The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says the daily tally of new cases of coronavirus infection has surpassed 40,000 for the first time in the Japanese capital.
Officials confirmed a record 40,406 new cases on Thursday. The figure was up more than 8,500 from a week earlier and represented an increase of about 30 percent.
Japan's health ministry says a second case of monkeypox has been confirmed in the country.
Officials says a man in his 30s from abroad, who is staying in Tokyo, tested positive on Thursday.
Japan's government has confirmed it will make thorough preparations for the state funeral for former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo that is scheduled for September.
About 30 senior officials of the relevant ministries and agencies attended the first meeting of the government's secretariat for the funeral on Thursday.
Japan's economy minister says the country will send 1,000 Japanese entrepreneurs and business development executives to Silicon Valley over the next five years.
The figure is a 10-fold increase from the current level in a bid to give Japanese industries a competitive edge in global markets.
Tokyo prosecutors have raided the headquarters of a major business wear retailer in connection with a possible bribery case involving the sponsorship of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The prosecutors on Thursday searched the head office of Aoki Holdings in Yokohama and an office of a subsidiary firm in Tokyo.
The World Health Organization says Japan recorded the highest global number of new coronavirus cases in the seven days through Sunday.
The WHO on Wednesday released an update on new COVID-19 cases reported during the week from July 18 to 24.
Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is planning to visit Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries late next month to discuss stabilizing international energy markets.
The visit is likely to take place around the same time as a meeting of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD, scheduled to start on August 27 in the northern African country of Tunisia. Japan has led the conference since 1993 and this will be its eighth session.
Japanese prosecutors have questioned a former board member of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee on a voluntary basis in connection with a possible bribery case involving a sponsor.
Sources say investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office questioned Takahashi Haruyuki on Tuesday and Wednesday. Takahashi is said to have denied any wrongdoing.
Japan's Meteorological Agency has downgraded the volcanic alert level for Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, from 5 to 3 on a 5-point scale.
Level 5 requires nearby residents to evacuate.
Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says the government will draw up a 10-year roadmap toward the country's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Kishida spoke on Wednesday at the first meeting of a council in charge of boosting green transformation.
Four former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company, responsible for the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, have appealed a court ruling in which they were ordered to pay damages to the utility.
Shareholders of the Tokyo power utility who had sued five former executives are also said to have appealed, so the trial is expected to continue at the Tokyo High Court.
Heavy rainfall was reported in some parts of Japan, especially in Kyoto and Hokkaido prefectures, on Wednesday. Weather officials are urging people to be alert for possible landslides, flooding in low-lying areas and swollen rivers.
The Meteorological Agency says atmospheric conditions are unstable in western to northern Japan as warm and moist air flows from the south.
Amid Japan's seventh wave of infections, the Tokyo Fire Department is reporting a surge in the number of cases of people being taken to hospital by ambulance after becoming unwell due to the coronavirus.
The department says the number of such cases during the week through Sunday was 725. The patients who were transported to hospital were recuperating at home or elsewhere.
Japan Post says 170 post offices across the country are closed as of Tuesday because workers have been infected with the coronavirus, or have been designated as close contacts.
The firm says the number of shuttered locations has been rising since mid-July, and most of them are small post offices with few staff members. It says many of them have suspended their over-the-counter services as well as automated teller machines, and it is still unknown when they will resume.