NHK has learned that someone used an IP address to repeatedly access illegally-opened accounts for mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo's cashless payment service last month.

The Docomo service allows people who register their bank account information to make purchases and transfer money.

Night sky watchers say what appeared to be a fireball was seen streaking over wide areas of Japan.

It was a phenomenon created by a fragment of a falling asteroid burning as it descends into the atmosphere.

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force has confirmed that a foreign submarine navigated an area just outside Japan's territorial waters without surfacing this week. Defense officials say they believe the submarine belongs to the Chinese Navy.

Defense Ministry officials say MSDF destroyers and patrol planes first spotted the submarine on Thursday afternoon in the contiguous zone northeast of Amami-Oshima Island in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima. They say it was moving west and that the MSDF kept it under observation.

Few people were seen at major transportation hubs in Tokyo and highways were quiet throughout Japan at the start of the country's week-long spring holiday on Wednesday.

Japan Railway group companies say less than 10 percent of non-reserved seats on all Shinkansen bullet train lines were occupied on Wednesday morning.