Japan's Imperial Household Agency is expected to cancel the New Year greetings by the imperial family due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
The imperial family greets the general public every year on January 2 and the Emperor's birthday.
People in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Okinawa have marked one year since a fire burned down a main hall and other buildings at Shuri Castle.
About 70 people took part in a fire extinguishing drill at the site on Saturday morning.
Japanese government officials have convened an emergency meeting after the number of bear sightings across the country hit a five-year high.
NHK has learned that at least 63 people were injured and two of them later died in bear attacks from September 1 to October 23.
The Japanese government plans to come up with guidelines to prevent coronavirus infections among people who visit shrines or attend other large-scale events during the New Year holidays.
Economic Revitalization Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi spoke at the inaugural meeting of an expert panel on Friday.
It looks like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is completely out of juice. News outlet Nikkei reports that Mitsubishi will completely end production of its tiny electric car this year. While the i-MiEV had been discontinued in the U.S. for a few years already, it was apparently still on sale elsewhere. That didn't mean it was doing well, as Nikkei notes that global sales were only a little over 30,000 units over its lifetime.
It's not hard to see why the i-MiEV struggled. While its kei-car size and funky styling made it a unique city car, it was compromised in other ways. It only made 66 horsepower and had an official range of 62 miles. While the limited range was augmented somewhat by DC fast charging capability, but it didn't take long for competitors to launch larger, more powerful, longer-range cars for not a whole lot more money. And the gulf between the i-MiEV only expanded over the years.
LE MANS, France — Toyota Gazoo's No. 8 car comfortably won the 24 Hours Le Mans by five laps from Rebellion No. 1 on Sunday to secure a third straight victory in the prestigious endurance race.
It was also a third consecutive win for Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima driving. Brendon Hartley was the other driver, having replaced two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso.
It seems that Acura/Honda has finally agreed to expand the second-generation NSX family with two new members: the NSX Type R and the NSX Spider.
The Renault Formula One team will be renamed Alpine F1 from 2021, competing in French colors to showcase the carmaker's sportscar brand, new company CEO Luca de Meo announced on Sunday.
Alpine has a strong motorsport pedigree, in rallying and endurance racing, but has not previously featured in Formula One as a constructor. The Renault name will remain on the car as the engine provider.
Monday marks one year until the postponed Paralympic Games are scheduled to open in Tokyo. But the coronavirus pandemic is posing challenges for the athletes and the organizations that support them.
The head of the International Paralympic Committee is determined that the Games will go ahead. IPC President Andrew Parsons says the Paralympics will be even more important after the pandemic than before the pandemic.
Sony has picked up an EISA 2020-21 Multimedia Smartphone award for the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2), a well-deserved win given the phones' all round performance. The handset boasts a number of features that helped it to win including its 4K OLED display, Dolby Atmos sound, support for PlayStation DUALSHOCK4 controllers, and of course the return of the 3.5mm headphone jack.
You don't see that very often but Nissan has agreed to postpone the closure of its plants in Barcelona, Spain by one year.
Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon says Japanese two-way player Ohtani Shohei is not going to pitch this year, due to a muscle injury near his right elbow.
Maddon spoke about Ohtani during an online news conference on Tuesday. He said, "In whatever kind of throwing program, it'll be very conservative." He said, "I'm not anticipating him pitching at all this year."
Eating grilled eels in this season has been a long-standing tradition in Japan. This year consumers will be pleased to see the price drop slightly.
Japan's Fisheries Agency says the domestic catch of juvenile Japanese eels for cultivation between last November and April was 17.1 tons -- the highest level in six years.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency says its analysis of data collected by a weather satellite shows downpours that devastated a wide area in western Japan in early July were the heaviest in 20 years.
The agency's analysis shows the rainfall during the first 7 days of July in Kyushu and some parts of Chugoku and Shikoku hit a 20-year high for this time of the year.