Japan and the United States on Monday started the first round of negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement, which President Donald Trump's administration sees as a way to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Japan.

It has now been 11 days since Japan's next era name "Reiwa" was unveiled, and the ensuing hubbub has come down a notch.

Japanese police will launch an investigation into a major phone scam from Thailand in which hundreds of people across Japan are believed to have been swindled out of more than 200 million yen ($1.8 million) this year, investigative sources said Wednesday.

Forty percent of Japanese are supportive of an approach Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, a Kyodo News poll showed Wednesday.

A deputy land minister tendered his resignation Friday after he came under fire for saying in public he made a special decision related to a road project to please Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso.

A Japanese court on Friday approved the detention of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn through April 14 after his latest arrest over financial misconduct allegations, a move that has raised questions among legal experts.

Japan's Emperor Akihito has begun a series of rituals leading to his abdication on April 30. The first ceremonies were held at the three Imperial sanctuaries on the palace grounds in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Japan’s reputation as a country relatively free of gun crime is borne out by official statistics. In terms of individuals charged with crimes committed using firearms, the 2018 white paper issued by the National Police Agency listed eight homicides in 2017.

East Japan Railway Co. will begin an environmental impact survey this spring in preparation for building a faster access line to Haneda airport from central Tokyo, according to sources on Saturday who also said the announcement of the study could come as early this month.

Nearly half of cities and towns across Japan are concerned about how to appropriately deal with to foreign workers as they prepare for an influx starting this spring due to a new government policy aimed at addressing a chronic labor shortage, a survey conducted by Kyodo News showed Sunday.

Japan has been negotiating with the United States to make it possible for Japanese law enforcement officers to carry out their own investigations of serious incidents involving U.S. military aircraft.

Government officials and former residents of the northern territories held various events around the nation calling for the islands’ return on Thursday, which was Northern Territories Day.