Japan's top government spokesperson says Major League Baseball two-way star Ohtani Shohei has declined an offer to be given the People's Honor Award. (NHK)

Japan's education ministry has found that the number of students, who left higher education either permanently or temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, increased sharply from last year. (NHK)

Japan's animation industry contracted sharply last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, while overseas markets saw strong sales and exceeded the domestic market for the first time. (NHK)

Japan's exports increased in October from a year earlier, marking the eighth straight month of growth. (NHK)

SoftBank Group Corp. sank into red ink for the July-September period, dragged down by losses on its investments in China, the Japanese technology conglomerate said Monday. (wokv.com)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's push to restart Japanese nuclear power plants idled after the Fukushima disaster faces stiff opposition ahead of a general election on Sunday, where his future as leader hangs in the balance if the vote is tight. (Reuters)

Japan will become the world's third-largest provider of COVID-19 vaccine doses, with donations to 20 countries and regions set to reach 30 million following another planned delivery to Taiwan, the foreign minister said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

Japanese companies are stampeding to show off decarbonization plans at a flagship annual tech trade show, in a sign of growing pressure on them to take global warming seriously. With the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, coming up at the end of this month, the latest technologies are growing in appeal. (Nikkei)

Daily new COVID-19 cases have plummeted in Japan and the mood is celebratory, despite a general bafflement over what, exactly, is behind the sharp drop. (Oct. 18) (Associated Press)

Imagine you are a policymaker looking to raise your country's low birthrate, what should you do? One important step is to encourage men to do more child care and housework, according to an analysis by Nikkei. (Nikkei)

There are likely many factors behind Tokyo’s dramatic fall in new COVID-19 cases, but research shows that one group may be playing a surprising role in ending the fifth wave: the unvaccinated. (Japan Times)

The average price of land in Japan as of July 1 has fallen 0.4% since a year earlier, for the second consecutive year of declines amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed Tuesday. (Japan Times)

A couple in their 20s were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of disposing of the body of an 18-year-old Tokyo high school girl in Yamanashi Prefecture after she went missing over the weekend, police said. (Japan Today)

Taiwanese technology companies have made hardly any supply chain investments in Japan as an alternative to mainland China, directing most of their new factory construction and acquisitions to the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia instead, official research shows. (Nikkei)

The number of COVID-19 patients isolating at home is sharply increasing in Tokyo amid a surge in new cases. (NHK)

Toyota Motor has announced that it will reduce global production for next month by 40 percent from its previous plan. It cited parts shortages stemming from the spread of the coronavirus. (NHK)

Wholesale prices in Japan rose in July at their fastest annual pace in 13 years, data showed Thursday, in a sign that inflation in global commodities and a weak yen have been pushing up raw material import costs for a broad range of goods. (Japan Times)

TOKYO - Japan’s factory output rebounded in June and job availability rose to the highest level in nearly a year, data showed, a sign robust overseas demand was offsetting the drag to consumption from the pandemic. (Reuters)

Tokyo hit another six-month high in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, one day before the Olympics begin, as worries grow of a worsening of infections during the Games. (taiwannews.com.tw)

Nearly 30 percent of respondents in a private-sector survey said their summer bonuses fell from last year, indicating that more Japanese people are feeling the pinch of the coronavirus pandemic hurting corporate earnings. (Kyodo)

Japan and China’s manufacturing activities are taking the hit from the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, with both countries reporting declines that might compromise their nascent recoveries. (marketwatch.com)

Japan's health minister has expressed concern over an increase in the number of people who are out and about at night in Tokyo amid the coronavirus pandemic. (NHK)

Veteran jazz saxophonist Nobuo Hara, whose band was at the forefront of Japanese jazz music for decades, died Monday due to pneumonia-induced respiratory failure, his family said Tuesday. He was 94. (Kyodo)

Local governments in Japan have been luring people to take ownership of the country's more than 8 million abandoned homes through a host of incentives, including millions of yen in renovation grants, new zoning laws and even giving away the structures for free. (Nikkei)

As calls mount for the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled or postponed, the Japanese government's mishandling of the coronavirus crisis has come into sharp focus. (South China Morning Post)