A government advisory panel has approved a set of proposals for plastic recycling, including making it mandatory for retailers to charge for plastic shopping bags. (Japan Times)

The entire Cabinet along with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refrained from visiting Tokyo’s war-linked Yasukuni Shrine during this year’s four-day autumn festival that ended Saturday. (Japan Times)

A 26-year-old unemployed man has been arrested in Sakai, Osaka, for injuring a woman after he threw a bicycle from the 12th floor of a 14-story municipal apartment building in August. (Japan Today)

A man prosecuted last year in connection with the death of a Japanese woman in Vancouver was found guilty of murder on Friday, a Canadian court said. (Japan Today)

Police said Friday they have arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the stabbing of his grandparents in the city of Wako in Saitama Prefecture. (Japan Today)

Final preparations were under way Friday for the launch of a joint mission by European and Japanese space agencies to send twin probes to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. (Japan Times)

Scandal-hit KYB Corp. on Friday disclosed the names of 70 government and municipal office buildings that used, or are suspected of having used, substandard earthquake shock absorbers in their construction. (Japan Times)

Around 70 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its annual autumn festival Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine. (Japan Times)

Japanese police are questioning staff from the Bulgarian national opera after being notified by the opera company that they are suspected of scrawling graffiti in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. (NHK)

Investors who collectively placed approximately 100,000 failed share trades may seek compensation after a systems glitch at the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week left some 40 brokerages temporarily unable to place orders, sources said Thursday. (Japan Times)

Yokozuna Hakuho underwent successful endoscopic surgery on his right knee at a hospital in Tokyo on Thursday, sources close to his Miyagino stable said. (Japan Times)

Just two weeks into her appointment, the only female minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s new Cabinet found herself in hot water Thursday after a weekly magazine alleged that she was paid to use her bureaucratic influence to get a tax break for a business owner in 2015. (Japan Times)

The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will reprimand a 52-year-old judge for his controversial social media post earlier this year, marking a first in Japan. (Japan Times)

An international team of researchers has given the name Godzilla to one of what it calls the modern constellations. The monster is among the most popular film characters created in Japan. (NHK)

Japan is known for its ever-growing list of unique KitKat flavors, but now Nestle Japan Ltd. is taking its premium version of the chocolate bar to the next level -- a new specialty shop in downtown Osaka offering customers made-to-order creations that are chilled at the spot by liquid nitrogen. (Kyodo)

A ski resort at Mount Rokko in western Japan has begun work to make artificial snow for a ski slope, one month before its opening for the season. (NHK)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed Wednesday to step up their countries' cooperation in promoting stability in the Indo-Pacific region where China has been increasing its influence. (Kyodo)

The landmark Tokyo Skytree tower, facilities for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and more government offices are among the nearly 1,000 buildings using earthquake shock absorbers produced by KYB Corp, which admitted cheating quality inspection data for more than a decade, officials said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

Preferred Networks Inc., a Japanese venture specializing in artificial intelligence, unveiled on Tuesday a fully autonomous tidying-up robot for home use. (Kyodo)

More than 1,100 rubella cases have been reported this year in Japan, raising concern about serious health impacts on unborn babies who could be infected with the disease by their mothers during pregnancy, a national institute said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

For years, electronics giants have been developing smartphones with increasingly larger screens. Bucking the trend for phones to be bigger and flashier is a handset set to debut next month from NTT Docomo Inc. that can fit in your business card case. (Japan Times)

Police in Hiroshima, western Japan, are investigating graffiti found at 3 places in the Peace Memorial Park. The park is home to the landmark Atomic Bomb Dome, which was damaged in the 1945 bombing. (NHK)

The number of foreign visitors to Japan has dropped for the first time in more than 5 years as natural disasters prompted many tourists to cancel trips in September. (NHK)

A Tokyo court has begun questioning 3 former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company about their involvement in the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. (NHK)

An unmanned store using artificial intelligence instead of cashiers is set to open on a trial basis at a station in Tokyo. (NHK)