The total number of the cases in Tokyo has topped 1,500, with Osaka at 616 as of Thursday evening.

Osaka Prefecture will launch an initiative aimed at promoting food delivery services as residents are urged to stay at home amid the coronavirus epidemic, Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said Thursday. Under the scheme, which will begin as early as next week, Osaka residents who use cashless ...

The health ministry estimates that Tokyo could see up to 700 patients in need of intensive care every day once the epidemic reaches its peak.

Many Italian companies and academics are pressing the government to reopen factories to prevent an economic catastrophe, as the world watches how the first Western country to impose a lockdown can extricate itself from the unprecedented measures. The same debate is being held around the ...

More than 200,000 people have answered France's call for idled workers to help crop and livestock farmers, desperate for extra hands as summer approaches, Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume said Tuesday. "Today we have more than 200,000 applicants, and we have 5,000 recruiters who are organizing ...

The speed of the process as well as the advantage cars offer to avoid crowds have drawn attention.

With speedy data transmission and low latency, the advent of 5G networks means users of mobile communications devices will have access to more elaborate augmented and virtual reality apps.

Fast Retailing Co. on Thursday sharply cut its earnings outlook for its business year ending in August as the global outbreak of the new coronavirus forced the casual clothing retailer to close most of its overseas stores in Asia, Europe and North America. In its ...

The request came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and five prefectures.

Stuck at home with no visitors and not much else to do, a pair of pandas in Hong Kong finally decided to give mating a go after a decade of dodging the issue. Like half the planet, Ying Ying and Le Le have only really ...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was getting better Thursday in intensive care where he is battling COVID-19 as his government extended its overdraft facility and reviewed the most stringent shutdown in peacetime history. Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' hospital on Sunday evening with ...

As the new coronavirus continues to spread in Japan, recovered patients, their families, co-workers and neighbors are facing stigma and discriminatory treatment, a recurrent theme seen in society when people have been faced with new health threats, such as leprosy and the effects of ...

Business sentiment among workers in Japan with jobs sensitive to economic trends fell to the lowest level on record in March due to concern over the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, government data showed Wednesday. The diffusion index of confidence among "economy watchers" such as ...

Most of the money is for companies shifting output back to Japan, but funds have also been reserved for those moving elsewhere in Asia.

The bulk of the furloughs are at Honda and Nissan, while Toyota is mainly targeting its temporary staff for now.

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea will again extend their closure and decide their reopening date in mid-May to curb the spread of the new coronavirus in line with the government's request, operator Oriental Land Co. said Thursday. The company said on March 27, 12 days ...

Thuy Pham has run two jobs for much of her working life, and a little over two years ago all that effort paid off when she realized a dream of buying her own home. As the coronavirus shutdowns have deepened, that’s started to unravel: ...

Long maligned as job-stealers and aspiring overlords, robots are being increasingly relied on as fast, efficient, contagion-proof champions in the war against the deadly coronavirus. One team of robots temporarily cared for patients in a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the COVID-19 ...

Around 20,000 domestic workers at three of the nation's biggest carmakers will be put on temporary leave because of the output suspensions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, company sources say. Nissan Motor Co., Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. have already made adjustments by ...

The global chemical weapons watchdog explicitly blamed Syria for toxic attacks for the first time Wednesday, saying President Bashar Assad's air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017. The findings came in the first report from a new investigative team ...

Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said COVID-19 has weighed on the country's economy as exports, output and spending declined, as did the number of inbound tourists.

Small cinemas in Kansai that are struggling to attract moviegoers due to the coronavirus pandemic have started selling original T-shirts in hopes of boosting their bottom line. The project was launched jointly by 13 small cinemas in and around Osaka and the nearby cities of ...

Irene Hirano, head of the U.S.-Japan Council and widow of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, died Tuesday in Los Angeles following an extended illness, the council said Wednesday. She was 71. Born in Los Angeles, she was also president and founding CEO of the ...

Tokyo aims to ask a wide range of facilities to close, but the central government fears the move will fuel anxiety and spark panic-buying.

Wearing face masks, which health officials in many countries previously discouraged outside hospitals, is gaining converts as the coronavirus spreads across the globe. So far, U.S. and international health authorities have mostly relied on virus-fighting measures such as physical distancing, while recommending frequent hand-washing. Masks, ...

According to the Justice Ministry, the postponement is the first for the bar exam since the current test system was introduced in 2006.

The multilingual hotline will cover eight languages, including English, Korean and Chinese, and aims to help foreign nationals in Japan with questions about the new coronavirus.

The state of emergency declared by the government this week due to the rapidly expanding number of coronavirus infections in Tokyo and six other prefectures should cause us not to panic but take the situation seriously.

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged out of China has challenged all countries and regions where it has spread, including Japan. The question for most as the sense of crisis builds is what is the correct approach to take to mitigate an outbreak that could ...

Have you wondered what it's like to get tested for COVID-19 in Japan? With little Japanese, Joe Oliver learned the hard way after being sent by his doctor to head straight to the hospital.

Yumiko Morioka's first and only album, 1987's 'Resonance,' gets the reissue treatment, allowing fans to hear the musician's ambient sounds once again.

The death of comedian Ken Shimura on March 29 due to pneumonia caused by COVID-19 sent a shock wave throughout the country. A star on Japanese TV for decades, he was the first major celebrity here to pass away after contracting the virus. To curb ...

Junzo Sekine, a Hall of Famer and former manager who split his playing career between the mound and the batter's box, has died at the age of 93, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday. Sekine managed the Yokohama-based Taiyo Whales, the predecessor of ...

Kevin Garnett always found Seattle to be a difficult place for opponents. He played in 27 games there during his NBA career, leaving the court as a winner only eight times. He remembers those days. And respects them, too. In a wide-ranging interview this week with ...

The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was a heavy blow for many athletes, but a team of South Sudanese sprinters training in a Japanese town are hoping to use the delay to their advantage. Four South Sudanese athletes and a coach have been in ...