The Japanese government on Monday decided a plan to sharply increase investment in innovative start-ups at a meeting of the Council of New Form of Capitalism Realization.

The goal of the council is to realize what Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has called "a new form of capitalism."

The United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO has decided to register traditional Japanese techniques used in wooden architecture to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage discussed Japan's proposal and reached the decision in an online panel meeting on Thursday.

Edano Yukio, the inaugural leader of Japan's newly expanded opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, has revealed his choices for party executive positions.

The original CDP will officially merge with another opposition party, the Democratic Party for the People, on Tuesday.

Japan's government says it will aim to secure enough coronavirus vaccine for all citizens in the country by the first half of next year.

A government taskforce decided on a set of measures to deal with the outbreak on Friday, with Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Cabinet ministers in attendance.

The governor of Osaka, western Japan, says the prefecture has determined its own criteria for gradually lifting restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic in the wake of the central government's extension of the state of emergency.

The prefecture's taskforce met on Tuesday.

Japan's government has decided on a basic policy for measures to protect against a domestic outbreak of the new coronavirus. It includes asking people with minor symptoms to recuperate at home, in order to secure adequate care at medical facilities for those who are seriously ill.

The government's task force on the new coronavirus met on Tuesday at the prime minister's office.