Japan had purchased doses to vaccinate 72 million people, but without the appropriate syringes, it will fall 12 million people short.

Despite the efforts of Japanese and Olympic officials to quash the debate, pressure on the Games' organizing chief is mounting over his recent comments that women talk too much in board meetings.

Yoshiro Mori, Japan's former prime minister and head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, said on Wednesday that women who talk too much should have their speaking time at meetings restricted.

Japan is extending the state of emergency for one more month. The move comes despite a mounting toll on the economy and the threat of bumping up against the country's Summer Olympics preparations.

Officials are swatting away rumors and reports that the government has concluded that new coronavirus restrictions will force the cancellation of the already delayed games.

The Japanese government rejected the ruling, increasing tensions between the two countries.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces new voluntary restrictions amid alarm at rapidly increasing coronavirus case numbers.

"As time went by, the cars got buried," said a driver. "I was really scared." Japan's Self-Defense Forces distributed food, blankets and fuel to the stranded and worked with shovels to free vehicles.

Takahiro Shiraishi murdered and dismembered eight women and one man in his apartment near Tokyo. He used Twitter to lure most of his victims, promising he could help them kill themselves.

The sample collected by the spacecraft Hayabusa2 caps a six-year mission to Ryugu. Researchers hope it will offer clues to "the secrets of the birth of the solar system and the birth of life."

What it means for the U.S. to be on the sidelines of another major trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which 15 countries agreed to Sunday.

Multiple school districts have already canceled classes for Monday, in anticipation of a hurricane that could bring storm surges of up to four feet. The governor has declared a state of emergency.

The country joins the European Union and other countries that have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint to zero over the next few decades.

The former chief Cabinet secretary and government spokesman was sworn in as the country's first new prime minister in almost eight years after Shinzo Abe stepped down citing health concerns.

Run by a South Korean woman, the Cosmos Karaoke Bar in Namie, Japan, is a haven for residents who've come back to live in a town that was evacuated and fell into decay after the 2011 nuclear disaster.