Japan Football Association President Kohzo Tashima said, "I made the decision to change the coach because I want to do whatever I can to help the team win at the World Cup. I believe it's best the new coach is someone who has been working with Japanese players."
Nishino is currently the Technical Director of the Japan Football Association and has managed top-tier J-League teams.
Before that, he led the national team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The head of the association praised Halilhodzic for helping Japan qualify for its 6th straight World Cup.
But he said the coach has been struggling to get through to the players. The team recently suffered a tie and a loss to teams that hadn't even qualified for the World Cup.
Japan will play Colombia in its opening group stage match in June.
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) 
Tokyo police arrested on Tuesday some members of a fraud group for allegedly attempting to register a land ownership change using fake documents, in a high-profile case that led Sekisui House Ltd. <1928> to lose billions of yen. (Jiji) 
Keisuke Fukuchi, the 2018 world champion of the Othello board game and the youngest ever at 11, was congratulated and surprised while on his return flight to Japan after the competition in Prague as the pilot revealed via intercom that he was the previous record holder. (Kyodo) 
Gunma Prefecture says its helicopter that crashed in August is suspected to have been flying in violation of civil aviation laws.
(NHK) 
An unmanned store using artificial intelligence instead of cashiers is set to open on a trial basis at a station in Tokyo.
(NHK) 
Showa University in Tokyo admitted Monday that its medical school has been rigging entrance examination results in favor of first- and second-time test takers, while putting former students' children high on waiting lists to fill vacancies. (Jiji) 
The Imperial Household Agency said Monday it will jointly excavate Japan’s largest ancient mounded tomb with a local government for the first time. (Japan Times) 
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says Facebook has informed the government that its recent massive data leak could involve Japanese users.
(NHK)