Half of Japan's population has now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the government has said, marking a milestone as the country grapples with its largest wave of infections yet.
The nationwide tally of new cases on Wednesday topped 23,000 in another record high.
Just under 64 million of the nation's population of 125 million had been partially or fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to data released by the Prime Minister's Office, after the inoculation program was launched in February initially for health care workers and expanded to older people in April and later to other members of the public.