The shipment approval is believed to have been given to the vaccines manufactured in Belgium by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.
The health ministry is expected to hold a committee meeting on Friday to decide whether to grant a pharmaceutical approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines for administration in Japan.
The EU's export approval allows the government to have a clearer picture about implementing its plan to start coronavirus vaccinations in mid-February.
In late January, the EU introduced an advance approval system for exports of COVID-19 vaccines manufactured within the European bloc. As the measure enables the EU to halt exports in cases judged as detrimental to supply contracts signed between the EU and each vaccine maker, there were concerns that vaccine shipments bound for Japan may be affected.
On Feb. 1, during a teleconference call with officials of the European Commission, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi sought the EU's cooperation over the supply of vaccines. The EU promised to do its best to ensure exports.
Pfizer has concluded a contract with Japan to supply vaccine doses for around 72 million people in the country by the end of the year. Amid the brewing global vaccine battle, however, countries are facing the challenge of securing a stable supply of vaccines.
Japan has agreed to secure more than 140 million doses from Pfizer, 120 million from AstraZeneca PLC of Britain and 50 million from U.S. firm Moderna Inc., the health ministry has said.
- Japan Times
A panel of experts at Japan's health ministry has pointed out that the number of new cases of the coronavirus in the country has been declining at a slower pace since mid-February.
(NHK)
NAGOYA – Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday began construction of a smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji in central Japan as a testing ground for new technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence.
(Japan Times)
Since last year, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco) left two broken seismometers unrepaired at the No. 3 reactor within its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, officials said Monday.
(Japan Times)
Japan has received its second shipment of the coronavirus vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
(NHK)
Tokyo Electric Power Company has found that the pressure inside one of the reactor containment vessels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has dropped.
(NHK)
NHK has learned that a capsule used to bring back asteroid samples to Earth will be on display in March at a museum in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.
(NHK)
Japan's health ministry has decided to require patients with serious cases of COVID-19 to remain hospitalized for at least 15 days after they start showing symptoms.
(NHK)
Japan has begun vaccinating healthcare workers at medical facilities across the country.
(NHK)
Japanese companies are moving to expand the country's still-nascent hydrogen fueling infrastructure, taking advantage of recent deregulation as Tokyo positions the fuel as central to its pivot away from carbon. (Nikkei)
Vaccinations that kicked off Wednesday in Japan are administered through intramuscular injection — the delivery of medication deep into the muscles — which is widespread in Western countries but not so in Japan.
(Japan Times)
The number of patients with seasonal flu in Japan was below 100 during the first seven days of February. That's far below the levels seen before. (NHK)
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck northeastern Japan at around 11:07 p.m. on Saturday, local time. No tsunami warning has been issued.
(NHK)
Japanese localities have begun a scramble to secure medical personal to carry out a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus slated to start next week, with estimates predicting that 11,000 physicians are needed per day nationwide.
(Nikkei)
Japan is unlikely to inoculate as many people with Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine as planned due to a shortage of special syringes capable of extracting the final dose from vials provided by the drugmaker, health minister Norihisa Tamura said Tuesday.
(Kyodo)
Japanese precision equipment maker Shimadzu Corp started selling on Monday test kits that can detect coronavirus on inanimate surfaces, including doorknobs, faucets and computers, for the first time in the world.
(Japan Today)
Japanese researchers believe that a jawbone fossil discovered in Fukui Prefecture in 2019 might be from the earliest mammal to ever live within its shores.
(NHK)
Doctors have warned that many coronavirus patients, especially younger ones, are suffering aftereffects for a long time despite subsequently testing negative for the virus and are calling on the government to take countermeasures.
(Kyodo)
The European Union has approved exports of novel coronavirus vaccines to Japan for the first time, EU sources said Friday.
(Japan Times)
A Japanese health ministry survey shows that less than one percent of people in Tokyo and four other prefectures are estimated to have had antibodies against the coronavirus last December.
(NHK)
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, takes us over the algal blooms swirling around the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Japan, in this edition of the Earth from Space programme.
(European Space Agency, ESA)