Japanese director Obayashi Nobuhiko, who produced a series of hit movies featuring youths in his hometown of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, has died of lung cancer.

Obayashi died at his home in Tokyo on Friday. He was 82.

Comedian Shimura Ken, who was hospitalized after being infected with the new coronavirus, has passed away on March 29th at 11:10 am in Tokyo. He was 70 years old. 

Shimura's agency released his medical condition to the public on March 25th. Shimura first felt symptoms of fatigue on the 17th and rested at home. On the 19th, he developed a fever and had difficulty breathing, then was transported to a hospital the following day where he was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and hospitalized. As he had symptoms for the new coronavirus, he was tested and the results came back positive on night of the 23rd. 

Japan's heath ministry says a resident of Tokyo in his 80s died of pneumonia on Wednesday after contracting the new coronavirus.

It is the seventh confirmed case of infection in Japan that resulted in death. Four were passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Japan's health ministry says a third passenger from the quarantined Diamond Princess has died. The cause of death was pneumonia.

The ministry did not disclose whether the man in his 80s had been infected with the new coronavirus.

A former crew member of a Japanese fishing boat exposed to the nuclear fallout from a 1954 US nuclear test in the Pacific has died.

Masaho Ikeda died of stomach cancer in a hospital in Fujieda City in Shizuoka Prefecture on Thursday. He was 87 years old. His relatives say he had also suffered esophagus and liver cancer.

A former Japanese fisherman exposed to radiation from a US nuclear test in the Pacific decades ago has died.

Masaho Ikeda was aboard the tuna fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru when the United States conducted the hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1954.

Japan has confirmed its first death of a person infected with the new coronavirus in the country. Health ministry officials say the Japanese woman in her 80s was a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture, just south Tokyo.

Her son-in-law, who is a taxi driver, was also found to be infected with the virus on Thursday. Health ministry officials are trying to track the routes of the infections.

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Katsuya Nomura died in Tokyo on Tuesday. He was 84.

Nomura joined Nankai Hawks, a predecessor of Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, in 1954.