The approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's cabinet has fallen to 35.9 percent, the lowest level since he took office last year, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday, adding to signs of public discontent with the government's determination to hold the Tokyo Olympics despite the coronavirus pandemic. (Japan Today)

Nearly 80% of 47 prefectural capitals in Japan said they either have changed or intend to change their plans to vaccinate their local residents against COVID-19 amid a supply shortage of vaccines, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday. (Kyodo)

A bunch of high-end red grapes sold Friday in central Japan for 1.4 million yen ($12,700) in the season's first auction, up 100,000 yen from the year before and setting a record for the third straight year. (Kyodo)

False claims and misinformation about vaccines on social media are undermining young people's trust in COVID-19 vaccines in Japan, imperiling the government's efforts to finish large-scale inoculations by November as it pursues herd immunity. (Kyodo)

The Tokyo metropolitan government reported 1,149 daily coronavirus cases Wednesday, topping 1,000 for the first time since May 13. (Kyodo)

A Tokyo hotel has apologized amid backlash over their decision to delineate elevators with signs indicating “Japanese only” and “foreigners only.” (nypost.com)

Solar power will overtake nuclear power as the cheapest source of energy for Japan in 2030 due to the latter's ballooning safety measure costs following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, a government estimate showed for the first time Monday. (Kyodo)

The athletes' village for the Tokyo Games opened on Tuesday, 10 days before the opening ceremony of the Games. (NHK)

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)

Shohei Ohtani crushed his major league-leading 33rd home run Friday for the Los Angeles Angels, who fell 7-3 to the Seattle Mariners. (Kyodo)

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. has said it will start programs to support both the private and work-life of foreign workers at its convenience stores as part of efforts to retain them amid a labor shortage due to Japan's graying population. (Kyodo)

The government will ask duty-free stores to check the date of entry to Japan in customers' passports and report if they were shopping in violation of the required 14-day quarantine period, sources close to the matter said Friday. (Kyodo)

Tokyo Olympic organizers said late Friday they have reversed their earlier decision to allow up to 10,000 spectators at daytime events on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, a day after deciding to stage the games behind closed doors at almost all venues due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Tokyo area. (Kyodo)

TOKYO (TR) – A middle school girl plunged to her death from a building at her school in Bunkyo Ward on Wednesday. (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan is making arrangements for its COVID-19 vaccination passports to be accepted by over 10 nations, including Italy, France and Greece, after the certificate program begins in late July, government sources said Sunday. (Kyodo)

Japan's Mt. Fuji reopened Thursday to climbers for the summer season after being closed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

A private jet that landed in Tokyo's Haneda Airport Tuesday afternoon looked perfectly normal on the outside. What made it special was on the inside: fuel made from used cooking oil and a kind of algae. (NHK)

The Japanese government said Monday that travelers from Indonesia and Uganda will be required to spend the first six days of their 14-day quarantine in state-designated facilities to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. (Kyodok)

KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a 21-year-old man over the alleged fatal stabbing of a male youth in Kamakura City earlier this year, reports Kyodo News. (tokyoreporter.com)

Emperor Naruhito delivered a keynote address at an online U.N. session on water and disasters Friday. (Japan Times)

Tokyo has ranked the fourth most expensive city for expatriates in an annual cost of living survey by a U.S. consulting firm, dropping one spot from last year. (Kyodo)

Japan is planning to approve the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Britain's AstraZeneca Plc for inoculations of those aged 60 and over, government sources said Tuesday. (Kyodok)

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)

In a law-enforcement first, a 57-year-old man was arrested Monday on suspicion of damaging the reputation of a female athlete by posting a video he secretly took of her in a sexualized context on a porn site, police said. (Kyodo)

A bear has been shot dead after it went on the rampage and broke into an army base, according to Japan’s national broadcaster. (yahoo.com)