The Latest Breaking News from The Japan News/Yomiuri

The government has announced new measures concerning outpatient care for people infected with the novel coronavirus, including allowing doctors to diagnose close contacts as infected without conducting a PCR test at a medical facility if the contact has a fever or other symptoms.

KANAZAWA -- A couple dries colorful arare bite-size rice crackers in the town of Shiga, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Monday. Food coloring is used to dye the snacks various shades, including pink, yellow and green, though some are left uncolored. To make the tidbits, farmer Kunio Shirayama, 78, and his wife,…

This year, Okinawa marks the 50th anniversary of its return to Japan. This second installment of the "Origins" part of our anniversary explores some of the issues that have impacted Okinawa's people since the handover, leading up to the present day.

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force transport ship Osumi departed for Tonga on Monday to provide aid to the southern Pacific nation recently ravaged by an undersea volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami.

The relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture to the Henoko district in Nago in the same prefecture is the only solution that strikes a balance between maintaining deterrence and reducing the base-related burden on the prefecture. The central government needs to steadily facilitate the…

Relief was the prevailing emotion within the government and the ruling parties as incumbent Taketoyo Toguchi was reelected mayor of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, the city to which the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air base in Ginowan are to be relocated.

Infections with the novel coronavirus have been spreading rapidly. The government and the ruling and opposition parties should seriously discuss how to prevent infections and maintain social and economic activities.

Staying in power forever is difficult for any authoritarian ruler. The downfall of a leader who was viewed as a model for tyranny may have served as a warning to heads of state plotting long-term dictatorships.

The nation's fiscal condition is deteriorating rapidly, as a result of measures taken against the novel coronavirus. Despite this, if the government does nothing but set a target based on an optimistic outlook, it will not be able to pave the way for fiscal consolidation.

The Jan. 15 eruption of an undersea volcano off Tonga marked the first time since modernized observation began in the 1980s that peculiar atmospheric waves were observed from a volcanic eruption, according to researchers at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo.

NAGO, Okinawa -- The incumbent backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito was reelected Sunday in the Nago mayoral election.