The season's most powerful cold air mass over Japan is bringing heavy snow to areas on the Sea of Japan coast from Hokkaido in the north and to the Chugoku region in the southwest. Weather officials are calling for caution against avalanches, icy roads, and traffic disruptions.

Snowfall in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning was 128 centimeters in Minakami Town in Gunma Prefecture, and 113 centimeters in Yuzawa Town in Niigata Prefecture -- both the heaviest 24-hour snowfalls on record.

A bus service has been launched to transport international travelers from Haneda and Narita airports directly to hotels in Tokyo, as part of an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The Airport Transport Service started offering the direct bus routes on Wednesday. It is providing three trips a day from the airports to 12 hotels in Tokyo. Travelers who will stay at the hotels are eligible to use the service. Advance booking is required. Fares cost about 39 dollars from Narita and about 14 dollars from Haneda.

Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft plans to slash staff as work to develop the country's first domestically-produced passenger jet grinds to a halt.

Sources say the company will cut its workforce by about 95 percent year-on-year from next April, to a bare minimum of roughly 150.

Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft plans to slash staff as work to develop the country's first domestically-produced passenger jet grinds to a halt.

Sources say the company will cut its workforce by about 95 percent year-on-year from next April, to a bare minimum of roughly 150.

Japan and Uzbekistan have agreed to work closely together to promote the open and stable development of Central Asia.

Japan's Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister Sardor Umurzakov met for about an hour in Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss ways to strengthen relations.

Public viewing events for next year's Olympics and Paralympics will be scaled back to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to strengthen disinfection and other health measures at venues where people can view sports and experience the Tokyo Games.

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.

Scientists at Japan's space agency say the Hayabusa2 probe has achieved perfect success in its mission, the goal of which was to bring back samples from a distant asteroid.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, held an online news conference on Tuesday.

A Japanese court has sentenced a 30-year-old man to death for killing nine people at his apartment.

The remains of eight women and one man, aged 15 to 26, were found at an apartment in the city of Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, in October 2017.

Foreign media outlets such as the BBC and the Washington Post have reported on the sentencing of the man who killed nine people at his apartment near Tokyo.

The BBC reported that the "Twitter killer" has been sentenced to death.

A court in Tokyo has sentenced a 30-year-old man to death for killing nine people at his apartment in 2017.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials confirmed 460 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Tuesday.

The total number of people who have tested positive in Tokyo now stands at 47,990.

A medical center in Osaka Prefecture dedicated to treating seriously-ill COVID-19 cases began receiving patients on Tuesday.

The facility in Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka City opened with limited capacity as it has been struggling to hire enough nurses.

NHK has learned the details of the Japanese government's extra spending package. The third supplementary-budget draft is aimed in part at tackling the coronavirus pandemic. It's worth more than 19 trillion yen, or 184 billion dollars, and covers the current fiscal year that ends March 31.

The government plans to finalize the draft on Tuesday.