Japanese conglomerate Hitachi has announced it will start making face shields for healthcare workers who are on the frontlines of the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
Hitachi plans to start producing face shields at three of its domestic production sites in Ibaraki Prefecture and Aichi Prefecture in mid-May, aiming to make about 10,000 pieces weekly by June.
Japanese police say 11 people who died over the past month have posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus.
The development is raising concerns the true number of cases could be higher than what is being reported.
An estimate by a Japanese government panel suggests that tsunami could overwhelm a new seawall at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, if a mega-quake occurs in a deep-sea trench off northeastern Japan.
The panel of experts on Tuesday released its projection of the scale of tsunami that could be triggered by a massive quake along the Japan Trench.
Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is seeking more cooperation from the public to avoid close contact with others to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Abe spoke to reporters on Tuesday, two weeks after he declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and six prefectures. The state of emergency was later expanded to cover the entire nation.
A member of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in the Middle East has tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force has a destroyer and a patrol aircraft unit conducting anti-piracy operations off Somalia. In addition, it has about a dozen contact personnel working at a command center of a US-led international coalition in Bahrain.
The International Olympic Committee has hinted that it will ask Japan to bear most of the additional costs related to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Games have been rescheduled to begin on July 23 next year. They were originally scheduled for this summer. The postponement is thought likely to add several billion dollars to the final bill for hosting the Olympics.
Japan's Defense Ministry filed an application with Okinawa Prefecture on Tuesday to alter a construction plan for the relocation of a US base within the prefecture. The revised plan would include work to strengthen the soft foundation of reclaimed land. The prefecture is expected to reject the request.
The central government wants to move the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City to the less-populated Henoko district in Nago City.
Police in Fukuoka Prefecture, western Japan, say a man armed with a knife holed up inside a restaurant in Fukuoka City on Tuesday morning and is holding two girls hostage.
They say the girls are aged three and six and are the children of the restaurant's owner. They also say the hostage-taker is a former employee of the store.
Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to mark the start of its spring festival.
Abe sent a potted plant to the shrine on Tuesday under his title of prime minister.
Japan's health ministry says more than 11 percent of those in their 80s or older with coronavirus infection have died.
The ministry said the number of people with confirmed infections in Japan stood at over 10,600 as of 6 p.m. Sunday.
Japan's health authorities reported 25 coronavirus-related deaths on Monday, the highest daily death toll so far.
A total of 276 people have died in Japan, including 13 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama in February.
Outings in major cities across Japan declined on the first Sunday since the government expanded the state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic to cover the entire nation. But the decrease differed from area to area.
Cell phone carrier NTT Docomo released data from its base stations without identifying the users.
Japan's government is to expand an extra budget by more than 80 billion dollars to fund cash handouts to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus.
The government will now submit the supplementary budget worth more than 230 billion dollars for the fiscal year that began on April 1 to fund an emergency economic package worth about 1.1 trillion dollars.
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has started selling a coronavirus testing kit for use by companies and organizations in Tokyo and the four neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Ibaraki.
The firm says the kit, launched on Monday, is being offered as a "risk assessment option to those who show no specific symptoms but are concerned about the spread of the virus."