venues for the Tokyo Olympics, despite the possibility that they may need to be redesigned to comply with capacity limits.

The Games are scheduled to open on July 23. They were postponed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Tokyo officials confirmed 275 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday.

The daily tally has been under 500 for 17 straight days, and under 300 for three straight days.