A panel of experts is warning that the coronavirus situation in Tokyo is still extremely serious despite the small decline in the number of new cases.
The panel members and Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials met on Thursday for a weekly assessment of the coronavirus infections in the capital.
US pharmaceutical company Moderna says clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine in Japan began on Thursday to seek its authorization by the Japanese health ministry.
US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and British drug company AstraZeneca have already started clinical trials in Japan of their coronavirus vaccines. The two firms have agreed to supply them to Japan.
NHK has learned that the Japanese government's expenses for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics this summer will total more than 390 billion yen, or about 3.76 billion dollars.
The figure is for the period starting in fiscal 2013, when Tokyo was selected as the host city, until fiscal 2021, which begins in April. The Japanese Board of Audit requires the government to disclose the estimate.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says 1,471 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed on Thursday.
The daily tally for the capital has exceeded 1,000 for the ninth straight day.
Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide says he looks forward to working closely with the new president of the United States on global issues to make the Japan-US alliance stronger.
Suga spoke to reporters on Thursday and commented on the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
A Tokyo court is set to rule on whether a Japanese law forbidding dual citizenship is unconstitutional.
Japan's Nationality Law stipulates that a Japanese national will lose Japanese citizenship if he or she intentionally acquires a foreign nationality by choice.
NHK has learned that the Japanese government's expenses for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics this summer will total more than 390 billion yen, or about 3.76 billion dollars.
The figure is for the period starting in fiscal 2013, when Tokyo was selected as the host city, until fiscal 2021, which begins in April. The Japanese Board of Audit requires the government to disclose the estimate.
Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has congratulated the new president and vice president of the United States.
Suga tweeted, in Japanese and English: "Congratulations to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on your inauguration. Japan and the United States are allies tied firmly by bonds and shared universal values."
Japan's government has signed a contract with US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer to receive about 144 million doses of coronavirus vaccine for 72 million people this year.
Health minister Tamura Norihisa disclosed this to reporters on Wednesday.
Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide defended the government's policies against the coronavirus while answering questions about his recent policy speech in the Diet.
In the Lower House on Wednesday, Constitutional Democratic Party leader Edano Yukio accused Suga of delaying necessary measures against the virus by ignoring public opinion. Edano said this resulted in what can only be described as an infection explosion. He urged Suga to acknowledge his misjudgment and apologize for it.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says about 20 percent of people confirmed infected with the new coronavirus in recent months were asymptomatic when they tested positive.
The Tokyo government studied 51,848 people who tested positive for the coronavirus between November and January 15.
Japan's government officials are vowing to step up measures against the coronavirus. This comes after a variant first identified in the UK late last year was found in people with no recent history of overseas travel and no known contact with people infected in Japan.
The health ministry announced on Monday that three people in the central prefecture of Shizuoka had tested positive for the variant...which is believed to be more transmissible than the original one.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 1,274 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Wednesday.
The daily tally has exceeded 1,000 for eight days in a row.
The Japanese government is on a high alert after cases of a purportedly more contagious variant of the coronavirus were found in people with no recent history of overseas travel.
Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide held an online meeting on Tuesday with the governors of seven prefectures that were added to a coronavirus state of emergency last week.