Japanese actor Shinichi Chiba, known abroad as Sonny Chiba, who dazzled action movie fans in Japan and overseas with karate and other martial arts techniques, died Thursday at a hospital near Tokyo due to pneumonia associated with COVID-19, his office said. He was 82. (Kyodo)

A new island has been discovered near Iwoto Island located around 1,200 kilometers south of Tokyo after a submarine volcano began erupting late last week, the Japan Coast Guard said Monday. (Japan Today)

Fire alarms went off at the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, on Tuesday, and the operator confirmed smoke within a building, the second such reporting within a week at the currently suspended plant. (Kyodo)

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Japan has secured enough "antibody cocktails" to prevent COVID-19 patients in the country from developing severe symptoms, as he visited a Tokyo hotel on Monday that is conducting the treatment amid an increasing strain on hospital beds. (Kyodo)

A 58-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of killing his 82-year-old mother at their apartment in Yokohama has told police he lost his temper after he and his mother argued over his doing the laundry. (Japan Today)

A woman infected in Japan's first case of the Lambda coronavirus variant has been identified as a person associated with the recently ended Tokyo Olympics, government sources said Friday. (Kyodo)

Two senior ministers in the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga visited a controversial shrine in Tokyo honouring the country’s war dead on Friday, according to news reports, in a move that could increase tension with China, and South and North Korea. (aljazeera.com)

Health experts in Japan have said the country is confronting a coronavirus “disaster” and urged the government to take immediate action to stem a surge in infections. (theguardian.com)

Japan is mulling to conduct research on developing “sustainable food sources” on the moon, local media reported. (The Nation)

An Olympic softball player's gold medal that was bitten by the mayor of Nagoya, landing him in trouble when the central Japanese city received more than 7,000 complaints, will be exchanged for a new one, a source close to the matter said Thursday. (Kyodo)

Social media has been abuzz about pictures and videos showing a man believed to be International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach strolling in Tokyo's posh Ginza district despite tight coronavirus restrictions imposed on athletes and officials for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. (Kyodo)

A total of 84 coronavirus patients recuperating at home in Japan died in the six months through June, government data showed Monday, sparking concerns about a possible increase of COVID-19-related deaths at home amid strain on the country's medical system (Kyodo)

Japan's immigration agency said Tuesday a probe has found that an immigration center in central Japan mistreated a detained Sri Lankan woman who died in March, and it has reprimanded the facility's top officials and supervisors. (Kyodo)

A 35-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison by a Japanese court for stabbing a police officer and stealing his handgun in western Japan's Osaka Prefecture in 2019. (Kyodo)

The summer edition of the national high school baseball tournament, Japan's iconic amateur sporting event, reopened Tuesday after it was canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

Five Japanese pitchers combined for a six-hit shutout on Saturday as the hosts beat the United States 2-0, securing the first Olympic baseball gold medal for a nation that eats and breathes the sport. (nbcnews.com)

Japan reached the milestone of one million coronavirus cases on Friday, domestic media reported, as infections surged in Olympic host Tokyo to other urban areas and the country grapples with an unprecedented speed of spread of the Delta variant. (ndtv.com)

Mayu Mukaida snatched the third gold medal for Japanese female wrestlers at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, downing China's Pang Qianyu 5-4 in the 53-kilogram final. (Kyodo)

Japan on Thursday won its 42nd medal of the Tokyo Olympics, breaking its previous record of 41 set at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. (Kyodo)

The Japanese government said Monday it will tighten border controls for travelers from three U.S. states, Finland and some other areas in response to the spread of highly contagious variants of the novel coronavirus. (Kyodo)

A five-year-old boy died Thursday after being left behind in a school bus for hours on a hot summer day in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka, police said. (Kyodo)

As Japan's impressive medal haul grows, sales of official Tokyo Olympics merchandise such as badges and keyrings have been surging, with fans queuing outside stores to buy them despite mounting COVID-19 infections. (Kyodo)

The Japanese women's rugby sevens team lost the first two games of their Olympic tournament on Thursday, continuing the host nation's poor Tokyo Games in the sport. (Kyodo)

Yuko Oshima, a former leading member of the popular Japanese all-girl idol group AKB48, and Japanese actor Kento Hayashi are set to marry, the couple said Thursday. (Kyodo)

Tokyo Games organizers on Wednesday admitted to throwing away approximately 4,000 of the 10,000 pre-ordered bento boxes full of food that was to be fed to volunteers on the day of the opening ceremony. (Kyodo)