The Japanese government plans to decide on Thursday whether a state of emergency can be lifted in regions where the coronavirus outbreak is easing.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo told the Diet on Monday that he will hear from experts on Thursday before announcing whether a partial easing is possible.

Japan's biggest business federation has drawn up guidelines aimed at reducing the risk of coronavirus infection in workplaces. They are intended for use by companies when resuming operations in full.

NHK has learned that the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, made two sets of guidelines -- one for office workers and the other for factory workers.

For fiscal 2019 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has posted its first operating loss in two decades. This is mainly due to a delay in the development of the first Japanese-made passenger jet.

The company reported a loss of 29.5 billion yen, or over 274 million dollars, from business activities for the fiscal year that ended in March. This came after the firm took a loss of about 2.42 billion dollars related to the Mitsubishi Spacejet project.

A major Japanese cell-phone carrier has found that trips between prefectures during the holiday period from the end of April to early May were significantly down from last year.

KDDI examined data from users' smartphones for the spring holiday period that ended on May 6. During this period, people were urged to stay home amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.

Businesses across Japan are slowly reopening even before the government makes its final decision on lifting a nationwide state of emergency.

More than half the country's prefectures are likely to ease restrictions put in place last month.

A Japanese health ministry survey says the country's 47 prefectures have only secured less than half the number of hospital beds they will need for coronavirus patients when the outbreak reaches its peak.

The survey says more than 31,000 beds will be needed for coronavirus patients at the peak of the outbreak, but fewer than 14,500 had been secured as of May 1.

Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo says clinical trials of a vaccine for the coronavirus are expected to begin in the country as early as July.

Abe made the disclosure at a Lower House Budget Committee session on Monday.

Artists and other celebrities in Japan were among millions of people who have been posting protests online against a government bill that could extend the retirement age of public prosecutors.

More than 3.8 million tweets were posted by Sunday afternoon with a hashtag that expresses opposition to the revision of the public prosecutor's office law.

Temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius were observed in wide areas in Japan on Monday. Hot weather is also forecast on Tuesday.

Daytime highs rose to 33.4 degrees in Kofu City, west of Tokyo, and Kiryu City, north of the capital.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government sources say 15 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed on Monday.

The total number of infections in Tokyo now stands at 4,883.

A major department store in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo, resumed most operations on Monday.

Apart from its food section, Takasaki Takashimaya in Takasaki City had been closed since April 18, one day after the central government expanded the state of emergency for the coronavirus outbreak to the entire country.

Japan has lodged a protest with China over Friday's chase of a Japanese fishing boat by two Chinese patrol boats that intruded into Japanese waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide says the government will strongly urge China to respond positively without undermining cooperation between the two countries over the coronavirus pandemic.

Some prefectures in Japan are resuming business as the government mulls lifting the state of emergency due to the coronavirus before the end of the month.

More than 30 prefectures are expected to have restrictions eased while Tokyo is likely to stay under the emergency declaration.

Japan's public health authorities will launch a new online system this week to improve information-sharing on people infected with the coronavirus.

The new system was developed by the health ministry to integrate data on infected people between the central and prefectural governments, and public health centers.