Japanese authorities say 57 more people on board the quarantined Diamond Princess have tested positive for the new coronavirus.
This brings the total number of virus carriers found on the cruise ship to 691.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered a government task force to prepare for a potential surge in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus.
Abe told the task force on Sunday that the situation has entered a crucial phase after cases with unknown infection routes were reported in multiple regions of the country.
Japan's Health Ministry will continue to check the condition of passengers who got off the quarantined cruise ship docked near Tokyo, after one of them tested positive for the new coronavirus on Saturday.
Nine hundred sixty-nine passengers left the Diamond Princess last week after testing negative for the virus and finishing the two-week quarantine period.
Japan's health ministry says it has to retest 23 passengers who were allowed to leave a new coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Yokohama port, as the initial testing procedure was incomplete.
All the passengers and crew onboard the Diamond Princess were tested at the start of a 14-day quarantine period around February 5.
Twenty-six new cases of coronavirus were reported in Japan on Saturday.
In Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo, a family of four tested positive.
Emperor Naruhito is now 60 years old.
Ahead of the Sunday occasion, the Emperor expressed his thoughts to the media. It was his first news conference since he ascended the throne last May.
A woman in her 60s in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, has tested positive for the new coronavirus after disembarking from the quarantined cruise ship docked near Tokyo.
Last Saturday, the woman on the Diamond Princess tested negative for the virus.
Passengers have been disembarking from the coronavirus-hit cruise ship Diamond Princess. Nine-hundred and seventy people had left the vessel at its port in Yokohama near Tokyo in the 3 days through Friday. About 300 passengers and 1,000 crew members remain on board.
A 14-day quarantine period imposed by health authorities ended on Wednesday. People with no symptoms and who test negative for the virus have been permitted to leave.
A teacher in her 60s at a public junior high school east of Tokyo has been confirmed to be infected with the virus. She showed symptoms of nausea while teaching in Chiba prefecture .
The mayor of Chiba city says the school will be closed until next Wednesday. The teacher has no record of overseas travel in the past 2 weeks and is not known to have been in contact with an infected person.
NHK has learned that arrangements are being made for Japan's Imperial couple to make a state visit to Britain for about a week in early May.
The British royal household announced last month that Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako had accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth.
The last group of passengers to test negative and show no symptoms for the new coronavirus have disembarked from a quarantined cruise ship docked near Tokyo.
A man in his 70s said, " I just want to sit around and take a bath for now."
NHK has learned that a large number of health ministry officials who boarded the cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo were allowed to return to their workplace without being tested for the new coronavirus.
As of Friday, 634 passengers and crewmembers on the Diamond Princess had tested positive.
More than a dozen new cases of the coronavirus were reported in Japan on Friday.
Officials in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido said 3 people have been infected with the new coronavirus, including 2 elementary school students.
An official of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing committee has pledged to continue preparations for the event for the sake of athletes, despite the new coronavirus outbreak.
Hisashi Nakaminami, the head of the Paralympic Games Integration Office, spoke to reporters in Tokyo on Friday -- nearly six months before the Games start on August 25.