Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi have agreed to cooperate closely on a range of global issues including the coronavirus pandemic and climate change.
The pair spoke via telephone on Friday at the request of Japan. Suga started by congratulating Draghi on his inauguration last month.
A Japanese government panel has asked the parent company and operator of the Line messaging app to report on its management of people's personal data.
The panel on personal information protection made the request to Line and Z Holdings as required by law.
Japan's communications minister says his ministry will suspend its use of the messaging app Line, in the wake of revelations that the personal data of users in Japan may have been accessed by a Chinese firm.
Earlier this week, it came to light that engineers at the Chinese firm entrusted with the management of the Line system were able to access personal user information. That information includes the names and telephone numbers of users stored in Japan's server.
Informed sources say five organizations preparing for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics plan to hold talks on Saturday to decide whether to allow overseas spectators to the Games.
The five participants are: the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Tokyo Games organizing committee, the Japanese government, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The Japanese government has decided to lift its coronavirus state of emergency for the Tokyo area on Sunday.
Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide pledged to take thorough measures to contain the spread of infection. He says the current situation is not quite good enough.
A Japanese opposition lawmaker has questioned whether the government made the right decision to end the coronavirus state of emergency in the Tokyo area on Sunday.
Constitutional Democratic Party Executive Deputy Leader Renho was speaking at the Upper House budget committee on Friday.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it has confirmed 303 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday.
The average number of daily new cases over the seven-day period until Friday is 297, up 8.6 percent from the preceding week.
An elementary school in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, has held its final graduation ceremony at a temporary prefabricated building that was erected after the major quake and tsunami in 2011. The school will move to higher ground next month.
Forty-three sixth graders at Naruse-Oka Elementary School in Higashi Matsushima City were awarded diplomas on Friday. All the students recited a farewell message in unison.
Osaka Prefecture in western Japan plans to check the body temperatures of shinkansen bullet train passengers arriving from the Tokyo metropolitan area for about three weeks starting on Monday.
Osaka Governor Yoshimura Hirofumi announced the decision on Friday, one day after the government said that the state of emergency for Tokyo and three nearby prefectures will be ended on Sunday.
Japan's Justice Ministry is investigating 175 complaints of suspected human rights abuses that took place last year in relation to the coronavirus outbreak.
Ministry officials said the overall number of human rights abuse complaints they investigated last year hit a record low of 9,589, nearly 40 percent less than the previous year. Officials say anti-virus measures that resulted in less human contact may have contributed to the decrease.
The Japanese government may consider using a newly-instituted anti-coronavirus framework if it detects signs of a resurgence in infections after the ending of the state of emergency on Sunday.
The framework is part of a revised law on special anti-virus measures. It allows prefectural governments to take focused anti-infection approaches even if a state of emergency is not in place.
Tokyo has ordered the operators of 27 dining establishments to cut their business hours. This is Japan's first such directive issued under revised legislation for coronavirus special measures. Such a legally enforceable directive can be applied only under the state of emergency. The ongoing state of emergency expires on Sunday.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government imposed the order on the businesses on Thursday.
The Japanese government has decided to end a COVID-19 state of emergency for the Tokyo area as scheduled on Sunday. It began in January and was extended twice.
Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said, "The number of people who tested positive in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures was 4,277 on January 7. It was 725 on Wednesday. That's more than an 80 percent decrease. We've carefully examined the situation, including how the healthcare system is strained, and concluded that it meets the criterion for ending the state of emergency. Therefore, today we decided the declaration will be lifted."
The governors of Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures say they will ask residents to keep taking steps against coronavirus infections even after Sunday when the central government is to end the current state of emergency.
The four governors, Koike Yuriko of Tokyo, Kuroiwa Yuji of Kanagawa, Ono Motohiro of Saitama and Morita Kensaku of Chiba, held a video conference on Thursday.