The mid-summer holidays in Japan are a time when many people visit their hometowns and family. Ahead of the "bon" holidays next week, the government plans to set guidelines to prevent travelers from spreading the coronavirus.

Some local leaders are worried that people living in city areas may spread the virus when they visit their smaller locales for family reunions.

The Japanese government will allow the reentry of some foreign nationals with residence status, starting on August 5.

Japan currently denies entry of foreigners from 146 countries and regions as part of anti-coronavirus measures. Foreign residents are also barred from reentering Japan once they leave the country, unless there are special circumstances.

Seoul has again asked the World Trade Organization to establish a dispute settlement panel over Japan's tightened export controls of industrial materials to South Korea. The WTO is expected to approve the request.

In July last year, Japan tightened export controls for three materials used to make high-tech products such as semiconductors.

The Japanese government's new panel of experts plans to meet for the first time on Wednesday to assess the effectiveness of the government's coronavirus measures.

Japan has confirmed around 100 new coronavirus cases over the past few days.

An internal email trail reportedly supports former boss Carlos Ghosn's claim that Nissan orchestrated his ouster. The leaked emails have been corroborated by sources familiar with their contents, Bloomberg reports. 

Emails going back to February 2018, a year before his arrest, allegedly describe a deliberate and multi-pronged effort — a "methodical campaign," Bloomberg said — to remove Ghosn from the company and in so doing, put Nissan in position to negotiate a more favorable relationship with alliance partner Renault. 

Japan's central government looks set to continue implementing its plan to relocate a US base within the southwestern prefecture of Okinawa.

Sunday's Okinawa prefectural assembly election gave a small majority to parties supporting Governor Tamaki Denny.

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.

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.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo says his government plans to make a formal decision on Monday about extending a nationwide state of emergency for about a month. The current state of emergency expires on May 6.

Abe spoke to reporters on Friday evening after being briefed on a meeting of a panel of experts advising the government.

THE ORAL CIGARETTES' new album "SUCK MY WORLD" will drop on April 29. To coincide with this release, the band will be setting out on a Zepp tour this summer. 

For the upcoming tour, the band is scheduled to perform at Zepp Nagoya, Zepp DiverCity, Zepp Osaka Bayside, Zepp Fukuoka, and Zepp Sapporo in August and September. You can check out the schedule below.

The Japanese government is set to announce emergency economic measures on Tuesday to deal with the impact of the coronavirus. The package is worth about one trillion dollars. Tokyo plans to issue additional bonds to help fund the spending.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has said that the scale of the stimulus will be unprecedented equivalent to about one-fifth of Japan's gross domestic product.

The head of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee says he hopes to set new dates for the postponed events by the end of next week.

The committee has been working to finalize schedules and secure venues for the Games since they were postponed from this summer in the face of the coronavirus. It wants to hold them by the summer of 2021 at the latest.

The Japanese government will set up a coronavirus task force based on new legislation to deal with the outbreak.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday. The Japanese Cabinet has decided to set up the task force later in the day.

Japan's education ministry plans to draw up guidelines to provide educational opportunities for all foreign children living in Japan.

Last September, the ministry surveyed over 124,000 foreign children aged between 6 and 14 who are currently registered in local residence records.