Japan News

Despite uncertainties from COVID-19, top Japanese corporations plan to invest 15.8% more in information technology in fiscal 2020 to keep up the wave of digitization across industries. (Nikkei)

Unreported World is in Japan to meet some of the country’s ‘Junior Idols’. (Unreported World)

Japan's male smoking rate fell below 30 percent for the first time in 2019, slipping to 28.8 percent, down 2.3 percentage points from the previous study in 2016, according to a health ministry survey. (Japan Today)

In a town with a dying population, we find hundreds of scarecrows, zero children, and a voice that I hope I never forget. (Tokyo Lens)

Japan was blanketed by sweltering heat on Sunday. Temperatures in many areas rose above 35 degrees Celsius, putting people's health at risk. (NHK)

People in the US will be able to watch Japanese pro baseball games live on cable TV and the internet soon. (NHK)

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo says he will work to prevent the elderly and other vulnerable people from contracting the coronavirus to avoid declaring another state of emergency. (NHK)

A search for a misplaced bag by a 37-year-old male teacher led to his arrest over the alleged rape of an intoxicated college student at a karaoke parlor in Sagamihara City, police said, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Aug. 9). (tokyoreporter.com)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says 331 new cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed as of 3 p.m. on Sunday. (NHK)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested popular manga author Tatsuya Matsuki over the alleged molestation of a middle school girl in Nakano Ward earlier this year, reports Sankei Sports (Aug. 8). (tokyoreporter.com)

Toyama Prefectural Police have arrested a 22-year-old man for allegedly setting fire to the corpse of his girlfriend at their residence in Takaoka City, reports Jiji Press (Aug. 9). (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan famously has one of the highest life expectancies in the world but its birth rate is also at an all time low, leaving the future of the country uncertain. (CNA)

Japan is Asia's first industrialised economy, yet it ranks 121, below Angola on the Gender Gap Index. (CNA)

Many Japanese will be taking their summer holiday over the weekend amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (CNA)

A high school girl from Saitama Prefecture who used a game console to alert police after a 44-year-old man confined her inside his residence had been there for one month, police have revealed, reports TV Asahi (Aug. 7). (tokyoreporter.com)

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines says it believes more than 1,000 tons of oil have leaked from a bulk carrier that ran aground off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean on July 25. (NHK)

People in Japan are remembering the victims of a catastrophic event during World War Two. Exactly 75 years ago, an American warplane dropped an atomic bomb on the southwestern city of Nagasaki ... just three days after one leveled Hiroshima. (NHK)

Ayumi Sato is trying to be careful. But she's had enough. Lockdown fatigue is setting in for Sato, a 34-year-old stock trader who lives in Tokyo, and she's not alone. (CNN)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says 429 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed as of 3 p.m. on Saturday. (NHK)

Teachers and education officials are calling for students to pay special heed to the risk of heat exhaustion this summer as schools across Japan shorten their summer holidays and hold more classes than usual to make up for closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (Japan Times)