Japanese actress Erika Sawajiri has pleaded guilty to possession of illegal drugs.

Sawajiri's trial opened at the Tokyo District Court on Friday.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called the spread of the new coronavirus an unprecedented crisis and told a government task force not to hesitate to take necessary measures against the outbreak.

Abe issued the instruction on Friday at a meeting of the task force set up to deal with the outbreak.

The Japan National Tourism Organization is offering phone consultation services for foreign tourists who are concerned about the new strain of coronavirus.

The Japan Visitor Hotline offers 24-hour services in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean.

The Japanese government says it will start enforcing on Saturday ordinances that allow it to tighten immigration controls and take other measures to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading.

The government initially planned to start enforcing the ordinances next Friday. The move to fast-track their enactment came after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday.

Another plane carrying Japanese evacuees from the epicenter in China has arrived in Tokyo. It's the third flight of its kind this week.

The chartered plane landed at Haneda Airport on Friday morning, after picking up 149 people in Wuhan.

Japan's Defense Ministry is considering offering a ferry as temporary accommodation for evacuees from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak.

The evacuees have been transported from Wuhan aboard government-chartered flights. They are being housed at a hotel in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, and elsewhere in the capital after being checked by medical professionals.

A chartered plane carrying Japanese evacuees from the epicenter in China has arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

Japan's third chartered flight took off from Haneda Airport for Wuhan last night.

Japanese airlines are seeing a sharp decline in the number of passengers going to and coming from China since the coronavirus outbreak. They are considering suspending some flights for both business and health-safety reasons.

All Nippon Airways operates over 20 round trips a day between Japan and China. So far, only the Wuhan service has been suspended. ANA officials say they are keeping a close watch on the situation.

Japan's government is fast-tracking the enactment of an ordinance that designates pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus as an infectious disease. It will go into force on Saturday.

The government approved the legislation this week for enactment on February 7.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has hinted that the government may shoulder the costs of chartered flights to bring back Japanese nationals from Wuhan. The Chinese city is at the center of the new coronavirus outbreak.

Abe made the suggestion at a Lower House budget committee meeting on Friday.

Japanese electronics company NEC may have come under cyber-attacks, with about 28,000 data files likely leaked.

Sources say the attacks occurred over several years through 2018. They add the possibly compromised files contained information on defense technologies, such as submarine sonar.

Japan's health ministry will ask all arrivals from China to fill out a survey inquiring about stays in the Chinese city of Wuhan and any health problems they may have.

Passengers will receive the questionnaire aboard flights and ships from China, whether or not they have symptoms suspected to be related to a new coronavirus.

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has become difficult to conduct another robot survey inside the containment vessel of one of the crippled reactors by March.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, made the announcement on Thursday regarding the No.1 reactor, which experienced a meltdown due to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The utility says it will announce later when it will begin the survey.

Japan has confirmed three more cases of infection with the new coronavirus, raising the total domestic tally to 14.

The latest confirmations came on Thursday. The three people include a Chinese student who is in her 20s and lives in the western prefecture of Kyoto, a male foreign national in his 50s, who lives in the western prefecture of Mie, and a tour conductor who is in her 30s and resides in the Chinese province of Hunan.