Tokyo has lowered its coronavirus alert level by one notch in response to a weekly fall in new cases, after keeping the alert at its highest level on a four-point scale for nearly two months.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government made the decision on Thursday at a meeting with public health and infectious disease experts to assess the situation.
A large typhoon is moving over the country's Southwest, skirting the southern main island of Kyushu. Weather officials are calling on people to stay on alert.
Officials say that as of 9 a.m. on Monday, Typhoon Haishen was 110 kilometers north of Tsushima City in Nagasaki Prefecture. They say it was moving north at 40 kilometers per hour.
A powerful typhoon, possibly the strongest in decades, is battering Japan's southwest.
Typhoon Haishen is expected to draw very close to the southern main island of Kyushu through Monday morning. Authorities are calling on people to stay on the highest alert and evacuate promptly if advised to do so.
Japan's Meteorological Agency says a powerful typhoon that's on course to hit the southwest of the country could make landfall at close to full strength. Typhoon Haishen is forecast to hit the island of Kyushu on Sunday or Monday.
Weather officials are urging people to take shelter in a safe place before the typhoon lands.
Japan's Meteorological Agency says a powerful typhoon could make landfall in the southwestern island of Kyushu at close to full strength on Sunday or Monday.
Weather officials are urging people to take shelter in a safe place before Typhoon Haishen approaches.
Japanese weather officials are warning of two typhoons, with one of them already affecting mainly the country's southwest, while the other is expected to approach in a few days.
The Meteorological Agency says Typhoon Maysak is traveling northward near the Korean Peninsula.
A powerful typhoon is forecast to move closer to Japan's southern prefecture of Okinawa on Tuesday. The weather system known as Maysak is projected to develop maximum wind gusts of more than 250 kilometers per hour. Stormy weather reached Okinawa on Monday afternoon, with strong winds and heavy rain hitting the region.
A Meteorological Agency official said, "There are expected to be violent winds over a long period, with Okinawa projected to be lashed by the storm for most of a 24-hour period."
Japan's Meteorological Agency has apologized for a false earthquake alert issued for a wide area of eastern Japan on Thursday, blaming it on a technical glitch.
At around 9:38 a.m., the agency issued the alert for a strong earthquake that would hit Tokyo and its surrounding regions of Kanto, Koshin-etsu and Tokai, as well as Fukushima Prefecture, with an expected intensity of 4 to 5-plus on a scale of 0 to 7. It was said to be centered in the Pacific Ocean, south of the Boso Peninsula, near Tokyo.
Japanese weather officials are urging people in Yamagata Prefecture to ensure their safety after torrential rain caused the Mogami River to overflow.
The Meteorological Agency says unstable atmospheric conditions brought record-level rainfall to parts of the prefecture on Tuesday.
Tokyo has been put on the highest level of alert for the coronavirus after a string of triple-digit new daily cases. Officials are urging people to take precautionary measures.
Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko said, "We decided that we need to raise the alert level to warn residents that infection is spreading."
Heavy rain continues to fall intermittently in Gifu and Nagano Prefectures, central Japan, and in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan. The earth had been loosened and dikes had been damaged in some areas, raising the risks of further floods and mudslides.
Weather officials say an active rain front and a low pressure system extending over the Sea of Japan are destabilizing atmospheric conditions from western Japan to the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan and causing rain clouds to develop.
Officials in the city of Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, say they are unable to contact 40 people. Family and friends haven't been able to reach them. Torrential downpours have caused widespread flooding and landslides in various parts of the country. More than 60 people are dead and 16 officially missing.
The southwestern island of Kyushu has borne the brunt of the damage.
Japanese weather officials are warning of a wet and potentially dangerous weekend ahead for many parts of the country. Torrential downpours have caused widespread flooding and landslides. More than 60 people are dead, and over a dozen are missing.
The southwestern island of Kyushu has borne the brunt of the damage.
Weather officials are urging people in the Kyushu region, southwestern Japan, to be on high alert for floods and landslides, as heavy rain continues.
Localized downpours are drenching Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, after record rainfalls wreaked havoc in neighboring Kumamoto Prefecture over the weekend. Kumamoto continued to see torrential rain on Monday morning.