Top Japanese parcel delivery firm Yamato Transport is scaling back some services to give its overworked drivers a break. (NHK)

Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has dropped below 50% for the first time in more than a year as respondents expressed dissatisfaction with his response to allegations of preferential treatment toward a conservative educator. (Nikkei)

On the last day of the U.S. Open, Hideki Matsuyama was better than everyone else. Better than Brian Harman, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and the rest of the congested leaderboard. (washingtonpost.com)

A Japanese film has won the top prize in the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in southeastern France. (NHK)

A petition drive by a small Kyoto-based political group requesting that Emperor Akihito move to Kyoto upon his abdication had drawn over 10,000 signatures as of Friday. (Japan Times)

Japan's transport ministry is considering whether to allow low-cost carriers to cancel flights when only a small number of seats are sold. (NHK)

A 31-year-old man in Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, has been arrested on suspicion of violating the Road Traffic Law after he let a young boy take hold of the steering wheel of car he was driving. (Japan Today)

Officials in the western Japanese port city of Kobe say about 100 more fire ants have been found in a container storage space. (NHK)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, or MHI, will exhibit its jet plane at the International Paris Air Show, one of the world's major aviation events. (NHK)

A zoo in Toyama City, central Japan, has succeeded in hatching eggs of the endangered snow grouse under a government-backed breeding program. (NHK)

Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Shingo Katori, three former members of the ultrapopular boy band SMAP, will leave their management company, Johnny & Associates, in September, the agency said. (Japan Times)

The US Navy has identified all seven sailors killed after their destroyer was partially flooded following a collision with a container ship off Japan's coast at the weekend, confirming their deaths for the first time. (SBS)

The US Navy says it has found several bodies on the USS Fitzgerald destroyer. They are believed to be crew members missing after the ship collided with a Philippine-flagged container vessel off eastern Japan. (NHK)

With their nonalcoholic beers gaining popularity and sales of the real stuff declining, Japan's Kirin Brewery and Suntory Beer are switching gears. (Nikkei)

Now that Japan's parliament has cleared the way for Emperor Akihito to step down, the government is starting to dig into the details of the process. (Nikkei)

Hundreds of dolls, from Hello Kitty to Disney favourites, are packed to the ceiling at a funeral home near Tokyo. (thejournal.ie)

Japan Post Holdings Co. is likely to drop a plan to acquire Nomura Real Estate Holdings Inc., as its price is expected to be higher than initially estimated, informed sources said Saturday. (the-japan-news.com)

Train buffs and railway officials have attended the launch of a luxury sleeper train journey from Osaka Station. (NHK)

In Yamanashi Prefecture, the top producer of wine made only from grapes grown in Japan, three cities have come together to create a plan for a wine resort. (Japan Times)

Officials at the Bank of Japan have wrapped up a 2-day policy meeting. They have decided to press on with their easing program as they pursue their 2-percent inflation target. (NHK)

A fast-growing Chinese bicycle-sharing startup looks to debut in Japan next month, with plans to operate in roughly 10 major cities by the end of the year in cooperation with local governments. (Nikkei)

Prosecutors are set to search sites this weekend linked to the nationalist school operator at the center of a scandal tied to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, for evidence of fraud related to subsidies for its preschool, investigative sources said Friday. (Japan Times)

As the LGBT community continues to fight for equal rights across the globe, here in Japan small steps are being made towards equality, with same-sex partnerships now officially recognised in six areas of the country, including Osaka, Shibuya, Setagaya, and Naha. (rocketnews24.com)

The head of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi gangster group was served a fresh arrest warrant Friday in connection with a scuffle at the office of a different yakuza group in Kyoto in January. (Japan Times)

An unemployed 20-year-old man has been arrested for injuring a woman with a stun gun as she rode her bicycle home in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture, in April. (Japan Today)