Police in Tokyo have arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion of illegally confining a 23-year-old woman and then abandoning her body in a forest in Ibaraki Prefecture. (Japan Today)

More than 1,300 people have applied to travel to Japan on guided tours since the country restarted visa procedures to accept some leisure visitors from abroad a week ago as worries about the COVID-19 pandemic wane, a government agency said Friday. (Kyodok)

Movie star Ken Watanabe offered a message of encouragement to Japanese compatriot Shohei Ohtani when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday's Los Angeles Dodgers-Los Angeles Angels game. (Kyodo)

A 72-year-old man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly nailing a straw doll bearing the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin to a sacred tree at a Shinto shrine near Tokyo, police said. (Kyodo)

A bill to prevent young people from being exploited in pornographic productions was passed into law Wednesday, marking a step in efforts to end abuses of those involved in the industry in Japan. (Kyodo)

Police in Tokyo have arrested a 42-year-old man on suspicion of setting fire to a hotel’s garbage disposal site. (Japan Today)

A train station in Tokyo on Wednesday started reproducing platform announcements and the sounds of train arrivals and departures onto a screen in the form of text and sign language to help the hearing impaired on their journeys. (Kyodo)

A bill to introduce prison terms as part of tougher penalties for online insults was passed Monday at an upper house plenary session, marking a major step toward tackling cyberbullying in Japan. (Kyodo)

A Japanese couple who kept their own surnames when they got married in the United States were told by a Tokyo ward office Monday that their marriage could not be registered using the two different names. (Kyodo)

More Japanese farmers are planning to lower their rice production and switch to wheat and soybean this year amid rising grain prices caused by Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a government survey. (Kyodo)

A 35-year-old man and his teenage wife were arrested Saturday for allegedly leaving two infant children unattended for 13 straight hours at their home in northern Japan, with the younger child later confirmed to have died, police said. (Kyodo)

A 36-year-old police officer has been arrested on suspicion of allegedly groping a 17-year-old high school girl on a train in Kanagawa Prefecture. (Japan Today)

A House of Representatives member who belongs to a ruling party faction led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida faced growing calls on Friday from fellow lawmakers to explain himself over a magazine report that he went out for drinks with an 18-year-old girl and gave her 40,000 yen ($300). (Kyodo)

Police in Hino City, Tokyo, have arrested a 23-year-old woman on suspicion of corpse abandonment after the body of a newborn boy was found inside a suitcase hidden in a closet. (Japan Today)

North Korea fired eight short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast on Sunday, June 5, a day after South Korea and the United States wrapped up their first combined military exercises involving an American aircraft carrier in more than four years. (rappler.com)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is planning to attend a summit of leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), news agency Reuters reported citing sources familiar with the matter said. (WION)

The Tokyo metropolitan government said Friday it will allow foreigners to work as beauticians from October using a national regulation scheme, marking the first time the country's beauty industry has been opened up to them. (Kyodok)

Tokyo's Nihon University plans to appoint award-winning author Mariko Hayashi to head its board in an effort to revamp its leadership after a series of scandals involving a former board chairman, sources close to the matter said Thursday. (Kyodo)

The Japanese government on Tuesday revoked the permit of an intermediate organization that introduces foreign trainees to host companies after it failed to prevent the physical abuse of a Vietnamese man by his Japanese co-workers at a construction firm. (Japan Today)

Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo will assume his family's prestigious and centuries-old stage name of Danjuro in November, following a two-year delay due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, Shochiku Co., a producer of Kabuki performances, said Tuesday. (Kyodo)

Police in Kasukabe City, Saitama Prefecture, have charged a 31-year-old unemployed woman with parental neglect resulting in the death of her three-year-old daughter. (Japan Today)

Over 10,000 food items in Japan will experience price increases of an average 13 percent this year as a result of rising materials costs and the yen's rapid depreciation, a survey by a credit research firm showed Wednesday. (Kyodo)

Japan plans to allow more regional airports to accept entrants from abroad, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday, as the country gradually relaxes stringent border controls implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Kyodo)

A foreign tourist on a package tour trial in Oita Prefecture has tested positive for the coronavirus, with three others considered close contacts, the tourism agency said Monday. (Japan Times)

A 36-year-old woman, her seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son have died in what police believe was a murder-suicide in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, police said Saturday. (Japan Today)