An annual torch ceremony heralding the arrival of spring has begun at Todaiji Temple in the ancient Japanese capital of Nara.

An online bank and a financial technology firm in Tokyo have joined hands to start a new service to allow non-Japanese residents in the country to easily open bank accounts on their smartphones.

Japan's government has extended the deadline of an incentive campaign for people to apply for "My Number" ID cards with certain conditions, due to congestion at municipal offices by last-minute applicants.

Japan's government has approved a set of bills that would allow nuclear power plants to operate beyond their current 60-year limit.

Major Japanese tire makers are responding to ongoing advances in the car industry by experimenting with technologies that may one day form part of self-driving and eco-friendly systems.

Exports of Kobe beef to Saudi Arabia are set to begin next month for the first time. The high-grade meat is increasingly popular overseas, and Japanese industry officials are hoping to boost demand in the Middle East.

NHK has learned Japan's government and the Imperial Household Agency are making arrangements for Crown Prince and Princess Akishino to attend the coronation ceremony for Britain's King Charles III in May.

Officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government are planning to install shutters and gates at subway station entrances to keep flood water from flowing into tunnels.

Consumer prices in Japan rose at the fastest pace in over four decades in January. Electricity, gas, and food costs in particular, are soaring.

Sources say officials of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee and ad agency Dentsu, which were allegedly involved in bid-rigging, began making a list of companies to be assigned contracts in 2017, the year before bidding took place.

Japanese industry organizations are reviewing their anti-coronavirus guidelines that mostly call on people to wear masks indoors.

The governor of the western Japanese prefecture of Shimane has urged the central government to stand firm in diplomatic negotiations with South Korea to resolve the issue of the Takeshima Islands.