Japanese telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has announced a takeover bid worth about 40 billion dollars to acquire a 100 percent stake in its wireless subsidiary NTT Docomo. (NHK)

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. is planning to turn Japan's largest mobile carrier NTT Docomo Inc. into a wholly-owned company through a takeover bid, sources close to the matter said Monday. (Kyodo)

Fraudulent e-money withdrawals in Japan have expanded to five other service operators in addition to NTT Docomo Inc, internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

Faced with the popularity of the Line chat app in home-bound Japan, Katsuhiko Kawazoe, head of research and development planning at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has been asking himself: "Why could we not develop a service like this?" (Nikkei)

Data from mobile phones show that fewer people went out at night on Monday when the Tokyo Metropolitan Government started asking establishments that serve alcohol to close early to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (NHK)

A study of mobile phone location data suggests there were fewer people in Japan's city centers on Saturday than a week earlier, amid a resurgence in the number of coronavirus cases. (NHK)

Major Japanese wireless carriers recently launched a service to provide foreign tourists with disaster relief information via mobile phone short message service in the event of an earthquake or typhoon. (Kyodo)

A Tokyo suburb on Wednesday imposed Japan's first ban on a habit seen around the world: pedestrians glued to their phone screens while walking, sometimes dangerously oblivious to their surroundings. (AFP)

NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile carrier, said Thursday it has secured exclusive rights to offer Disney's streaming service Disney+ in the country starting June 11. (Nikkei)

Mobile phone data shows there was only a slight increase in the number of people around train stations and business streets in Tokyo and four other prefectures the day after the state of emergency was lifted. (NHK)

Japan is slowly opening up for business again. Tuesday marks the first day since the lifting of the state of emergency, put in place in April for the coronavirus. (NHK)

Pedestrian traffic dropped between 50 and 80 percent in major urban areas over the weekend as the central government continues to weigh an extension of its nationwide state of emergency declaration. (Japan Times)

Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a nationwide state of emergency on April 16 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been looking for ways to keep fresh produce on the table without making extra trips to the supermarket. From individual farmers to cooperatives, here are six ways to bring sustenance to your doorstep. (Japan Times)

Outings in major cities across Japan declined on the first Sunday since the government expanded the state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic to cover the entire nation. But the decrease differed from area to area. (NHK)

E-commerce giant Rakuten has become the 4th mobile phone carrier in Japan to offer nationwide service. (NHK)

Rakuten Inc.’s mobile phone unit will charge less than half the fees its rivals do for high data usage, hoping to entice subscribers when it launches services next month as Japan’s fourth entrant to the market, sources close to the matter said Monday. (Japan Times)

Commercial services using next-generation 5G networks will begin this year in Japan. (NHK)

Top Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo will offer customers a free year of Amazon Prime as telecom and tech companies form alliances ahead of next spring's rollout of ultrafast 5G wireless service. (Nikkei)

The push to reduce overtime in Japan is starting to have wide-ranging effects on Japanese society, from shifting traffic patterns to boosting part-time work six months after a law was passed to improve the country's notoriously lacking work-life balance. (Nikkei)

NTT Docomo Inc. said Tuesday it will discontinue i-mode, an internet-capable mobile phone system introduced in 1999, at the end of March 2026 due to a dwindling number of users. (Japan Times)

SoftBank Corp. said Friday that from next week it will stop giving its mobile phone users two-year contracts that offer discounts on monthly communication fees but impose substantial penalties for canceling early. (Japan Times)

As a record-breaking inbound tourism trend continues in Japan, a closer analysis of government data reveals somewhat skewed regional results. (Nikkei)

Elementary schoolgirl Sumire Nakamura, who in April became the youngest professional go player, has claimed her first career win. (Japan Times)

E-commerce group Rakuten, Japan's newest wireless carrier, will partner with information technology group NEC to install roughly 16,000 low-cost 5G base stations across the country over five years, Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

Japan's government will allow NTT Docomo and its three major mobile rivals to set up 5G base stations on traffic signals, hoping to reduce the cost and time it takes to roll out the ultrafast networks by taking advantage of the nation's high density of traffic lights. (Nikkei)