Japan doubled down on its commitment to host the Tokyo Olympics this year and flatly denied reports on Friday of a cancellation, in a move that is unlikely to temper public fears of holding the event during a global pandemic.

It is Tokyo’s fate to stage the world’s largest sporting event a year later than planned, at a time of global economic uncertainty and amid a pandemic that will be far from over on July 23. Is it really ready?

Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency to seven more prefectures Wednesday, affecting more than half the population amid a surge in infections across the country. Prime Minister Yoshide Suga also said Japan will suspend fast-track entry exceptions for business visitors or others with residency permits, fully banning foreign visitors while the state of emergency is in place.

The idea of Japan introducing a universal basic income, recently floated by one of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s economic advisers, has caught the eye at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is stirring worries about job security and social inequality.

The Japanese space agency (JAXA) says it has begun opening the capsule returned to Earth by its historic Hayabusa2 mission – and has confirmed asteroid samples are inside. Today, Monday, December 14, the capsule was opened for the first time since it touched down in the Australian outback on December 6 following its journey through space.

“This is our bear hut,” the short, vivacious woman shouted through a hand-held loudspeaker, her smile creasing her forehead with deep wrinkles. A blue hat was perched on her head and her short tunic, embroidered with pink geometric designs, was tied sharply at the waist. She pointed at a wooden structure made of round logs, raised high above the ground on stilts.

Japan aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in about 15 years, the government said Friday in a plan to achieve Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's ambitious pledge to go carbon free by 2050 and generate nearly $2 trillion growth in green business and investment.

Thanks to low local levels of COVID-19 infection and fully operating cinemas, the anime feature has smashed nearly every one of Japan's major box-office records, becoming an inescapable cultural phenomenon in the country.

And there might be even more to uncover.

A 73-year-old grandfather may seem like an unlikely social media sensation, but Japan's Harumichi Shibasaki is defying stereotypes. The painter's YouTube channel, Watercolor by Shibasaki, features a series of how-to art videos and has amassed more than 700,000 subscribers. His most popular video, a tree painting tutorial, has been watched more than five million times.

The Japanese government will invest in artificial intelligence (AI) to bring single citizens together -- and, perhaps, help stabilize falling birth rates. As reported by the Japan Times, the Cabinet Office intends to allocate ¥2 billion ($19 million) to local authorities that run dating programs for residents.

A team retrieves a capsule carrying the first significant quantities of rock from an asteroid.

The 10-year survival rate for cancer, once regarded as an incurable disease, has steadily been improving in Japan and if the cancer can be detected early enough, this survival rate increases further.

The Hayabusa2 mission cements Japan’s role in exploring the solar system, but finding its asteroid cargo presents one last challenge.

They are between 40 and 50 years old, live immersed in chronic hopelessness, most are still single and childless and have thrown in the towel in the workplace.

Japan had turned the tide on suicides until the pandemic reality sunk in, now it could prove a worrying harbinger of a mental health crisis festering elsewhere.

A Japanese spacecraft is nearing Earth after a yearlong journey home from a distant asteroid with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the origins of the solar system

A Japanese spacecraft is nearing Earth after a yearlong journey home from a distant asteroid with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the origins of the solar system, a space agency official said Friday. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft left the asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth, a year ago and is expected to reach Earth and drop a capsule containing the precious samples in southern Australia on Dec. 6.

Exploring the comment-section emotion of music as served by a mysterious algorithm.

Facial recognition, particle analysis and hundreds of millions of vaccine doses are all part of the plan to make sure the Olympics goes ahead next summer