Tennis star Osaka Naomi will return to the Western & Southern Open on Friday, reversing her decision to withdraw from the tournament in protest of the recent police shooting of a black man in the US state of Wisconsin.

The tournament's organizer said Osaka decided to take part in the event again at the request of the Women's Tennis Association and the US Tennis Association. It says she determined that she could more strongly express her protest if she returns to the court.

A Japanese government-backed body evaluating product safety is warning of accidents caused by camping gear. The warning comes at a time when an increasing number of people enjoy camping style cooking at home to avoid infections from the coronavirus.

The National Institute of Technology and Evaluation, or NITE, says 183 fire and other accidents have been caused by camping equipment during the five years through March this year. The accidents left seven people dead.

The Western & Southern Open will resume on Friday. Tennis star Osaka Naomi will play in the semifinal after having previously withdrawn from the tournament in protest of police violence.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government says it confirmed 250 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Thursday.

Officials say this is a preliminary figure as of 3 p.m.

The Japanese government is urging its nationals to avoid all travel to an additional 13 countries as part of measures against the coronavirus pandemic.

The countries were added to the Level 3 Travel Advice and Warning list on Wednesday. The list had already included 146 countries and areas.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government says it confirmed 250 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Thursday.

Officials say this is a preliminary figure as of 3 p.m.

The government of Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward has started classifying restaurants and bars in terms of their preventive measures against the coronavirus.

The ward provides two types of stickers, Class I or Class II, for businesses to display and lists their names on its website.

Tennis champion Osaka Naomi has pulled out of a tournament in the United States as protests spread across the country over the police shooting of a black man.

Osaka was scheduled to play in a semifinal on Thursday at the Western and Southern Open in New York.

Tennis star Osaka Naomi is pulling out of her semifinal match at the Western and Southern Open to bring attention to the ongoing racially motivated protests in the United States.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is making arrangements to hold a news conference at the prime minister's office on Friday. He is expected to mention his health, as he has recently undergone medical checks.

This will be Abe's first news conference since the one he gave in Nagasaki City on August 9. It will also be the first one at the prime minister's office since June 18. That was one day after the end of the ordinary Diet session.

An iconic tomcat that serves as the "lord" of an ancient castle in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan, is trying to fulfill his duty of greeting tourists in the intense heat.

Bicchu Matsuyama Castle is located in the city of Takahashi, which had a daytime high of 37.1 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. Temperatures in the city topped 35 degrees for 18 days in a row.

A teenager has been arrested after two people were shot dead during protests in the US state of Wisconsin over the police shooting of a black man.

Protests have been continuing after Jacob Blake was critically injured when he was shot in the back seven times at close range on Sunday in the city of Kenosha.

NHK has learned that the Japanese government has been having trouble collecting data on people infected with the coronavirus through a new information-sharing system.

The central government has been asking local governments to introduce the Health Center Real-time Information-sharing System on COVID-19, or HER-SYS, since May.

Even if it doesn't feel like it, winter is coming -- and with it, fears of another wave of the coronavirus on top of the seasonal influenza. Japanese health officials plan to call on elderly people -- who are most prone to becoming seriously ill -- to get a flu vaccine before a potential shortage makes it difficult.

The health ministry estimates flu vaccines will be supplied from October enough to cover about 63 million people -- half of the country's population.