Tokyo police are on standby against possible trouble as Halloween crowds are expected to gather this weekend in districts like Shibuya.
Huge crowds of young people and foreigners in costumes descend on Shibuya, Roppongi and other busy districts during the Halloween season.
Construction work for Japan's high-speed maglev train line is facing another hurdle, as farmers have launched a legal battle to block the project.
A total of 107 people, including tea farmers in the central prefecture of Shizuoka, filed a lawsuit with a District Court on Friday. They say that the construction of a tunnel could have a grave impact on their livelihood as it may reduce the flow of river water.
Japan's tourism minister says he will consider extending the domestic travel promotion campaign beyond the end of January.
The government-sponsored "Go To Travel" program gives discounts on trip costs and offers coupons for use at tourist spots and souvenir shops.
NHK has learned that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is planning a six-fold increase in coronavirus testing capacity, in anticipation of a simultaneous outbreak of seasonal influenza.
Tokyo currently has a testing capacity of 10,200 per day. However, experts have warned that the capital should prepare for another wave of coronavirus infections.
Japan's space agency says members of a team tasked with retrieving the capsule from the Hayabusa2 probe will be quarantined for more than three weeks before beginning their task.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, plans to send the 73-member team to Australia, where the capsule is scheduled to land in a desert area in early December.
Survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and peace groups are launching a signature campaign to urge the Japanese government to ratify a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will enter into force in January after reaching the necessary 50 ratifications earlier this month. But Japan is among the countries that have not signed the treaty. Nuclear powers, including the United States, Russia and China, have not joined the pact.
A memorial ceremony has been held in Tokyo for former leprosy patients who died after years of discrimination.
The Japanese government organizes the annual event that is usually held on June 22.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government confirmed 221 new cases of the coronavirus in the Japanese capital on Thursday.
The last time the daily tally topped 200 was on October 24, when 203 new cases were reported.
NHK has learned that 306 new cases of the coronavirus were reported across Japan as of 3 p.m. on Thursday, taking the total since the start of the outbreak above 100,000.
An illumination in the shape of Shuri Castle's main hall has been set up in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, as part of a project to rebuild the monument that was destroyed in a fire nearly one year ago.
Senior high school students led the countdown for the unveiling of the LED-illuminated structure at a commercial complex in Naha City on Wednesday night.
Training for volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which have been postponed to next year due to the coronavirus, has resumed online.
Training for some 80,000 volunteers called "field casts," who will mainly work at competition venues, started in October last year. But it was suspended in February due to the outbreak and resumed online this month.
Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has pledged to pursue all options for Japan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
In the Lower House of the Diet on Wednesday, lawmakers asked Suga about his policy speech on Monday.
A panel of experts advising Japan's health ministry on coronavirus measures says infections have been rising marginally across the country.
The panel said on Wednesday that new cases had been either decreasing or remaining flat since the peak in the first week of August, but there has been a slight upturn since the beginning of this month.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials confirmed 171 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Wednesday.
The daily tally has topped 100 for the ninth straight day.