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)

An adviser for a health division at Minato Ward this week provided guidance to bar hostesses in the Roppongi entertainment quarter about how to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, reports TBS News (July 27). (tokyoreporter.com)

A team of ruling coalition lawmakers agreed Thursday not to lower the age of people covered by the juvenile law to under 18 from under 20 at present. (Japan Times)

The power of words is being tested in Japan, where efforts to fight the novel coronavirus — bound by a law tailored to a different disease — remain strictly voluntary. (Japan Times)

Japan's top government spokesperson says the coronavirus outbreak is continuing to expand across the country, but the situation does not require the government to declare a state of emergency again. (NHK)

Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who was arrested in connection with the financial scandal of his ex-boss Carlos Ghosn, will soon face trial in a Tokyo court. Both cases had been in limbo after Ghosn fled to Lebanon. (autoblog.com)

Japan has reacted angrily to statues in South Korea that appear to depict the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, prostrating himself before a young woman who represents tens of thousands of wartime sex slaves. (theguardian.com)

Japan's badminton governing body announced the cancellation Wednesday of the 2020 Japan Open because of difficulties stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

The British-Japanese pop star Rina Sawayama has expressed her frustration that her debut album was ineligible for this year’s Mercury prize because she does not hold a British passport, Vice reports. (theguardian.com)

Japan's labor ministry says more than 40,000 people nationwide have lost or will lose their jobs due to the coronavirus outbreak. (NHK)

Health experts are calling the case of two doctors arrested last week on suspicion of assisting in the death of a 51-year-old woman with ALS "fundamentally different" from past euthanasia cases that led to other doctors' convictions for murder in Japan, because she allegedly asked them to kill her for money on Twitter. (Kyodo)

The Hiroshima District Court on Wednesday for the first time recognized people exposed to radioactive "black rain" that fell after the 1945 U.S. atomic attack on Hiroshima as atomic bomb survivors, ordering the city and the prefecture to provide the same government medical benefits as given to other survivors. (Japan Times)

The Japanese government will allow the reentry of some foreign nationals with residence status, starting on August 5. (NHK)

The Japan Meteorological Agency early Thursday morning issued an early warning for an earthquake that was expected to hit Tokyo and other neighboring areas. (Japan Times)

Japanese fighter pilot Lt. Col. Takamichi Shirota says his country is under increasing pressure from the air. Analysts say it's a pressure faced by few other nations. (CNN)

The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Japan on Wednesday topped 1,200. It's the highest daily total and the first time the symbolic 1,000 threshold has been crossed. (NHK)

The government was advised to postpone a decision on the Go To Travel tourism promotion program but rejected that advice, the head of a government team on novel coronavirus countermeasures said Wednesday. (Japan Times)

On July 18, 2020, the famous Japanese actor Haruma Miura was found dead in his home. Although investigations are still under way and nothing has been confirmed yet, the police found a suicide note that has lead them to suspect his death as a suicide. (Asian Boss)