The head of the Japan Football Association says the coach of Japan's national team may stay in his post after the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Moriyasu Hajime's current contract expires at the end of the tournament.

JFA President Tashima Kohzo spoke to reporters in Doha on Saturday after Japan secured a spot in the knockout stage for the second consecutive tournament. The Samurai Blue squad beat former champions Germany and Spain in Group E.

Japanese officials plan to put China top of the list of what their country sees as regional security challenges when they revise the National Security Strategy by the end of the year.

The document outlines Japan's basic diplomatic and defense policies. It refers to countries that pose security challenges.

Sources say the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee may have been involved in alleged bid-rigging over the Games' test events.

They say the committee is suspected of having created in advance a list of advertising agencies and other firms that had previously carried out similar duties for each sports event.

The annual Sapporo Snow Festival scheduled for January and February is expected to forgo its usual displays of snow and ice sculptures, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sapporo Mayor Akimoto Katsuhiro told reporters on Thursday that city officials have judged it would be difficult to hold the event in the usual style.

Japan's health ministry will likely recommend that prefectural governments set criteria for hospitalizing coronavirus patients as part of efforts to ease the increasing burden on medical institutions.

As an example, the ministry referred to a system to be adopted by the Kanagawa prefectural government later this month. The prefecture had 13,125 confirmed cases as of Thursday, the third largest in the country following Tokyo and Osaka.

NHK has learned that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is expected to pay the largest portion of additional costs for next year's Olympics and Paralympics.

The extra spending is due to be shared by the metropolitan government, the central government, and the Games' organizing committee.

Japanese researchers have found that people with COVID-19 have antibodies for at least six months after becoming infected.

Yokohama City University and other institutions conducted a study of 376 people in their 20s to 70s who were infected with the coronavirus between February and May.

As the rush to battery-powered pickups grabs more headlines, Nissan is said to be interested in getting its slow-selling Titan full-size pickup in on the action. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company is exploring a partnership with EV startup Hercules that would have the nascent Detroit-based electric-pickup manufacturer supply electric powertrains for Nissan. Nissan, in return would provide unnamed truck components for Hercules' own Alpha pickup.

It has previously been reported that Nissan would trim the Titan model range, dropping unpopular variants such as the single-cab version and the diesel, as part of a company-wide initiative to cut costs. But full-size pickups generally are huge profit centers for their makers, and Nissan surely wants to keep the Titan viable. An electric Titan would join the thundering herd of upcoming battery-powered pickups such as the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford's Electric F-150, GM's Hummer EV, the Rivian R1T, the Lordstown Endurance, and Bollinger B2 among others.

Other than the Land Cruiser, Toyota's longest-running model is the Crown, a large rear-wheel-drive sedan that has been a mainstay on Japanese streets for 65 years. It has faithfully served as taxis, police cars, town cars, and something a Japanese grandfather would proudly own. However, a new report from a major Japanese newspaper, the Chunichi Shimbun, says Toyota will be killing it off next year.

The Crown was introduced in 1955, at a time when most Japanese citizens could not afford their own vehicles. Most cars were sold to taxi services, but their ubiquity made them a staple of city streets. It was even Toyota's first import to the U.S., sold here from 1957-71. Each successive generation grew more luxurious as Japan's economy boomed, and the model became synonymous with Toyota's decades-long dominance of the domestic market.

Japan's Imperial Household Agency is expected to cancel the New Year greetings by the imperial family due to the spread of the new coronavirus.

The imperial family greets the general public every year on January 2 and the Emperor's birthday.

Japan is considering easing the 14-day quarantine requirement for foreigners visiting Japan for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Officials from the Japanese government, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo organizing committee met at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.

NHK has learned that Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido is considering raising its alert for the coronavirus outbreak to Level 3 on Sunday.

The prefecture is expected to make a decision on Saturday.

NHK has learned that Tokyo officials estimate the number of coronavirus tests needed per day will be 7.5 times current capacity if the flu spreads in the capital.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government made the estimate at the request of the central government.

Japan's health ministry has suggested that many women in the country may have opted out of pregnancy due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The ministry says the number of pregnancies reported across the country from January to July fell 27,806, or more than 5 percent, from a year earlier, to 513,850.