NHK has learned that the University of Tokyo has erased the audio recording of a meeting that shortlisted candidates to become the university's next president.
The university chose its next president on Friday, as the term of the current president expires next March.
Four opposition parties in Japan are urging the government to explain in the Diet why it did not appoint six scholars as members of the Science Council of Japan.
The Diet affairs chiefs of the four parties met on Monday to discuss the issue. The parties are the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Democratic Party for the People and the Social Democratic Party.
The Japanese government has lodged a protest against China's new digital "museum" that underscores Beijing's claims to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu told reporters on Monday that Japan filed the protest with China via diplomatic channels, calling for the website to be deleted.
A karate championship was held in Tokyo with new guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In June, the Japan Karatedo Federation called on karate athletes to refrain from uttering kiai shouts at tournaments in order to prevent infections through the spread of droplets.
The mother of a Japanese woman who was abducted by North Korea 43 years ago is celebrating her daughter's birthday, wishing for her return.
Yokota Megumi was snatched in 1977 on her way home from junior high school. She was 13 years old.
A famous Buddhist temple in Japan's western city of Kyoto drew crowds of tourists on the first weekend since the government's domestic tourism incentive campaign started including Tokyo residents earlier this month.
Visitors to Kiyomizu-dera and nearby places included sightseers from Tokyo.
A character representing dreams and hope from the disaster-hit city of Rikuzentakata in northeastern Japan has won an annual contest to decide the country's most popular local mascot.
Local authorities, companies and other organizations create mascots to promote their communities and activities. Such mascots, called "Yuru-Chara," usually feature cute, yet unsophisticated designs.
Five professional wrestlers put on a show in a two-car train in northern Japan on Saturday.
Passengers cheered as the wrestlers ran around the train, jumping from seats to take down their opponents.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 108 new cases of the coronavirus in the Japanese capital on Sunday.
The preliminary figure as of 3 p.m. brings the total number of confirmed cases in Tokyo to 26,484.
Paris-based fashion designer Takada Kenzo, founder of the global brand KENZO, has died after contracting the coronavirus. He was 81.
His office in Japan says Takada has been in hospital near Paris since he was infected in mid-September. It says his condition deteriorated earlier this month and died at around 4 p.m. on Sunday, French time.
Japan is expected to agree with South Korea to start allowing people to travel between the two countries for business purposes as early as this week.
The Japanese government is gradually easing entry restrictions that have been put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Crowds of visitors flocked to Ise Shrine in central Japan on the first Sunday since trips to and from Tokyo were added to the government's nationwide "Go To" campaign to encourage tourism.
The program offers heavy subsidies to tourists to help revive the pandemic-hit economy.
About 200 victims of sexual crimes and their supporters gathered in central Tokyo to call on a lawmaker to resign and retract her claim that women can tell lies about sexual assaults.
Sugita Mio, a Liberal Democratic Party member of the Lower House, said at a meeting of party lawmakers last month that "women can tell lies as much as they want."
Rice was harvested in the coastal areas of Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Rice farming resumed in the town's inland areas after the evacuation order following the nuclear accident was lifted three years ago, but it only partially resumed this year in the coastal area where fields were hit by the tsunami and needed to be restored.