An NHK survey shows that about two-thirds of corporate sponsors of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics have not decided whether to extend their contracts with the Organizing Committee beyond December, following the Games' postponement to 2021.
NHK conducted a survey of 78 Olympic and Paralympic sponsor companies in May, and 57 of them responded.
The Japanese labor ministry says non-regular workers account for about 60 percent of people who have recently lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The ministry says 4,210 people were let go or had their contracts terminated, or were expected to lose their jobs in the week through last Friday.
Reducing the weight of a car is one of the most overlooked ways to improve performance.
Honda has refreshed the Civic Type R for the 2020MY with updated looks, a retuned chassis and new features, so have they done a good job?
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a sub-culture of car modifying that typically saw owners of cheap Japanese cars outfit them with outlandish bodykits, wacky paint jobs, and bespoke interiors.
Japan's health ministry says about 2,000 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus have been isolating at home.
A ministry survey shows that of the 8,711 people who had tested positive by April 28, 1,984 were recuperating at home.
The Japanese government is considering extending a nationwide state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic by about a month. The declaration is currently scheduled to be in place until next Wednesday.
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Wednesday that the question remains whether it will be possible to say on May 6 that the state of emergency is over. He said that prospect still appears unlikely, noting that cases of infection continue to rise.
NHK's experts answer various questions from people about the new coronavirus.
Q: What is the coronavirus?
Japan's health ministry says about 500 passengers are expected to disembark on Wednesday from a cruise ship that has been quarantined at Yokohama, near Tokyo, because of an onboard outbreak of the new coronavirus.
The ministry says passengers who have tested negative for the virus and show no symptoms will start leaving the Diamond Princess on Wednesday following a 14-day quarantine period.
A film about Japanese people abducted by North Korea and the abductees' family members is set to be produced.
The film will deal with the abductees who have not returned to Japan. Megumi Yokota is one. She was abducted when she was a junior high school student.
Japan's Health Ministry says around 60 new cases of coronavirus infection have been identified on a cruise ship in Yokohama. That nearly doubles the total number of cases discovered on the vessel to around 130.
A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official says about 300 Japanese nationals in China are waiting to return home, and the number could rise.
A total of 416 people returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan on two government-chartered flights on Wednesday and Thursday.
Japanese investigators say an arrested former employee of Tokyo-based telecommunications giant SoftBank Corporation admitted he received personal benefits from a Russian official.
Forty-eight-year-old Yutaka Araki allegedly accessed the company's confidential information on a corporate server in February last year. He was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of violating a law aimed at preventing unfair competition.
The Japanese government says the amount it has spent directly related to running the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has so far reached 277.7 billion yen, or about 2.5 billion dollars.
The figure is for the period starting in fiscal 2013, when Tokyo was selected as the host city, until fiscal 2020 beginning in April.