A pair of premium melons in Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido fetched a price of 2.7 million yen ($24,800) in this year's first auction on Monday, about 23 times higher than the winning bid of last year. (Kyodo)

The Japanese government is facing pressure over its continued commitment to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after a recent poll showed 43 per cent of the population want the Games cancelled. (Sky News)

With investors around the world fueling another crypto asset boom since late last year, elevating the values of digital currencies such as bitcoin, Japanese players in the space are hopeful that the country will be able to advance to the next stage after undergoing a period of scrutiny and renewal. (Japan Times)

HIGASHI-OSAKA, Japan — Across Japan, it can seem as if there’s a 7-Eleven on every corner. (New York Times)

The coronavirus continues to create serious question marks for Tokyo 2020 organizers. (NHK)

Signs of a K-shaped recovery, characterized by parts of the economy improving while others languish, are appearing in home prices. (Nikkei)

Japan's third state of emergency to contain the rising number of cases of coronavirus has gone into effect in the nation's capital and three western prefectures. (NHK)

Japanese wholesale prices marked their first annual increase in more than a year in March, a sign that rising commodities costs are pinching corporate margins and adding inflationary pressure to the world's third-largest economy. (Japan Today)

The price of cooking oil in Japan, which is indispensable for tempura, has risen sharply due to an increase in demand for soybeans and rapeseed. (JapanNutrition.com)

High school and university students in Japan have started a weekly walkout from school to call for action to address climate change. (NHK)

Japanese firm Hitachi has made a major acquisition to boost its information technology business overseas. The company will buy US software developer GlobalLogic for 9.6 billion dollars. (NHK)

Officials are considering tougher measures in the western prefecture of Osaka, which reported the most daily cases anywhere in the country on Tuesday. (NHK)

Major travel agency H.I.S. Co. said Monday its sales plunged 80.5% to Y38.86 billion ($356 million) in the November-January quarter from a year earlier due to a sharp decrease in travel demand caused by the continuing novel coronavirus pandemic. (Japan Times)

The Bank of Japan will consider changes to its approach to purchasing exchange-traded funds at its policy board meeting next week, a potentially significant move by the institution that has become the top holder of Japanese stocks. (Nikkei)

The Suga administration recently submitted a bill to revise Japan’s Act on Special Measures to Facilitate Investment in Agricultural Corporations. (eastasiaforum.org)

Fishery cooperative membership has fallen 24.4 percent in the period from the end of the 2010 fiscal year through March 2019 in three northeast Japan prefectures hit hardest by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami – Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima – according to a Kyodo News survey. (seafoodsource.com)

A chip shortage is biting at Japan's big carmakers. (Reuters)

The number of deaths in the nation last year decreased by 9,373, or 0.7%, from a year earlier to 1,384,544, down for the first time in 11 years, preliminary health ministry data showed on Monday. (Japan Times)

Coronavirus vaccine rollouts have begun worldwide, raising hopes that the global economy can start to reopen. (Nikkei)

Japan's sake industry is taking on the problem of a surplus of rice specially grown for making the fermented alcoholic beverage as the coronavirus pandemic causes a sharp drop in demand for the drink due to the closure and reduced operating hours of restaurants and bars around the world. (Nikkei)

Recovering demand for autos has Toyota Motor expecting a much better fiscal 2020 than it previously thought. The Japanese carmaker boosted its net profit forecast on growing sales in its main markets. (NHK)

A sharp improvement in Japan's trade balance saw the current account surplus more than double in December from a year ago. But the numbers show that the coronavirus continues to weigh on travel. (NHK)

Japan's average monthly spending by households in 2020 fell a real 5.3 percent from the previous year, marking the sharpest drop on record, as people refrained from going out due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Friday. (Japan Today)

Netflix will raise the prices of its streaming plans in Japan by up to 13% on Friday, leveraging a subscriber base that has expanded sharply amid the pandemic to invest in its growing library of original content, Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

The number of crimes recorded in Japan in 2020 hit the lowest level in the postwar era for the sixth straight year, with a sharp decline in street crime as people stayed home during the coronavirus pandemic, police data showed Thursday. (Japan Times)