Japan’s Okinawa island region has declared a state of emergency from August 1 to August 15, because of increasing COVID 19 cases. (republicworld.com)

Popular YouTube channel and website The Black Experience Japan features interviews with dozens of black residents of Japan. (globalvoices.org)

Many public bath houses in Japan are at risk of closing as customer numbers plunge during the Covid-19 pandemic. (South China Morning Post)

A remote Tokyo island is applying for recognition of its starry night skies by an international organization. (NHK)

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso described the yen's recent rise as "rapid" on Friday, signalling concern that a strong currency could add pain to an export-led economy already in recession because of the novel coronavirus. (business-standard.com)

Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s announcement on Monday of the closure of a factory that manufactures its Pajero SUV came as a shock to the town of Sakahogi, Gifu Prefecture, where the plant is located. (Japan Times)

Japan has hit a record high in daily coronavirus infections for a third day in a row. Officials say more than 1,500 cases were confirmed on Friday. (NHK)

Japan on Friday pushed back its estimated return to a budget surplus by two years, due to the massive increase in spending needed to support the economy during the coronavirus and putting pressure on the nation’s massive debt burden. (kitco.com)

The Japanese government said Friday it will lift a ban on reselling face masks and disinfectant as suppliers have ramped up production enough to resolve a nationwide shortage spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

SMBC Nikko Securities, a top Japanese brokerage house, will allow clients to open an account without the need to provide 'hanko' seals on their contracts at all its branches starting this month. All they will need is a Nikko sales representative to fill in a form on an iPad and take photos of their IDs using the tablet. (Nikkei)

The rainy season finally ended in Tokyo and neighboring areas of the Kanto-Koshin region in east and central Japan after an unusually long spell, the Meteorological Agency said Saturday. (Japan Times)

Asian nations are renowned for their approach to education, with Japan ranked in the top 10 from a global perspective. (newsonjapan.com)

If you would like to work in Japan, here are 5 Japanese business taboos. (Ask Japanese)

Blues singer Johnny Burgin’s latest album highlights a part of the genre’s history that is largely unknown to a swath of its fans: Japanese blues music. (suntimes.com)

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has offered his sincere condolences over the death of former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui. (NHK)

An expert advisory panel to Japan's health ministry has warned that coronavirus infections are rapidly picking up in some regional cities. (NHK)

Japan's industry ministry says industrial production rose 2.7 percent in June from the previous month. That's the first increase since the coronavirus pandemic took hold. (NHK)

The Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) has confirmed plans to continue the local production of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. (janes.com)

The Japanese government is considering postponing the launch of the distribution of some 80 million additional cloth face masks to nursing care homes and other facilities, health ministry officials have said. (Japan Times)

Single bananas. Hard boiled eggs. Chocolate chip cookies. In convenience stores across Japan these items all have something in common: they are routinely sold tightly swaddled in plastic wrapping. (CNN)

Leading Japanese universities and corporations have joined hands with IBM to develop practical quantum computing applications in finance, materials development and the broader business scene. (Nikkei)

The coronavirus continues to spread across Japan. About 1,300 cases were reported on Thursday, setting a new daily record. Tokyo also hit another record with 367 newly confirmed infections. (NHK)

Japan sharply downgraded its gross domestic product forecasts for this fiscal year, expecting the world's third-largest economy to suffer its biggest contraction in over two decades amid the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. (The Star)

Japanese women and men retained second and third places, respectively, on the world's average life expectancy ranking in 2019 as both groups topped a previous record for the eighth straight year, health ministry data showed Friday. (Kyodo)

Japan's internal affairs ministry says the country's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 2.8 percent in June, down 0.1 percentage points from a month earlier. (NHK)