The annual Sapporo Snow Festival scheduled for January and February is expected to forgo its usual displays of snow and ice sculptures, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sapporo Mayor Akimoto Katsuhiro told reporters on Thursday that city officials have judged it would be difficult to hold the event in the usual style.

Japan's government is seeking to gain consensus from the ruling parties over the proposed development of a new long-range cruise missile.

The "standoff missile" has a much longer firing range than the Ground Self-Defense Force's current surface-to-ship model. It can be launched from a point far enough away to evade fire from the target.

The Japanese government's coronavirus advisory panel plans to urge more restraint during the year-end and New Year holidays in areas where infections are surging.

The panel members plan to have a meeting on Friday during which they will make proposals. They will call on people in areas where infections have reached Stage 3, the second-worst level on a 4-tier scale, to move their parties online and to reconsider visiting their hometowns.

NHK has learned that Japan's Defense Ministry plans to dispatch Self-Defense Force medical personnel to Osaka Prefecture, where the healthcare system is under strain from a surge in coronavirus cases.

The ministry will likely send a total of about seven personnel consisting of nurses and other staff.

NHK has learned that Japan's transport ministry and a railway operator have drawn up a proposal allowing people arriving from overseas to use the train to leave Narita Airport near Tokyo.

The government is currently asking arrivals from abroad to avoid using public transportation and instead arrange their own vehicles to leave the airport, even if they test negative for the coronavirus.

In Japan, the spike in coronavirus cases continues to reach new peaks and upend daily life for people across the country. Tokyo reported more than 600 new infections on Thursday... a record daily tally.

More than 45,000 people have now tested positive in the capital.

Medical experts say a surge in new coronavirus cases in Tokyo is starting to overstretch its healthcare system, making it very difficult to provide care for other patients.

The warning came when an advisory panel of infectious disease and public health experts met Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials on Thursday for a weekly assessment of the coronavirus situation.

Officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 602 new cases of the coronavirus in the Japanese capital on Thursday.

It's the first time the daily figure has topped the 600 mark.

Mongolian-born sumo wrestler Kakuryu has obtained Japanese citizenship.

News of the grand champion obtaining citizenship was released in the government's gazette on Thursday.

Health authorities in Japan reported a record 2,811 new cases of the coronavirus nationwide on Wednesday.

That is the highest daily tally so far in the country, surpassing the previous record of 2,678 confirmed on November 28.

NHK has learned that the number of elderly people found to be infected with the coronavirus has nearly doubled in Tokyo from the figure in August, when Japan was hit by the second wave of infection.

During the summer, the virus was found mainly in young people. But recently it has also spread among older people.

NHK has learned the Japanese government plans to make the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, western Japan, "a laboratory for a future society" to show ways to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The government has worked out a draft of its basic plan for the Osaka, Kansai Expo.

Health authorities in Japan reported a record 2,796 new cases of coronavirus nationwide on Wednesday.

That is the highest daily tally so far in the country, surpassing the previous record of 2,678 confirmed on November 28.

Japanese authorities reported more than 2,700 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. That's a record daily tally. The healthcare system is threatening to buckle under the weight of the spike.

Medical teams from the Self-Defense Forces have begun assisting frontline workers at two facilities in the country's north hit with cluster infections.