Mobile phone data show that fewer people were out on Monday night compared to a week before in downtown areas of Tokyo and Kyoto, where intensive measures were implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (NHK)

Japanese table tennis player Kimie Bessho is competing to play in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. It will be the 73-year-old’s fifth Paralympics Games if she wins the qualifying tournament this June. (South China Morning Post)

A display of the Olympic symbol was unveiled Wednesday on the summit of Mount Takao in western Tokyo to mark 100 days before the start of the Tokyo Games. (NHK)

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday reported 591 new cases of the coronavirus, up 81 from Tuesday. Osaka reported the most cases in the nation, recording a record-high 1,130. (Japan Today)

The head of Japanese industrial giant Toshiba has stepped down. President and CEO Kurumatani Nobuaki's resignation comes days after the company got a buyout offer from a UK-based investment fund that he had ties to. (Kyodo)

Surveys by local governments in Japan show the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain is surging in the country. The variant, dubbed N501Y, is said to be more transmissible than the original coronavirus. (NHK)

An increasing number of companies in Japan are providing polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests for the novel coronavirus at low cost, an effort to help boost travel demand battered by the pandemic. (Japan Times)

Japan's western prefecture of Osaka has broken another daily record. It reported over 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, marking a four-digit count for the first time. (NHK)

TOKYO — There will be a few bleary eyes in corporate Japan on Monday morning. In this golf-crazy nation, it's hard to underestimate the impact of Hideki Matsuyama's historic Masters triumph and impossible to count the hours of lost sleep it entailed. (washingtonpost.com)

Inside an abandoned Japanese village tucked into the mountains. While its not uncommon to find an abandoned building here or there in Japan, an entire village is something else entirely. (Tokyo Lens)

Japan’s vaccination drive finally kicked into gear Monday around four months after the start of inoculations in the United States and the United Kingdom, a slow rollout that has generated further criticism of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s handling of the pandemic. (Japan Times)

Shimokitazawa was a former farming village that turned first into a dense residential area, and later into a thriving arts and music community. It has been described as bohemian, hippie, artsy, indie, and in recent times, hipster; Shimokitazawa is all of these things. (Virtual Explore)

TOKYO (TR) – Membership in Japanese criminal syndicates dropped for the 16th straight year in 2020, the National Police Agency said last week. (tokyoreporter.com)

The organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics is planning to secure a hotel with about 300 rooms for athletes with minor or no symptoms of the coronavirus, officials with knowledge of the plan said. (Japan Today)

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Sunday reported 421 new cases of the coronavirus, down 149 from Saturday. (Japan Today)

TOKYO - The number of Japan's "izakaya" dining bars that went bankrupt hit a record high in the year that ended in March, a sign some service-sector firms are being left behind even as the economy emerges from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic. (Reuters)

This variety of sushi is a lost art and unknown outside Japan. The elaborate designs and use of the ingredients create beauty from food. This is SAIKU SUSHI and was quite popular in the Showa era but has sadly disappeared. (ONLY in JAPAN)

Large numbers of people on Saturday flooded transport hubs in major population centers across Japan despite the government designating Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa prefectures as requiring more stringent coronavirus countermeasures just a day earlier. (Kyodo)

Swimming star Rikako Ikee, recovering from leukemia, claimed a Tokyo Olympics berth in the women's 4x100 freestyle relay on Thursday after winning the 100-meter freestyle at Japan's national championships. (Japan Today)

Osaka Prefecture reported a record 918 new coronavirus cases on Saturday amid growing signs of a fourth wave of the pandemic driven by new variants. (Japan Times)

Members of a government panel on the coronavirus say the spread of infections in Japan this winter was aggravated by people attending year-end parties, especially in nightlife districts after 9 p.m. (NHK)

The Sleeper Express train SUNRISE SETO & IZUMO is the only train in Japan that runs every day. (Kuga's Travel)

The Japanese government will enforce stricter coronavirus measures in Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa from Monday without declaring a state of emergency. (NHK)

Japanese researchers have found that the British coronavirus variant found in Japan is on average 1.32 times as transmissible as the original virus. (NHK)

Japan's health ministry says three of its employees have tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a farewell party last month at a restaurant in Tokyo. (NHK)