JIJI English News-時事通信英語ニュース-

Japan's Imperial Household Agency is considering a plan for Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako to visit in late September the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto, which was struck by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake a month ago, informed sources said Thursday.

Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, known for her polka-dot motifs, died on Aug. 14, it was learned Thursday. She was 97.

Nepalese tourism authorities said that 403 tourists, including five Japanese nationals, have been unaccounted for after flooding caused by a landslide in the Rasuwa district of Nepal on Wednesday.

A group of lawmakers from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has proposed a set of measures to help reconstruct the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto, hit hard by a powerful earthquake about a month ago.

Safety monitoring may have not been adequate in the work to remove weeds on railway tracks at a station in eastern Japan a week ago, during which four workers died after being hit by an incoming train, according to local police and the Japan Transport Safety Board of the country's transport ministry.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued Level 5 emergency rain warnings to some municipalities in the central prefectures of Toyama and Ishikawa on Thursday morning.

Chubu Electric Power Co. is suspected of having improperly billed for costs related to decommissioning work on the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, it was learned Wednesday.

Japan's agriculture ministry is expected to begin purchasing rice to replenish government stockpiles as early as September, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his visiting Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, confirmed Wednesday they will closely cooperate to seek the participation of countries using the Strait of Hormuz in ongoing talks on its future.

The number of university students in Japan exceeded 3 million for the first time as of May 1, according to a preliminary fiscal 2026 school basic survey released by the education ministry on Wednesday.