A Japanese government survey shows the country's smoking rate fell to a record low last year.

The health ministry surveyed about 5,700 people aged 20 or over last November.

NHK has learned that a senior Japanese foreign ministry official will visit South Korea from Wednesday, apparently to seek a breakthrough to improve bilateral ties.

Takizaki Shigeki, the director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau will stay in South Korea for three days.

A center for coronavirus prevention will be in operation during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics next summer.

Officials from the Japanese government, the Tokyo Metropolitan government and the Tokyo Organising Committee met on Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office to discuss the matter.

Japan's Cabinet has endorsed a bill to make coronavirus vaccinations free and to offer free care for health problems the vaccines may cause.

The Japanese government has agreed with US and British pharmaceutical firms to receive supplies of vaccines they may develop. It plans to begin inoculations in the first half of 2021.

Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has notified UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that his government will aim to achieve a carbon-neutral society by 2050.

Suga spoke to the head of the global body on the phone on Tuesday and explained that he announced the goal in his policy speech in the Diet the previous day.

US space agency NASA has rescheduled the launch of the manned spacecraft Crew Dragon to November 14.

The first operational flight of the privately-developed space capsule was initially scheduled for October 31.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed Japan's commitment to reducing the country's carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide announced the goal in his policy speech on Monday.

The commander of US forces in Japan has said the capabilities of Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the US military can be used to "deliver combat troops to defend" the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider was speaking to reporters on Monday aboard a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer.

A panel of experts has urged the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company to seek more information about how the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant occurred.

The panel on Monday submitted a report on its investigation into the accident to the governor of Niigata Prefecture, which is adjacent to Fukushima Prefecture and hosts TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant.

The atomic-bombed city of Nagasaki has set up a countdown board to mark the number of days until next year's UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons goes into effect.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons reached the necessary 50 ratifications on Saturday.

Survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings in Japan say they will continue collecting signatures for a campaign calling on all countries to join the United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Officials of Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, held a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.

Japanese government officials have convened an emergency meeting after the number of bear sightings across the country hit a five-year high.

NHK has learned that at least 63 people were injured and two of them later died in bear attacks from September 1 to October 23.

A woman was injured in a bear attack on Monday morning in Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan.

Police say a bear, about 1 meter long, attacked the 70-year-old woman in the town of Kawanishi when she was clearing leaves in front of her house.

Japanese health officials are urging people in all age groups to get influenza shots amid concerns about simultaneous outbreaks of flu and coronavirus infections.

Demand for flu vaccine is expected to surge this winter. The health ministry advised that people aged 65 or older should be given flu shots first from October 1.