Japan's Coast Guard has started testing an unmanned aircraft on Thursday to learn whether it can carry out key duties, including search and rescue and maritime surveillance.

US defense firm General Atomics developed the 12-meter-long drone, called the SeaGuardian. It has a wingspan of 24 meters.

Japan's newly appointed ambassador to China has suggested that Japan and China should move on from their current unstable relationship and build more steady ties through high-level communications.

Tarumi Hideo, known as one of the top China experts in the Japanese foreign ministry, spoke in an exclusive interview with NHK before he leaves for his position in Beijing next month.

Hasuike Kaoru, who spent more than two decades in North Korea after being abducted, told NHK in an interview that the Japanese government should carefully analyze the circumstances surrounding Pyongyang and engage in strategic negotiations with the North.

Hasuike and his then girlfriend, now his wife, were taken from Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast by North Korean agents in 1978.

The Japan Coast Guard is beginning test flights of an unmanned aerial vehicle to learn whether it can be utilized to carry out the coast guard's key duties, including search and rescue and maritime surveillance.

The flights, which will take place starting Thursday, are to be conducted off the coast of Sanriku in northeastern Japan, as well as along the coasts of the Sea of Japan.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to launch a program that will help elderly people to receive necessary care if their close family members test positive for the coronavirus.

After their family members get infected with the virus, elderly people are regarded as a close contact to the infected and become isolated with no one around to support them at home. There are also cases in which a family member infected with the virus often has to stay home to continue to provide care for the elderly.

Officials of Kanagawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo, are planning to conduct an experiment at a baseball stadium to see how their coronavirus measures will work when the number of spectators exceeds the limit currently set by the central government.

The number of spectators at venues that can accommodate more than 10,000 people is now capped at 50 percent of capacity. Those venues include soccer and baseball stadiums.

The National Ainu Museum and Park in Shiraoi Town in Hokkaido has observed a traditional ceremony to pay tribute to the ancestors of the indigenous Ainu people.

The area, called Upopoy, is designed to serve as a base for promoting the Ainu culture. It is a symbolic space for ethnic coexistence.

A survey of schools in Japan shows that more than 10 percent of them had students who were absent to prevent coronavirus infection.

The Japan Teachers' Union issued a report on the survey conducted between late August and mid-September -- the period just after summer break. A total of 1,152 schools from elementary to senior high as well as those for special needs responded.

A group of scholars opposed to Japan's 2016 security legislation has issued a statement demanding to know why Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide refused to appoint six new members to the Science Council of Japan.

The group's founders include the six scholars who were recommended for membership in the council, Japan's leading academic body, but rejected by Suga.

Japan's main governing Liberal Democratic Party has begun debate on how the Science Council of Japan, the country's top academic body, should be organized.

A working group of the LDP met on Wednesday to discuss Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide's refusal to appoint six new members to the council. The six candidates were among those recommended by the body for membership.

NHK has learned that Japan's Foreign Ministry is considering lowering the travel alert that has been issued for the entire world due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The ministry raised the alert to Level 2, the third-highest on a scale of 1 to 4, in March for the whole world and asked people to avoid nonessential travels.

The Japanese government has lodged a protest over two Chinese patrol ships that navigated in Japan's territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands for more than two days. It's the longest intrusion into the waters in eight years.

Coast guard officials say the Chinese vessels entered the waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Sunday morning. They left the waters on Tuesday evening, more than 57 hours later.

Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide plans to visit Vietnam and Indonesia next week on his first trip abroad since assuming his post.

Government officials are arranging for Suga to meet Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Indonesian President Joko Widodo during his four-day trip, starting on Sunday.

Japan's tourism minister has announced that the government will allocate additional funds to its tourism campaign, aimed at boosting the pandemic-hit economy.

The move comes after some travel websites became unable to give a promised level of discounts.