Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has called on South Korea to take the initiative in restoring healthy bilateral relations.

Suga made the remark in a meeting with South Korea's National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Japan's health ministry plans to improve its online data-sharing system on people infected with the coronavirus in order to encourage more usage by local governments.

Public health authorities launched the system in late May. It allows the central government, local governments and medical institutions across the country to share data. Information entered into the system includes the names of people who underwent PCR tests and their results.

A new project called 'AlterNative English' has started on N/A's (Nishikido Ryo and Akanishi Jin) official YouTube channel. 

An expert on infectious diseases says his criticism has helped improve the situation on the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess.

Professor Kentaro Iwata of Kobe University spoke on Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo using a TV-conference system.