The Japanese government has decided to step up measures against highly venomous fire ants by designating them as an invasive alien species that requires urgent action.
Government officials made the decision amid a rise in cases nationwide involving fire ants. They fear the species, indigenous to South America, are on the brink of becoming established in Japan.
Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide is facing criticism for dining out with more than five people despite the government's call to avoid such gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The opposition criticized Suga for dining at a steak restaurant in Tokyo with ruling Liberal Democratic Party officials Nikai Toshihiro and Hayashi Motoo and other celebrities.
People in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Okinawa have marked one year since a fire burned down a main hall and other buildings at Shuri Castle.
About 70 people took part in a fire extinguishing drill at the site on Saturday morning.
Fire department officials in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, say at least 11 people have been injured in an apparent explosion.
Police and fire personnel are investigating the site in Koriyama City, after being alerted by a passerby who heard a blast shortly before 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Saturday marks exactly one year since the deadly arson attack at a studio of Kyoto Animation in Kyoto, Japan.
The blaze on July 18 last year left 36 employees dead and 33 others injured. It was the worst mass-killing in Japan in about three decades.
Police in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, say they have found the bodies of four people at the site of a warehouse fire. They believe they are three firefighters and one police officer, who had been unaccounted for after rushing into the building shortly after the fire broke out.
Local firefighting authorities say that shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, they received a report from a security firm that the factory warehouse of a commodities manufacturer, LEC, was on fire in the town of Yoshida.
NHK has learned that a research team of archaeologists and volcanologists have found that Mount Fuji's Hoei eruption in 1707 burned a settlement near the crater.
Little was known about the settlement in the Subashiri district in Oyama Town, Shizuoka Prefecture other than what is written in old documents, as it was completely buried under about 3 meters of ashes, and new homes were built over it.
Authorities in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, say they have lost contact with three firefighters and a police officer who were dispatched to the site of a fire.
Police and firefighting authorities say they received a report from a security firm that a factory warehouse was on fire in the town of Yoshida early Sunday morning.
Experts have confirmed that more than 200 ants found at Aomi Pier on Tokyo Bay on Thursday are highly venomous fire ants.
The red imported fire ants were spotted at a container yard during a survey by Environment Ministry and other officials. The variety is native to South America.