The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is urging people to stay home over the holiday weekend starting on Thursday.
The capital remains on the highest level of alert for the coronavirus, as newly confirmed cases bring its total virus count above 10,000.
Japan's health ministry approved on Friday the use of saliva to conduct PCR tests for people with no coronavirus symptoms.
Last month, the ministry allowed the use of saliva in PCR tests for the coronavirus, in addition to the method of swabbing the nostril. But tests using saliva, which are considered to be easier, were limited to those who had symptoms, like a fever.
An NHK poll shows that nearly 70 percent of people in Japan want the government to prioritize the fight against the coronavirus over the economy.
The telephone survey was conducted over the weekend. More than 1,200 people responded.
Local rafting guides are delivering relief supplies to downpour-hit communities in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto. Access has been difficult because of flood damage to roads and bridges.
The guides used three vans to carry water, food, rubber boots, and other goods to three evacuation shelters and two community centers in Kuma Village.
Police in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, say they have found the bodies of four people at the site of a warehouse fire. They believe they are three firefighters and one police officer, who had been unaccounted for after rushing into the building shortly after the fire broke out.
Local firefighting authorities say that shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, they received a report from a security firm that the factory warehouse of a commodities manufacturer, LEC, was on fire in the town of Yoshida.
Torrential rains have battered parts of southern Japan. Flooding is causing havoc in many residential areas.
Authorities say over 10 people have been found with no vital signs while others are missing.
Officials of Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, say around 13 people have been reported missing in the prefecture as of 10 a.m. Saturday.
The officials say landslides swept away several houses in Tagawa district in Ashikita Town, leaving about 10 people unaccounted for.
Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko has called on people to refrain from visiting nightlife districts where coronavirus infections are on the rise.
Koike called for increased vigilance against the virus in a hastily held news conference on Thursday after the capital reported that 107 people were confirmed positive on the day. It is the first time that the number of infections has topped 100 since May 2, when 154 cases were reported under a state of emergency.
More than 17,400 people with dementia were reported missing in Japan last year.
The National Police Agency says 17,479 people diagnosed with or suspected of having dementia went missing in 2019. The figure increased from the previous year by 552, and has been rising since 2012.
An NHK survey has found that COVID-19 has lingering effects on some patients after testing negative for the virus and being discharged from hospital.
Hospital doctors treating coronavirus patients say people should know that various problems can persist after patients' discharge from hospital. They also say they hope for a wider network of support to be created for those people.
Significantly fewer people than last weekend were seen in the coastal Shonan Area of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, on Saturday.
Despite calls to stay home, roads and beaches were packed with visitors including surfers last Sunday. The crowds prompted the prefectural government and the City of Fujisawa to repeatedly urge people not to visit.
Two Tokyo men in their 80's, who were told by doctors to stay at home despite having developed fevers, were posthumously found to have contracted coronavirus.
One of them died on April 17th after he was found squatting on a street in Katsushika Ward and rushed to hospital.
The Tokyo governor has urged residents to go shopping less frequently to reduce the chances of coronavirus infections at supermarkets and shopping arcades.
Governor Koike Yuriko made the appeal at an emergency news conference on Thursday.
Japanese police say 11 people who died over the past month have posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus.
The development is raising concerns the true number of cases could be higher than what is being reported.