Police in Kitakyushu said Monday they have arrested a 27-year-old man on suspicion of fatally abusing his 4-year-son after he locked the boy inside a storage cabinet beneath a TV stand at their house. (Japan Today)

Many companies in the Kinki western Japan region suspended operations Monday to check for possible damage and confirm the safety of their employees after a strong earthquake rocked the region in the morning. (Jiji)

The earthquake that struck western Japan on Monday morning battered the region's infrastructure, revealing the fragility of utility lifelines and transportation networks in one of the country's most densely populated areas. (Nikkei)

More than 20 tremors believed to be aftershocks of Monday's major earthquake have rattled the western Japanese prefecture of Osaka. (NHK)

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 hit western Japan on Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. (Japan Today)

Jurina Matsui of SKE48, one of the AKB48 family of all-female idol groups, has taken the No. 1 spot in the franchise’s annual popularity contest, which was the first to let its Thai and Taiwanese members join the 10-year-old event. (Japan Times)

More than 2,000 venomous fire ants have been discovered in a shipping container from China that arrived at a port in Osaka Prefecture earlier this month, leaving two people hurt, government officials said. (Japan Today)

An estimated 1.3 million Japanese people aged 15 to 64 have used marijuana, surpassing for the first time the number of those who have abused inhalants such as paint thinner, a survey by a national institute showed Sunday. (Japan Today)

Japanese car maker Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time on Sunday. (NHK)

A basketball referee was punched in the face by a high school player during a game in the western Japanese prefecture of Nagasaki on Sunday. (NHK)

An earthquake shook Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo, on Sunday afternoon. No major damage has been reported. (NHK)

With Japan now planning to open its doors to more foreign workers, academics and other observers are beginning to wonder exactly what kind of turn the country is in for -- one that lifts the economy or one that delivers discord. (Nikkei)

The U.S. naval hospital ship Mercy arrived Saturday in Japan, which is considering building such floating hospitals to provide medical care after disasters like the 2011 catastrophe. (Kyodo)

A nuclear reactor at a trouble-hit complex in southwestern Japan restarted operations Saturday for the first time in more than six and a half years amid lingering safety concerns. (Japan Today)

Police arrested Hiromi Tsukuda, former mayor of Ito in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka, Saturday on suspicion of bribery over the city's land purchase. (Jiji)

A 78-year-old man died after he was shot by a hunter who thought he was shooting at a wild monkey on a mountain slope in Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, police said Friday. (Japan Today)

The government has instructed West Japan Railway Co. to investigate why a driver of one of its bullet trains that hit and killed a man did not report any abnormal sound at the time, the transport minister said Friday. (Kyodo)

The father of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl allegedly killed by a male neighbor near Tokyo in 2017 demanded capital punishment at a court hearing on Friday. (Kyodo)

Japan's ruling coalition is set to extend the ongoing ordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament, to ensure the enactments of important bills, including those to introduce casino-featuring integrated resorts and increase the number of seats in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, by six, informed sources said Friday. (Jiji)

The Bank of Japan decided to leave its ultraeasy monetary policy unchanged at its two-day Policy Board meeting that ended on Friday, further lagging behind its U.S. and European counterparts in policy normalization. (Jiji)