The Japanese government will continue to implement its domestic tourism subsidy program through next year, tourism minister Tetsuo Saito says, although the start date will depend on COVID-19 infection rates.
Japan's health ministry grants fast-track approval to Shionogi & Co.'s oral COVID-19 drug, making it the country's first domestically-produced oral medicine against the virus.
New coronavirus cases among the elderly are increasing while those with severe symptoms and deaths are also on the rise, an advisory panel of experts to the health ministry says, as Japan braces for its eighth wave of infections.
Japan will allow international cruise ships to dock at its ports, transport minister Tetsuo Saito says, lifting a more than two-year ban imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to stem the virus spread in the country.
A ferry service connecting Fukuoka in southwest Japan with South Korea s Busan resumes, becoming the first regular international sea route Japan has restarted since suspending ship passenger arrivals due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ferry operator says.