Japan's main governing Liberal Democratic Party has rejected an opposition demand to question former prime minister Abe Shinzo in the Diet over costs for annual parties.

Media outlets have reported that Abe's office allegedly shouldered part of the costs for parties at hotels in Tokyo held on the eve of Abe's annual cherry blossom viewing events.

NHK projects that residents of the western Japanese city of Osaka have voted to maintain the city's current structure.

They voted down a plan to transfer some major functions to the prefecture and consolidation of the bureaucracy into a structure similar to Tokyo's.

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has refused to appoint six nominees as new members of a leading organization of Japanese scientists, prompting a call for the move to be retracted.

The Science Council of Japan is designated as a special organization under the jurisdiction of the prime minister. It makes policy proposals, independent from the government.

A Japanese court has refused a claim by a city in western Japan that the national government should review its decision to exclude the city from the so-called hometown tax donation system.

The Osaka High Court dismissed on Thursday a suit filed by Izumisano City in Osaka Prefecture against the internal affairs ministry.

A former care home worker accused of mass killings in Japan has rejected his lawyers' argument that he is mentally unfit to stand trial.

The Yokohama District Court began questioning defendant Satoshi Uematsu on Friday. The 30-year-old is charged with killing 19 people with intellectual disabilities and injuring 26 others at the care home in Sagamihara City in July 2016.

A Japanese non-profit group helping sexual abuse victims is urging the government not to pardon child sex offenders.

Members of the group met Justice Minister Masako Mori on Thursday to make the request in connection with the pardons the government granted to mark Emperor Naruhito's enthronement ceremony last year.