NHK has learned that a Japanese national, who is believed to have been a "volunteer fighter" with the Ukrainian forces, has died in Ukraine.
Sources close to the Japanese government say that a man in his 20s died in Ukraine on Wednesday. Details, such as where he died, are unclear.
Japan's top medical advisor says the country is now entering another wave of the coronavirus. Officials are preparing to respond to the latest surge.
The government's COVID advisory panel chief Omi Shigeru met with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Thursday. He told Kishida that cases are climbing across the country.
The daily count of new cases of the coronavirus remains high in Hokkaido, topping the figures for the 46 other prefectures in Japan for the third day in a row.
The health ministry reported 8,457 new infections in the northernmost prefecture on Thursday. The figure is up 1,153 from a week earlier.
The Japanese government has decided on a policy to allow each prefectural government to declare stepped-up coronavirus measures, if the number of the daily new cases reaches at least the same level as this summer's seventh wave. The policy decision is in preparation for an expected eighth wave of infections nationwide.
Daily new infections topped 200,000 in the seventh wave and were much higher than those in previous waves.
A Japanese think tank has forecast a total of about 770,000 births in the country for this year. The figure would fall below 800,000 for the first time since record-keeping began more than 120 years ago.
The Japan Research Institute based the projection on the number of births that the health ministry has released for the first 8 months of 2022.
Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has expressed intent to help businesses in the ASEAN member nations to raise funds needed for achieving carbon neutrality.
Kishida was speaking on Thursday in a video message to a conference in Cambodia of economic leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will hold bilateral summit talks with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of international meetings in Southeast Asia.
Kishida is scheduled to leave Japan on Friday for a tour of Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand.
An international environmental NGO has given Japan its satirical "Fossil of the Day" award at the venue of the COP27 climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Climate Action Network presents the award every day during the meeting to countries it says are "doing the most to achieve the least" to curb global warming.
A Japanese railway operator is about to make crossing its train lines safer with a new security system that uses AI and 3D imaging.
Seibu Railway, which operates in the Tokyo area, will begin using the new system next Monday.
A railway operator in western Japan is adopting the latest in digital technology to make the cleanup of its station washrooms more efficient.
West Japan Railway developed a system with a Tokyo-based tech firm. It features toilet paper and soap dispensers embedded with sensors that tell cleaners when refills are needed.
Japan's education and culture minister Nagaoka Keiko is expected to announce on Friday that the government will exercise the right to question a religious group previously known as the Unification Church. The group is accused of soliciting large donations from followers and conducting dubious marketing practices known as spiritual sales.
On Tuesday, the ministry's expert panel approved criteria for exercising the right to ask questions.
The daily count of new coronavirus cases in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido has hit a new high of 9,545.
Hokkaido's tally for Wednesday is up 1,650 from a week ago, exceeding 9,000 for a second straight day. The prefecture reported 22 new deaths, another single-day high.
Tokyo prosecutors have brought a fourth indictment against a former executive of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee for accepting bribes.
Takahashi Haruyuki was arrested for the fourth time in October.
It's still early November but Japan's food manufacturers are gearing up for the year-end holidays. One firm in the north of the country has begun shipping the traditional rice cakes that are the centerpiece of many families' New Year decorations.
A truck loaded with 770 kilograms of "kagami mochi" rice cakes left a factory in Niigata Prefecture, Japan's most prolific rice-producing region.