Tokyo has been selected by the World Athletics Council to host the 2025 World Athletics Championships. It will be Japan's third time hosting the event.
The decision was made at the council's meeting in the US state of Oregon on Thursday.
Japan's Meteorological Agency says atmospheric conditions are unstable in western and eastern regions of the country.
Weather officials are urging people to be on alert for possible mudslides and sudden swelling of rivers, as they expect heavy downpours from western to northern Japan through Saturday.
Japan plans to honor former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo with a state funeral. He was killed in a shocking attack last Friday.
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says the funeral is scheduled for this autumn.
Confirmed new cases of the coronavirus across Japan exceeded 10 million on Thursday since the pandemic started.
More than 80 percent of the cumulative total, or over 8.2 million, have been reported since January, when the Omicron variant became dominant in the country.
A group of researchers in Japan says the Omicron subvariant BA.5 is 27 percent more contagious than the BA.2 subvariant, which has been the main cause of the country's recent coronavirus infections.
The group led by Professor Nishiura Hiroshi of Kyoto University and Professor Ito Kimihito of Hokkaido University submitted the report to a meeting of an expert panel of Japan's Health Ministry on Wednesday.
Japan's health ministry is seeking a revision to the Hotel Business Act to enable hotel operators to reject clients suspected of having infectious diseases if they do not comply with anti-infection measures.
Some hotels and inns in Japan are calling for a review to the current law which prohibits operators from rejecting lodging of guests unless it is certain they have an infectious disease, including COVID-19.
Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says the government will hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in the autumn.
Kishida announced the plan in a news conference on Thursday after expressing his condolences for Abe, who was fatally shot during a campaign speech on Friday.
Experts assessing the coronavirus situation in Tokyo say the number of daily new cases may exceed the peak of the sixth wave of infections after a week.
The experts expressed a strong sense of urgency in a meeting on Thursday, saying Tokyo may see an explosive increase that has never been experienced before.
Investigators probing the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe say the suspect may have decided to carry out his plan this month.
Abe was shot while making a campaign speech on Friday in Nara City, in western Japan. The suspect, 41-year-old Yamagami Tetsuya, was arrested on the spot.
US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer has asked Japan's health ministry to allow the use of its coronavirus vaccine for children younger than five.
The company on Thursday applied for authorization for the vaccine to cover children from six months through four years old.
Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announced on Thursday that the government plans to hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in the autumn.
Sources within the investigation into the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo say the suspect's mother likely donated nearly 100 million yen, or about 720,000 dollars, to a religious organization.
The sources quote the 41-year-old suspect, Yamagami Tetsuya, as saying his mother ruined his family by making huge donations to the group.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 16,662 new infections from the coronavirus on Thursday. It marked the third consecutive day that the daily tally topped 10,000.
The figure is up 8,133 from a week ago, or 1.95-times the total last Thursday.
The Japanese government has decided to put off plans for a program that encourages travel around Japan due to the nationwide resurgence of coronavirus infections.
Tourism minister Saito Tetsuo told reporters on Thursday that after speaking with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio it was decided to postpone the program to get tourism going for the time being.