The Japanese government will broaden its entry ban to cover people from the Chinese province of Zhejiang to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Japan. Many cases of the virus have been found in Zhejiang.
Japan currently bans the entry of foreign nationals who were in Hubei Province within 14 days before their arrival in Japan, or those who hold passports issued by the Hubei provincial government, unless they have special reasons.
A team of infectious disease experts began examining a quarantined cruise ship at Yokohama Port on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday evening, 135 cases of the new coronavirus had been found on the Diamond Princess. About 3,600 passengers and crewmembers remain on board the vessel.
Japan has confirmed two more cases of infection with the new coronavirus. The patients are both Japanese nationals who were among those evacuated on government-chartered flights from the Chinese city of Wuhan late last month.
One of them is a male resident of Wuhan in his 50s. He returned to Japan on the first chartered flight on January 29.
Japanese health officials are retesting people who returned home on board the first government-chartered flight from Wuhan for the new coronavirus.
The first charter flight brought 206 Japanese people from the virus-hit Chinese city on January 29.
Japanese people still quarantined after being repatriated on the first government-chartered plane from the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan may soon be allowed to go home.
On January 29, the plane brought 206 people to Japan from the Chinese city.
Japanese financial authorities will allow companies to delay submitting mandatory reports if they cannot meet the deadlines due to the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Listed companies are required by law to submit quarterly earnings reports and other mandatory documents to the state on a regular basis.
Japan's government is planning to send a fifth chartered plane to evacuate Japanese citizens from the Chinese province of Hubei which has been hit hard by the new coronavirus outbreak.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters on Monday that arrangements are underway to send the plane this weekend at the earliest.
Work has begun to rebuild Okinawa's Shuri Castle after a fire destroyed its main structures last year.
The World Heritage-listed site in the city of Naha was mostly destroyed in a massive fire in October.
A group of infectious disease experts is to survey a cruise ship hit by a coronavirus outbreak to prevent further spreading of the disease.
As of Monday, more than 130 people on board the Diamond Princess docked at Yokohama Port tested positive for the new coronavirus and have been taken to hospital.
Sixty-six more people on board a quarantined cruise ship at Yokohama Port have been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. That brings the total number of cases on the vessel to 136.
People with confirmed infections will be hospitalized, as were cases discovered earlier.
The Japan Railway group says its credit card payment system is now back online nationwide. A glitch early on Monday left travelers unable to use the form of payment, creating headaches for the morning commute.
JR officials say the problem started at around 4 a.m. and lasted five hours. They say there was a technical issue in the server that processes credit payments.
Japan's Health Ministry says around 60 new cases of coronavirus infection have been identified on a cruise ship in Yokohama. That nearly doubles the total number of cases discovered on the vessel to around 130.
Japan's current account surplus has grown for the first time in two years in 2019 on the back of strong investment income and a booming tourist trade.
Finance Ministry officials say last year's surplus topped 20 trillion yen, or about 183 billion dollars. That's up by roughly 7.6 billion dollars from the previous year.
The number of people killed by the coronavirus outbreak in China has overtaken the death toll from the 2003 SARS epidemic.
More than 900 people have died in mainland China and about 40,000 people have been infected. Across the world, there are 380 cases, including dozens found on a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, docked in Yokohama, Japan.