Japan's Cabinet approved on Friday the dispatch of Maritime Self-Defense Force units to the Middle East, for the first time since the country enacted security-related bills in 2015, which were aimed at easing requirements for dispatching the MSDF. (Nikkei)

NHK has learned that a Japanese lawmaker arrested for allegedly taking bribes from a Chinese company is suspected of having received cash worth about 27,000 dollars on the day the Diet was dissolved for a snap election in 2017. (NHK)

The arrest Wednesday of a former state minister in charge of the government’s policy on integrated casino resorts has brought about another scandal for the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and dealt a blow to one of the key aspects of the ruling party’s economic growth strategy. (Japan Times)

Japan hanged a Chinese death-row inmate on Thursday convicted of killing four people in 2003, the Justice Ministry said, in the country's first execution since August. (Japan Today)

An international meeting on people who have withdrawn from society has taken place in Japan. Its aim was to discuss how to support such people and their families. (NHK)

Japan Airlines Co. said Thursday overseas members of its mileage program will be able to apply for free return tickets for domestic flights next summer, part of an effort to provide foreign travelers with a greater experience of Japan alongside the Olympic and Paralympic Games. (Kyodo)

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Thursday visited areas in northeastern Japan that were hit by a powerful typhoon in October to encourage the victims, in the couple's first trip to disaster-hit regions since the emperor's enthronement in May. (Kyodo)

The best thing you can say about the Japanese economy's 2019 is that, mercifully, the year will soon be over. (Nikkei)

The heads of three Japan Post group firms are set to resign amid a scandal involving dubious sales of insurance policies. (NHK)

The average winter bonus for workers at major Japanese businesses rose 1.77 percent from a year earlier to a record ¥951,411 this year, a survey showed Wednesday. (Japan Times)

Japan's welfare ministry estimates that the number of births in the country for the whole of this year will fall below 900,000 for the first time. The decline would be faster than the government's earlier prediction. (NHK)

A lack of snow is preventing some ski resorts in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido from opening. (NHK)

The South Korean government says President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Abe had differences on the wartime labor issue, but they agreed to keep communicating to resolve it. (NHK)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday evening. (NHK)

The government will increase its employment quota for teachers at public elementary and junior high schools by 1,726 in fiscal 2020. (Japan Times)

Electronics makers are revising pay scales to attract competent engineers, including by throwing salaries of more than ¥10 million per year at recruits fresh out of college. (Japan Times)

A Japanese government panel says discussions on how to dispose of radioactive wastewater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant should center on two options --- releasing it into the ocean, or into the air. (NHK)

Authorities in western Japan are taking legal steps to crack down on the country's largest crime syndicate and a splinter group in a bid to stop their escalating feud. (NHK)

In Nichinan, Japan, a city of about 50,000 people on the southwestern island of Kyushu, a house that had sat abandoned for more than a decade gained new life this summer. (Nikkei)

Footage showing a Kurdish man from Turkey being restrained at an immigration center in Ibaraki Prefecture in January has been submitted to a Tokyo court by the facility after the man sought damages for allegedly being manhandled. (Japan Times)

A survey has found that 10.6 percent of the nation’s workers will likely be unable to take even a single day off during the nine-day year-end and New Year’s holiday period from Saturday to Jan. 5. (Japan Times)

Former Emperor Akihito turned 86 on Monday, marking his first birthday since stepping down from the Chrysanthemum Throne in late April to become the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in around 200 years. (Kyodo)

Japan's industry ministry says it has reviewed its tightened controls on exports of one of three high-tech materials to South Korea. (NHK)

From elementary to high school, children in Japan are breaking records for bad eyesight, an education ministry health survey showed Friday. (Japan Times)

"You want to work for us?" the man said, coercing a college student to down several drinks at a karaoke bar. "You cannot work at a trading company unless you can drink." (Nikkei)