Japan will begin providing the anti-flu drug Avigan for free to 38 countries as early as this week for treating patients with the new coronavirus, according to Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. (Japan Times)

Higher fares, fewer routes, preflight health checks and less free food: The coronavirus pandemic is ushering in a new era of air travel. (Japan Times)

Another Japanese celebrity fell victim to the coronavirus on Thursday. Actress Okae Kumiko died of pneumonia caused by COVID-19 at a hospital in Tokyo. She was 63. (NHK)

Japan plans to impose an entry ban on travelers who have recently been in Russia and several Middle Eastern countries that have seen a recent surge in coronavirus infections, government sources said Thursday. (Japan Times)

The operators of some major theme parks in Japan say their gates will be shut for at least another month amid the coronavirus pandemic. (NHK)

When reports of a mysterious pneumonialike illness first cropped up in China at the end of last year, Yutaka Tokue, head of the infectious disease and prevention division at Japan's Gunma University, knew the disease would eventually arrive in his home country. (Nikkei)

Japan's government has decided to ask all travelers entering the country to self-quarantine for two weeks, due to the coronavirus pandemic. (NHK)

Japan is planning to place an entry ban on foreign nationals from an additional 49 countries and territories as the coronavirus pandemic expands. (NHK)

The Japanese government decided on Friday to invalidate visas issued in 11 countries in Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa due to the coronavirus pandemic. (NHK)

Japan will impose an entry ban on foreign travelers coming from 21 European countries and Iran as part of stronger measures to contain the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday. (Kyodo)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz that Japan will make every diplomatic effort it can to stabilize the situation in the Middle East. (NHK)

Details of the waterfront athletes’ village for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were revealed Thursday, with organizers emphasizing its accessibility and ease of use for para-athletes. (Japan Times)

Japan's Defense Minister Taro Kono will order the dispatch of a Self-Defense Force mission to the Middle East on Friday amid heightened tensions in the region. (NHK)

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)

As Japan’s construction firms are squeezed by the tightest labor market since the 1970s and a rapidly aging population, they are pouring investment into technology — and providing unexpected support to an economy reeling from the bitter U.S.-China trade war. (Japan Times)

Seoul has pointed to its interceptions of illegally exported sensitive materials to discredit Japan's claim that South Korea lacks a proper monitoring regime, prompting an immediate rebuttal from Tokyo, as bilateral relations appear to plumb another low. (Nikkei)

Universities conducting classes in English, intellectual debates between foreign and Japanese students where new ideas are created — these are just some of the things the central government envisions for the nation’s higher education in order to become a magnet for talented researchers and students alike. (Japan Times)

Iran's supreme leader told Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday that it was pointless to reply to a message he had brought to Tehran from U.S. President Donald Trump, as a peacemaking visit was overshadowed by attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman. (Japan Today)

Japan leads the world in paid leave set aside for fathers, but few take advantage of it, according to a new report by the U.N. Children's Fund based on legal entitlements from 2016. (Japan Today)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday to avoid a further escalation of tensions and an unintended military conflict in the Middle East, as he sought to nudge Tehran toward dialogue as a mediator with the United States. (Kyodo)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to visit Iran next week amid rising tensions between the Middle Eastern country and the United States. (NHK)

Fifty-three-year-old Kenji Yamase doesn’t fit the traditional image of a hikikomori, but then perceptions of Japan’s social recluses are changing. (Japan Times)

A recent survey in Japan has uncovered an alarming number of middle-aged people without work and who rarely leave home. (Nikkei)

Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Nissan-Renault automaking alliance, maintained his innocence in a video taken before his fourth arrest in Japan Thursday on new charges of misusing corporate money. (Nikkei)

The Japanese government on Tuesday approved sending two Self-Defense Forces officers to a multinational peacekeeping force in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula later this month, in what would be the first dispatch of SDF personnel to an overseas mission not under the command of the United Nations. (Kyodo)