A children's mobile library run by a Japanese expat in northern Thailand has become more important than ever during the coronavirus pandemic. Horiuchi Yoshimi sees books as "friends" for the youngsters in the remote, rural areas she visits. The 37-year-old remembers how reading shaped her own childhood. Born with weak eyesight, Horiuchi became blind during high school. She had always loved books, thanks to her grandfather who read to her as a child. So Horiuchi taught herself Braille so she could continue to read. She says this helped her to learn about the world.

Mizuho Bank, Ltd. has announced that it will lower its fees for transferring money to other banks' accounts through ATMs and Internet banking by up to 120 yen from October this year. Now that all the major banks have lowered their fees, it is expected that the trend of lowering fees will spread to regional banks as well.

A London-bound Japan Airlines passenger plane that took off from Haneda Airport turned back to Haneda Airport on the afternoon of the 14th because a crack appeared in the cockpit window. According to Japan Airlines, the 30 or so passengers and crew were not injured.

Thousands of volunteers in Japan were looking forward to this summer's Olympics and Paralympics as an opportunity to welcome fans from across the country and the world. But the decisions to ban spectators for most events has suddenly left them with nothing to do—and the sense that the years of preparations have been all for nothing.

Seventeen people are still unaccounted for more than a week since massive mudslides devastated Atami city in Shizuoka Prefecture. The search for survivors has been seriously affected by poor weather conditions, and more rain is expected this week.

Regarding the vaccination against the new coronavirus, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato stressed that he would like to share information with prefectures on the amount of vaccine allocated to each municipality and the status of vaccination, and that he would like to ensure steady vaccination by establishing an adjustment quota that allows prefectures to allocate vaccine to municipalities according to the situation.

The Nikkei Stock Average rose more than 600 yen in the Tokyo stock market on the 12th, as investors' concerns about the global economic outlook eased.

The Japanese government has announced it will impose a fourth coronavirus state of emergency for the capital starting next week and covering the duration of the Tokyo Olympics. This has prompted Olympic organizers to ban spectators from venues.

On April 7, the judicial authorities of 36 U.S. states and Washington, the capital of the United States, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. IT giant Google for allegedly monopolizing the smartphone application market and hindering free competition, in violation of the Antitrust Act, Japan's antitrust law. Google has responded by saying that it is more open than other systems.

Japan's Meteorological Agency is urging people in Tottori and Shimane Prefectures on the Sea of Japan coast to be on the alert for landslides and floods. The agency says it detected a band of rain clouds that have developed over the Sanin and Hokuriku regions along the Sea of Japan.

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics have postponed announcing the results of a lottery to determine which ticketholders can attend the opening and closing ceremonies as well as some matches for seven sporting events.

Tokyo stock market on the 5th, the beginning of the week, stock prices fell.