Japanese Justice Minister Masako Mori has apologized for controversial remarks she made during Monday's Diet session, and says she wants to continue in her post.
Mori said that prosecutors fled Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture before the public when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.
Three aides to former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his lawmaker wife Anri Kawai, have been arrested on suspicion of violating the election law.
Hiroshima district prosecutors arrested Shinsuke Takaya, a policy secretary to Katsuyuki Kawai, on Tuesday. They also arrested Hiroshi Tatemichi, a second secretary to Upper House member Anri Kawai, and Yugo Waki, a senior official of her campaign team.
The Lower House of Japan's Diet has rejected a no-confidence motion against the justice minister and a motion to dismiss the chair of the Budget Committee.
The moves come as wrangling between the ruling and opposition camps over passing the fiscal 2020 budget bill through the chamber reaches its final stage.
Japan's industry minister Hiroshi Kajiyama says he will call on the business sector to actively introduce staggered working hours and telework to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
The comment came ahead of the government's official announcement of its basic policies against the outbreak.
Japan's transport and tourism minister says the coronavirus outbreak is expected to hit the country's tourism industry hard, and the government is considering support measures.
Kazuyoshi Akaba told reporters on Monday that regular passenger flights connecting Japan and China have been reduced by 60 percent. He said he is concerned about a further reduction.
Japan's Justice Minister Masako Mori is planning to ask her advisory panel to debate legal revisions to prevent bail-jumping.
The move comes after former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn fled Japan last month as well as other cases of escapes.
Japan's Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is likely to take paternity leave sometime in the next three months, now that his son has been born.
Koizumi told reporters on Friday that his wife had given birth to the baby. Koizumi's wife is a freelance TV presenter.
Japan's Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi will take childcare leave after the upcoming birth of his first baby.
When he assumed the post last September, Koizumi said he didn't want to leave everything up to his wife. He said he wanted to do more in the household.
Japan's justice minister says former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn's criticism of Japan's justice system was mostly abstract, unclear or baseless.
Masako Mori rebutted Ghosn's remarks in a news conference shortly after 9 a.m. Japan time on Thursday.