Traffic was thin at major transportation hubs and highways throughout Japan at the start of the country's week-long spring holiday on Wednesday. This comes amid a government request for people to refrain from traveling due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Japan Railway group companies say less than 10 percent of non-reserved seats on Shinkansen bullet trains were occupied.
Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan has launched its own anti-coronavirus measures targeting people coming from other prefectures.
Local officials on Saturday began checking temperatures of visitors at seven locations, including a key train station, an airport and a parking area near the border with Miyagi Prefecture.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is calling on people to stay at home from Saturday through May 6 to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The authorities designated the 12-day period, which includes Japan's "Golden Week" spring holidays, as "stay-home week."
A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer has begun its mission in the Middle East.
The Takanami left Japan on February 2. On Wednesday, it began intelligence-gathering operations to protect Japan-linked ships sailing through the Gulf of Oman and the northern part of the Arabian Sea.
Work has begun to rebuild Okinawa's Shuri Castle after a fire destroyed its main structures last year.
The World Heritage-listed site in the city of Naha was mostly destroyed in a massive fire in October.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has started work to improve water quality at a venue of this year's Olympic and Paralympic Games after higher-than-acceptable levels of E. coli bacteria were detected there last year.
Odaiba Marine Park is the intended venue for the swimming leg of the triathlon for the Tokyo Games.
A patrol plane unit from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force has begun its intelligence-gathering mission in the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.
The unit has two P-3C aircraft, flying from the East African nation of Djibouti to the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday.
The Defense Ministry has launched an environmental survey on an island in southwestern Japan where it plans to relocate US military exercises.
About 20 people, including ministry officials, arrived at Mageshima island in Nishinoomote city, Kagoshima prefecture, on Tuesday morning. The ministry says they will first study the island's wildlife and vegetation.