With more coronavirus patients reporting the loss of smell and taste, medical experts have started paying closer attention to such cases, suspecting the symptoms may be indicators of infection. Norio Sugaya, a doctor with expertise in infectious diseases at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, pointed out ...

Masayoshi Son has been among the most fervent believers in the sharing economy, investing billions in startups that help people split the use of cars, rooms and offices. But as the coronavirus curtails unnecessary human interaction, it’s hammering such businesses and rattling the foundations of ...

Earlier this month, Kansai Electric Power Co. concluded that scores of its employees had received cash and gifts worth hundreds of millions of yen from an influential politician in a Fukui Prefecture town where the utility operates a nuclear power plant. The revelations by ...

Restaurants in Japan are navigating rough waters amid the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring new ideas as they try to come up with ways to remain afloat. As the virus spreads, more people are refraining from dining out, especially in big gatherings. This has led to cancellations ...

A rare late-March snowfall coupled with numerous store closures helped keep Tokyo residents indoors Sunday, day two of a crucial weekend in the city's attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19. With snow falling across the Kanto region from morning until around noon, an icy ...

With a skyrocketing number of new COVID-19 patients over the last few days, Japan appears to be edging closer to declaring a state of emergency, a measure the central government has characterized as a last resort in the battle against the deadly virus. But how ...

Like millions of people around the world, Zhang Chunzi borrowed money she thought she would be able to repay. Then the new coronavirus changed everything. Now laid off from her job at an apparel exporter in Hangzhou — one of China's most prosperous cities — ...

As the coronavirus pandemic threatens to strain nursing staffs at hospitals across the United States, Melanie N. Beckham knows where to find reinforcements. But first, the Trump administration needs to give its approval. Beckham, president of Vintage Health Resources in Germantown, Tennessee, specializes in helping ...

The government has an ambitious plan to expand Japan's esports industry with the private sector to help revitalize regional economies and increase social participation by people with disabilities, with an eye to generating ¥285 billion ($2.6 billion) in economic benefits a year by 2025, ...

Digital surveillance and smartphone technology may prove helpful in containing the coronavirus pandemic, but some activists fear they also could bring lasting harm to privacy and digital rights. From China to Singapore to Israel, governments have ordered electronic monitoring of their citizens' movements in an ...

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, the fourth such launch this month as the world battles the coronavirus pandemic. Two projectiles were fired eastwards from the port city of Wonsan and flew 230 kilometers ...

Japan and 10 other countries are set to ask the United States to improve the way it manages its military sales program to address equipment-delivery delays and the slow return of excess payments, government sources say. Worried about its deployment plans being affected by the ...

After three days of over 40 cases each, Saturday’s batch was a reminder that the worst may be yet to come.

The Finance Ministry has started to use YouTube for a campaign aimed at preventing the smuggling of stimulants and gold. Two employees at the ministry's Customs and Tariff Bureau, which oversees customs stations throughout Japan, have created and posted to YouTube videos about smuggling and ...

Japan plans to extend the deadline by which people must move into new homes to qualify for a tax break program for people with mortgages by a year, informed sources say. The move to relax the eligibility conditions for the program will be included in ...

The Osaka Corona Hotel has been eerily quiet and empty the past few weeks. “Our name is extremely regrettable,” Kohei Fujii, the hotel’s sales director, said with a sigh as he sat in an empty cafe in the lobby. A sign advertising discounted bottles of ...

Barely a month ago, China was in the grip of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Thousands of new infections were confirmed every day. Hospitals were overwhelmed. People were dying by the hundreds. People couldn’t leave their homes. But the government’s draconian lockdown seems to have ...

There are no countries in the world that do not wish for eternal prosperity. Nothing can ensure such prosperity except education of their people. Many people may take that to mean school education for children and youth. However, what will be far more important ...

The eruption of COVID-19 has focused the attention of the world’s political authorities, but has also made them cognizant of past experience. As we know, the “Spanish Flu,” so named because initial media reports suggested that the influenza originated in Spain rather than in ...

As ambassador of a country with one of the longest histories in the world, Grant Pogosyan is eager to share his homeland’s unique culture with Japan. Just as unique, however, is Pogosyan’s path to becoming the first ambassador for Armenia in Japan.

An NFL draft handled remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic is the latest twist to an event that has become as popular as any pro football happening short of the Super Bowl. Roger Goodell alerted NFL teams in a memo Thursday night that the dates ...

Another roadblock was thrown into the path of 36-year-old former Japan captain Makoto Hasebe on Friday, when his team's German Cup semifinal was postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. The final year of Hasebe's current contract with Eintracht Frankfurt had already fallen into doubt after ...

Tennis star Naomi Osaka, the poster girl of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, took to social media on Saturday to show her support for the decision to postpone the games until next year. Osaka, who won the U.S. Open in 2018 and the Australian Open in ...