The Japanese government plans to make a coronavirus contact-tracing app available by the end of this month.

The app records the data of smartphones that come within a certain distance of each other. People will then be alerted if they have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with the virus.

The number of coronavirus cases reported in Japan in one day has fallen below 100 for the first time since the state of emergency was declared on April 7.

The government says it may lift the measure in some prefectures around May 14.

Japan is giving its medical workers another weapon to fight Covid-19. The health ministry has taken a new step by approving an antiviral drug as a treatment.

Japan gave fast-track approval to remdesivir.

Japan's health ministry appears set to approve antiviral drug remdesivir as a treatment for new coronavirus patients.

The fast-track approval follows in the footsteps of the United States, which authorized last Friday the emergency use of the drug to treat coronavirus patients.

Japan's health ministry says about 2,000 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus have been isolating at home.

A ministry survey shows that of the 8,711 people who had tested positive by April 28, 1,984 were recuperating at home.

Japan reported 176 new coronavirus cases and 20 deaths on Monday.

The country's total number of cases is now 15,253. The tally includes people tested at airport quarantine stations, health ministry officials, quarantine officers and individuals who returned to Japan from China on government-chartered planes. It also includes infections among the crew of the Costa Atlantica cruise ship docked in Nagasaki, western Japan.

Nissan will pull back from Europe and elsewhere to focus on the United States, China and Japan under a plan that represents a new strategic direction for the embattled carmaker, people with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.

The "operational performance plan" is due to be announced on May 28 and goes beyond fixing problems from ousted leader Carlos Ghosn's aggressive expansion drive, the people said.

Japan has decided to extend the nationwide state of emergency until the end of May. It was originally set to expire on Wednesday.

The government's coronavirus task force made the decision on Monday.

Japan is set to extend its nationwide state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic by nearly a month until the end of May. It was originally set to expire on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo met his ministers in charge of the crisis and health issues on Sunday.

The Japanese government is set to extend its nationwide state of emergency for the coronavirus outbreak by nearly a month until May 31.

The government will ask an advisory expert panel for its opinion on the extension schedule on Monday. It will then inform the Diet of the plan before finalizing it at a taskforce meeting later in the day.

Dozens of Indonesian crewmembers of a cruise ship stricken with the coronavirus have left Japan for their home country after testing negative for the virus.

On Sunday, 44 Indonesians disembarked from the Costa Atlantica now moored at a shipyard in Japan's western prefecture of Nagasaki. They later boarded a plane bound for the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is set to extend the nationwide state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak by nearly a month until the end of May.

Abe received updates on the domestic situation in a meeting on Sunday from health minister Kato Katsunobu and Nishimura Yasutoshi, minister in charge of coronavirus response.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Japan increased to 15,077 on Sunday as 200 new cases were announced nationwide.

The tally includes people tested at airport quarantine stations, health ministry officials, quarantine officers and individuals who returned to Japan from China on government-chartered planes. It also includes infections among the crew of the Costa Atlantica cruise ship docked in Nagasaki, western Japan.

Health minister Kato Katsunobu says Japan aims to approve remdesivir, the antiviral drug that may be used to treat coronavirus, in about one week after receiving an application from the pharmaceutical company.

The ministry would aim for swift approval through special, highly-simplified procedures only available for drugs in urgent need that have already been approved in other countries.