These days, the section of Tokyo Station serving regional destinations is a shadow of its former self. Gone are the usual crowds, and on a mid-week afternoon in late September, just a handful of commuters browsed bento-box stores. (Japan Times)

Nippon Professional Baseball and the J. League will explore the possibility of raising the current caps on attendance, a process that will include consultations with an epidemiologist, among others, the two leagues announced following the latest meeting of their joint COVID-19 task force on Monday. (Japan Times)

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Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday fought back against speculation that the rejection of six scholars to the Science Council of Japan is attributed to their criticism of national security legislation approved under then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Japan Times)

The assembly of Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan has revised an ordinance to stop the country's largest crime syndicate from handing out treats to children at its headquarters on Halloween. (NHK)

A character representing dreams and hope from the disaster-hit city of Rikuzentakata in northeastern Japan has won an annual contest to decide the country's most popular local mascot. (NHK)

Paris-based fashion designer Takada Kenzo, founder of the global brand KENZO, has died after contracting the coronavirus. He was 81. (NHK)

Crowds of visitors flocked to Ise Shrine in central Japan on the first Sunday since trips to and from Tokyo were added to the government's nationwide "Go To" campaign to encourage tourism. (NHK)

The government of Japan is reportedly considering ways to let people into the country next year when it hosts the Olympics. (ARIRANG NEWS)

Police in northern Thailand have arrested a Japanese national and four Thais on suspicion of illegally cultivating cannabis. (NHK)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 108 new cases of the coronavirus in the Japanese capital on Sunday. (NHK)

The real winner from the Tokyo Stock Exchange outage last week? Bitcoin! (Nikkei)

Japan's science council which makes policy recommendations to the government sent a letter to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday asking him to explain his recent refusal to appoint some of the body's nominees as new members. (Kyodo)

The government will double the daily number of airport checks for the coronavirus to about 20,000 following the recent relaxation of entry restrictions, health minister Norihisa Tamura said Saturday. (Japan Times)

The winner of this year's annual mascot competition will be hoping they attract as much international attention for the prize as Kumamoto Prefecture's Kumamon black bear-like mascot did after winning the inaugural event in 2011. The competition wraps up for the final time after nine years on Sunday. (Japan Times)

The Japan National Championships for track and field events ended on Saturday after three days of competition. (NHK)

Supermarkets in Japan are having a hard time combating an increasing number of shoplifters who use their reusable shopping bags to conceal unpaid goods. (Japan Times)

Honda Motor says it is withdrawing from Formula One. The carmaker will stop providing power units at the end of the 2021 season as the Japanese company pivots to a focus on green energy. (NHK)

Present-day life has had mixed results on delivering on the predictions past generations made about the future. We still don’t have flying cars, for example, but we do have a real-life giant, moving anime robot (and if we had to pick one of the two, personally, that’s the one we’d pick). (soranews24.com)

A number of ski resorts in the popular Niseko area in northern Japan's Hokkaido are set to delay the start of their operations for this winter season due to the lack of foreign visitors amid the continued novel coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

Kaisei High School, located in Tokyo’s Nishi Nippori neighborhood, is a very respected academic institute. Its major claim to fame is that for 39 years and counting it has sent more students to the University of Tokyo, Japan’s most prestigious university, than any other high school in the country. (Japan Today)

Japan's most powerful business lobby will actively urge companies to put women in more than 40% of management posts by 2030 as part of its growth strategy due out soon. (Nikkei)

Japan's "Go To Eat" program encouraging people to dine out kicked off on Thursday. The campaign focuses on supporting restaurants affected by the coronavirus pandemic. (NHK)

Popular Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara is set to marry her non-celebrity boyfriend within the year, her agency said Thursday. (Kyodo)

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has refused to appoint six nominees as new members of a leading organization of Japanese scientists, prompting a call for the move to be retracted. (NHK)