The Latest Breaking News from The Japan News/Yomiuri

Two China Coast Guard ships stayed continuously in Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands for 64 hours 17 minutes this month, the longest single intrusion since Japan nationalized the islands in 2012.

The Tokyo Family Court on Thursday approved the divorce of a Japanese woman from her French husband and granted her custody of the couple's two children, despite a French court's issuance of an arrest warrant against her on suspicion of abducting the children.

The recent surge in new cases of infection with the novel coronavirus can partly be attributed to the emergence of the omicron subvariant BA.5, according to an expert advisory body to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Complicated procedures involved in overseas voting have been cited as a reason why the turnout among Japanese citizens living abroad has typically been low, but from this year, Japanese expatriates have been able to register on the overseas electoral roll online via diplomatic establishments.

Honda Motor Co.'s N-Box minicar was the top-selling new car in Japan during the January-June period, retaking the top spot it held in 2020 on a first-half basis, industry data showed Wednesday.

Visitors look at illuminated goldfish bowls at an event to mark the Tanabata star festival in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Decorations included bamboo leaves and tanzaku paper strips, on which people traditionally write wishes for Tanabata, which comes every year on July 7. The event runs through Sunday at…

With the Emperor and Empress unable to visit regional areas for more than 2-1/2 years due to the pandemic, the Imperial Household Agency is closely monitoring various events, including J.League soccer matches, to help devise measures to prevent infection and allow the couple to resume their trips.

The government plans to examine KDDI Corp.'s handling of the 86-hour network disruption that affected up to 39.15 million mobile connections, making the outage the industry's most serious telecommunications failure to date.

Japan, the United States and South Korea are planning to hold talks between their foreign ministers, according to Japanese government officials. Discussions would be held on the sidelines of the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting taking place in Bali, Indonesia, on Thursday and Friday.

Russia's establishment of a law requiring oil and natural gas development projects to be conducted by Russian companies indicates the government of President Vladimir Putin is strengthening its stance on shutting out foreign firms.

Suntory Spirits Ltd. announced Tuesday that the company is raising the price of Beaujolais Nouveau wine imported from France that will go on sale in Japan this autumn.