Japanese manufacturers' and service providers' business confidence held steady at high levels in July, a Reuters poll found on Wednesday, underlining the central bank's upbeat view on the economy. (Reuters)

Japan will set aside roughly 4 trillion yen ($35.6 billion) in the next fiscal year's state budget for measures that focus on education as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's strategy to spur growth, government sources told Reuters on Tuesday. (Reuters)

A pub owner in Sapporo has been arrested for allegedly inflicting burns on a male patron, using a hairspray as a flamethrower, police said. (Japan Today)

IT firm Yahoo Japan has announced a new web-based platform that enables people to play games just by connecting to the internet. (NHK)

Japan Coast Guard officials say 2 Chinese patrol ships have entered Japanese territorial waters off the country's northeast. (NHK)

Japan on Monday pledged $1 billion over the next two years to back the UN's development agenda, raising its profile as one of the world's largest foreign aid donors. (digitaljournal.com)

Legendary Japanese physician Shigeaki Hinohara, an advocate of healthy aging, has died at the age of 105. (NHK)

Nearly 1,000 people have attended a party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the popular Japanese dress-up doll Licca. (NHK)

If you want to visit the Nagoya amusement park on a Tuesday or Wednesday, you'd better go soon. (rocketnews24.com)

Taiwan has decided in principle to lift a ban since 2001 on beef imported from Japan, action taken following the discovery there of cattle with mad cow disease, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement posted Monday on its website. (Japan Today)

Police in Kurobe, Toyama Prefecture, said Sunday that the bodies of two women have been found in a car submerged in a lake. (Japan Today)

Spectators, including many tourists, enjoyed a parade of colorfully decorated floats at the annual Gion Festival in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto on Monday. (NHK)

The health ministry will launch a survey to look into medical expenses paid by foreign tourists to deal with an apparent increase in unpaid cases, a source close to the matter said recently. (Japan Today)

Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko have watched volunteers hoisting sails on the iconic Japanese sailboat, the Nippon Maru. (NHK)

Japanese authorities will expand their search for poisonous fire ants following recent discoveries of the insect at ports and elsewhere in the country. (NHK)

Popular actor Ken Watanabe, 57, has publicly admitted that he had been in an extramarital affair as rumored since earlier this year. (Japan Today)

Hundreds of people were taken to hospitals across Japan with symptoms of heatstroke on Sunday, as the intense hot weather continues. (NHK)

The Giga Dinosaur Exhibition 2017, which exhibits reconstructed full-body skeletons and fossil specimens from many dinosaurs, opened at Makuhari Messe in Mihama Ward, Chiba, on Saturday. (the-japan-news.com)

Participants at an international fisheries conference have failed to adopt a Japanese proposal to set catch quotas for Pacific saury. (NHK)

Two Chinese coast guard ships were spotted Saturday in Japanese waters around Okinoshima island and one near Tsushima Island, in the first confirmation of an intrusion by Chinese government vessels in the area, the Japan Coast Guard said. (Japan Today)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has begun testing a spherical drone about the size of a grapefruit in Japan's Kibo science module at the International Space Station. (Japan Times)

Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a 42-year-old male employee of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Kinki Regional Development Bureau for taking a photo of a woman's underwear. (Japan Today)

The northern Kyushu region of southwestern Japan, where people are struggling to restore lives following recent torrential rains, now faces another problem -- a growing number of trip cancellations to the area. (Japan Today)

Japan's Toshiba is planning to expedite a deal for its flash memory unit by adding a clause to the sales contract. (NHK)

The death toll from last week's record downpour in southwestern Japan has risen to 32. (NHK)