Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a Tokyo hospital on Monday for the second time in days, fanning further speculation about the state of his health.
Abe suffers from chronic ulcerative colitis and has spoken of struggling with it since junior high school. A flare-up in 2007 forced him to quit as prime minister.
Officials have declined to comment in detail on Abe's health, saying only that Monday's visit was connected to last week's check, itself a follow-up to a physical exam in June.