Japan's Defense Minister says Self-Defense Force medical staff will be sent to Osaka Prefecture early next week to help deal with a surge in coronavirus infections.
Kishi Nobuo told a news conference on Friday that Osaka Governor Yoshimura Hirofumi had made an official request for SDF nurses.
Japan's government plans to ask prefectures to send nurses and doctors to each other to ease the serious strain on hospitals treating coronavirus patients.
Government officials plan to launch a framework for inter-prefectural cooperation by seeking the support of the National Governors' Association.
Japan's defense minister has ordered the Self-Defense Forces to send medical teams to a city in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido to help deal with a surge in coronavirus cases.
Kishi Nobuo said at a news conference on Tuesday that he received an official request from the governor of Hokkaido for a dispatch of SDF medical personnel to Asahikawa City.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako have made online inspections of Japanese Red Cross Society hospitals dealing with coronavirus patients.
At the Akasaka Palace on Wednesday, they listened to an explanation by the president of the Red Cross Society and others.
Kyoto City in western Japan has decided to double the number of staff at public health offices by the end of September to better deal with novel coronavirus infections.
The city will move up hiring plans while confirming the wishes of new workers. It will also have staffing agencies send more medical nurses and public health nurses. It aims to have 66 workers by the end of this month.
A hospital in Japan is using a robot to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The device is linked to a system that enables doctors and nurses to check on inpatients without having to enter their wards.
A survey has found that nearly 30 percent of healthcare workers in Japan who have had experience with coronavirus patients were depressed.
The Japanese Red Cross Medical Center conducted the survey in April and May, when infections were spreading around the country. About 850 doctors, nurses and clerks at the hospital responded.
Major Japanese advertising agency Dentsu has told some 5,000 staff to start working from home after it confirmed an employee has been infected with the new coronavirus.
Dentsu says a male worker in his 50s at its headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward was confirmed to have contracted the virus on Monday.
Companies are preparing to bring home employees and their families from Wuhan, a Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Japan External Trade Organization says about 160 Japanese firms are operating in and around the city.