Major league superstar Ohtani Shohei will make full use of his two-way talents on Team Japan in next year's World Baseball Classic, as his manager has said he will pick him both as a pitcher and a batter.

The Los Angeles Angel announced his intention to play in the tournament last month, and said he was looking forward to the opportunity to play in front of Japanese fans for the first time in over five years.

Japan's Reconstruction Minister Akiba Kenya has refused to step down from his Cabinet post amid calls from the opposition camp that he resign.

The Liberal Democrat has been mired in scandals over a possible election violation, political funds and alleged links to the controversial religious group formerly known as the Unification Church.

An event has been held to promote the rice harvest in a coastal area of the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture. This year's harvest was the first since the area was hit by the 2011 tsunami and the nearby nuclear accident.

An evacuation order for the town's coastal area was lifted 3 years ago, but the restoration of farm land took longer.

Weather officials in Japan warn of more heavy snow this weekend across many mountainous areas and the side of the country facing the Japan Sea.

The Meteorological Agency says a strong cold air mass and an atmospheric pressure pattern typical for the season have brought heavy snow to regions from Chugoku through to Hokkaido.

Weather officials in Japan warn of more heavy snow this weekend, mainly in mountainous areas of the Hokuriku and Kanto-Koshin regions.

A strong cold air mass brought record snowfall this week to mountainous areas in Niigata and neighboring Gunma prefectures. Blizzards left more than 2,000 vehicles stranded for many hours on an expressway.

Weather officials in Japan are warning of more heavy snow this weekend, mainly in coastal areas along the Sea of Japan.

A strong cold air mass brought a record snowfall of about 200 centimeters to mountainous areas in Niigata and neighboring Gunma prefectures from Tuesday to Thursday.

If you have been following social media, you might have noticed that one of the more popular games these days is indie hit Among Us. The game has been played by everyone, including some politicians who have used it to try and reach out to more people. The good news is that if you were looking for more ways of playing the game, you’ll be pleased to learn that it is launching on the Nintendo Switch.

For those who are unfamiliar, Among Us is a video game similar in concept to the Mafia game, where one or more players during a game will try to kill as many other players without getting caught. The goal for the other players is to try and figure out who the killer(s) might be and vote them off.

Japan's latest efforts to block the spread of the coronavirus are not going down well with the tourism industry. With cases on the rise, the government opted to temporarily halt a travel subsidy program nationwide for a period of two weeks around the New Year holiday.

The announcement caught many would-be tourists off guard. An online booking company says it's been caught in a deluge of inquiries -- with most deciding to cancel their trips outright.

A record 3,031 new cases of coronavirus infection had been confirmed in Japan by 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

It is the first time the daily tally has topped 3,000.

Health authorities in Japan reported a record 2,811 new cases of the coronavirus nationwide on Wednesday.

That is the highest daily tally so far in the country, surpassing the previous record of 2,678 confirmed on November 28.

Health authorities in Japan reported a record 2,796 new cases of coronavirus nationwide on Wednesday.

That is the highest daily tally so far in the country, surpassing the previous record of 2,678 confirmed on November 28.

Japan's healthcare system is threatening to buckle under the weight of spiking coronavirus cases. Medical teams from the Self-Defense Forces have begun assisting frontline workers at two facilities in the country's north hit with cluster infections.

Five SDF nurses will engage in the mission for two weeks at a hospital where nearly 200 people were confirmed to be infected.

Japan Self-Defense Force medical teams are in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido to help with large clusters of coronavirus infections.

Ground Self-Defense Force personnel started working Wednesday at Keiyu-kai Yoshida Hospital and Hokkaido Ryoikuen, a facility for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.

Japan's Environment Ministry says the country's greenhouse gas emissions for the fiscal year that ended in March hit a record low.

The ministry's preliminary figures show Japan's domestic emissions in fiscal 2019 amounted to a carbon dioxide equivalent of 1.213 billion tons. That's down 34 million tons, or 2.7 percent, from the previous year and is the sixth straight annual decline.