Suicides increased in Japan during 2020 after a decade of declines, with the number of women committing suicide surging amid the emotional and financial stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic even as fewer men took their own lives.

A Tokyo court rejected on Thursday a lawsuit by Japanese living in Europe who sought to retain their nationality even after taking foreign citizenship, instead of losing it automatically, as happens now.

A Japanese court found on Thursday the lawmaker wife of a former justice minister guilty of vote-buying.

Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine was administered to the first test subject in Japan on Thursday, its distributor said, a critical step toward securing enough shots to inoculate the nation's population.

Brazil's Vale said on Thursday it is buying out minority stake partner, Japan's Mitsui & Co, in a Mozambique coal mine and port project, ahead of selling the loss-making asset as it works to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Brazil's antitrust regulator CADE said on Wednesday it had cleared the way for Hypera Pharma to buy a portfolio of productions from Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.

A small group of Japanese fans of Donald Trump took to the streets of Tokyo on Wednesday, shouting support for the outgoing United States president hours before his successor Joe Biden is sworn into office.

The chief of Japan's COVID-19 vaccination programme on Wednesday denied media reports that vaccinations for the general public may start in May, as the country battles a third wave that has brought record numbers of infections and serious cases.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan plunged 87% in 2020 to a 22-year low as the country mostly closed its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan National Tourism Organization data showed on Wednesday.

Japan's Nidec Corp said on Wednesday it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Seagate Technology LLC and its affiliates, accusing it of using Nidec hard disk drive motor designs without permission.