Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko has announced her intention to seek a second term as leader of the Japanese capital. (NHK)

About 80% of the facilities needed for next year’s postponed Tokyo Olympics have been lined up, the president of the organizing committee said Friday. (Japan Today)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said it confirmed 25 coronavirus infections on Friday as it further eased restrictions on business activities to get the economy back on its feet. (Japan Times)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has long made creating jobs for women central to his economic policy, but as the country heads for its worst economic slump since World War II women are suffering a bigger share of the pain. (Japan Times)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday sounded cautious about the idea of letting schools across the nation shut again in the event a second wave of novel coronavirus infections hits the country. (Japan Times)

Chubu airport in central Japan will resume some international flights from next Tuesday after operations were suspended for more than two months due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the operator said Thursday. (Kyodo)

One of the key architects of Japan’s coronavirus strategy has hailed the country’s response to the pandemic, saying its approach was more effective than those implemented by Western nations. (Japan Times)

The Japan High School Baseball Federation said Wednesday they will hold a series of games at Koshien Stadium in August between teams that had been selected for the cancelled spring invitational high school baseball championship. (Kyodo)

Cairo University in Egypt has issued a statement acknowledging that Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike graduated from the school in 1976, denying media reports that she is faking her academic credentials. (Japan Times)

A Japanese pediatrician who discovered Kawasaki disease -- a syndrome of blood vessel inflammation among young children with unknown causes -- has died. Kawasaki Tomisaku was 95. (NHK)

The first sand cat born in Japan will make its public debut Saturday at a zoo in the resort town of Nasu, about 160 kilometers north of Tokyo. (Japan Times)

Japan is planning to start allowing the entry of up to 250 business people a day from Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand this summer. (NHK)

The government will consider making convicted sex offenders wear GPS tracking devices in an effort to strengthen measures that prevent recidivism, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday. (Japan Times)

Although Japan has seen a gradual recovery in its business activities after the COVID-19 pandemic situation eased somewhat, its anime industry is however still groping for ways to recover. ( CCTV Video News Agency)

The House of Representatives Wednesday approved a draft second extra budget for fiscal 2020 totaling ¥31.91 trillion ($296 billion), to provide additional funding to front-line medical workers and support people reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. (Japan Times)

Is there a place for melon bears and ninja yams in post-corona Japan? (soranews24.com)

Naomi Osaka, the world’s highest-paid female athlete, says the voices of prominent athletes can be more influential than those of politicians and is determined hers will be heard on the subject of racial injustice. (Japan Times)

Tokyo saw more deaths than usual in April, the month when coronavirus cases in the city peaked. (Japan Times)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that Japan's economic contraction will continue into next year if the country is hit by a second wave of the coronavirus. (NHK)

Police in Tokyo have found what appear to be more than 50 bullets in the room of a 15-year-old boy who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. (NHK)

Sumo wrestlers from a stable in Adachi Ward were among those who rescued a woman after she plunged into a nearby river on Wednesday in an apparent suicide attempt, police said, reports TV Asahi (June 11). (tokyoreporter.com)

The Summer Games hosted by Japan will not be "done with grand splendor," organizers said Wednesday night, setting up an Olympics next year that will fall short of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's original hope of holding them "in their full form." (Nikkei)

A man was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison over a 2017 fraudulent Tokyo land sale to a major Japanese home builder that caused it a loss of about ¥5.5 billion ($51 million). (Japan Times)

The Tokyo metropolitan government is moving to lift its coronavirus alert and further ease restrictions on business operations. (NHK)

The Meteorological Agency says Japan has entered the rainy season, except for the northern part of the Tohoku region. (NHK)