Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials say 185 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the Japanese capital on Thursday.

This is the third straight day that the daily figure has hit triple digits.

The Japanese government is considering an exemption of the quarantine requirement for business travelers entering the country for short stays of up to 72 hours.

It is considering applying the exemption to travelers from countries and regions where the coronavirus outbreak is largely under control.

The Japan National Tourism Organization estimates that 13,700 foreigners entered Japan in September. The figure exceeded 10,000 for the first time in six months, but is down 99.4 percent from a year ago.

They mostly came from Asia, with 3,000 from China, 2,700 from Vietnam, 1,400 from South Korea and 1,000 from Thailand. Most of them are thought to be foreign students and technical trainees who had been living in Japan before the coronavirus outbreak and reentered the country.

The biggest railway operator in Tokyo has announced it's going shorten its daily services, starting next spring.

East Japan Railway Company says it's bringing forward last train departures by up to 37 minutes on 17 lines, including the Yamanote loop line that links the capital's major transit hubs.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has expressed readiness for formal negotiations with Japan on its share of the cost of stationing US forces in the country.

Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United States and Japan held the first consultations last week for a new host nation agreement by which Japan will take on its share of the burden for their mutual security.

A car sharing group in northeastern Japan is offering a vehicle equipped with a navigation system that shares stories about the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the region.

The Japan Car Sharing Association is based in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture. After the coastal city was devastated by the disaster, it started providing services such as renting cars free of charge in areas hit by disasters.

A plane flew over coastal areas of eastern Hokkaido on Wednesday carrying 30 Japanese people who were praying for the souls of ancestors buried on Russian-controlled islands claimed by Japan.

The flight was arranged after the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of programs to allow trips to the islands without visas and to visit ancestors' graves there.

Japan's health ministry has suggested that many women in the country may have opted out of pregnancy due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The ministry says the number of pregnancies reported across the country from January to July fell 27,806, or more than 5 percent, from a year earlier, to 513,850.

Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide plans to explain his Cabinet's key policies in the extraordinary Diet session to be convened next Monday.

Suga told reporters in Indonesia on Wednesday that when he ran for president of Japan's main governing Liberal Democratic Party, he pledged to balance anti-coronavirus measures and economic recovery.

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, rescheduled for next year, have tested ways to carry out safety checks on spectators entering the venues of events.

About 1,000 participants in the three-day test conducted in Tokyo through Wednesday included private security firm personnel who will cover safety checks at the Games. This is the first such test since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide says he has agreed with the leaders of Vietnam and Indonesia to work together to build a peaceful and prosperous future in the Indo-Pacific region.

Suga spoke to reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday, at the end of his first overseas visit since taking office last month.

Japan and China are continuing talks to resume business trips between the two countries as early as October.

The Japanese government has gradually eased entry restrictions it had in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It has already resumed business travel with both South Korea and Singapore.

Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and President Joko Widodo have called for continued cooperation on matters including health, security and the economy.

After the summit meeting, the leaders held a news conference.

An old sake brewer just north of Tokyo has begun preparations for its first brew of the sake season.

The brewery, Igarashi Syuzo, was established in the city of Hanno, Saitama Prefecture in 1897. On Tuesday, workers steamed rice grown especially to make sake. After letting it cool on a machine, they put it in a tank and slowly stirred it using a three-meter-long stick.