Prime Minister Takaichi said the government will continue using subsidies to keep the nationwide average gasoline price at around 170 yen per liter, drawing on reserve funds set aside to respond to developments in the Middle East. (News On Japan)

The Japanese government plans to reuse low-radioactivity soil generated by decontamination work after the Fukushima nuclear accident at government office complexes in Saitama and Sendai, marking the first such reuse outside Tokyo. (News On Japan)

Japan's GX Promotion Organization has invested about 3 billion yen in two startups developing nuclear fusion and plastic recycling technologies, with combined public and private investment expected to reach around 20 billion yen as the government seeks to accelerate the commercialization of advanced decarbonization technologies. (News On Japan)

Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has begun considering reductions in postal services, including fewer mailboxes and less frequent deliveries, as the country's postal business continues to suffer losses following a prolonged decline in letters and New Year's cards. (News On Japan)

Russia has conducted missile exercises around the Northern Territories, including what appears to have been a launch from one of the disputed islands, prompting Japan's foreign minister to call Russia's growing military presence there unacceptable. (News On Japan)

Japan's government is moving toward abolishing the Cool Japan Fund, a public-private investment vehicle created to support the overseas expansion of Japanese anime, food culture and other industries, after its cumulative losses reached 54 billion yen. (News On Japan)

Japan strongly protested and condemned North Korea after it launched a ballistic missile at around 5:04 p.m. on August 20, with the projectile believed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said. (News On Japan)

Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito said on August 19 that the prefecture's shift to a status requiring central government permission to issue bonds would not immediately halt public projects, while stressing that years of high public investment, funding shortfalls and what he described as improper land-acquisition bond practices under former Governor Toshizo Ido had contributed to the deterioration of the prefecture's finances. (News On Japan)

A Takenaka Corp. construction manager who oversaw work on the Grand Ring and other facilities at the Osaka-Kansai Expo was arrested on August 19 on suspicion of causing more than 13 million yen in losses to the major contractor through inflated construction bills, with police investigating allegations that money from the scheme was used for renovations to his home and a cafe operated by relatives. (News On Japan)

A Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter jet tilted to one side and came to a stop while landing at Naha Airport on August 18, forcing the closure of one of the airport's two runways and causing delays of more than an hour for some arriving commercial flights. (News On Japan)

Hyogo Prefecture has been placed under a system requiring central government approval for new borrowing after its debt repayment burden exceeded a nationally defined threshold, raising concerns that worsening finances and higher interest rates could push the prefecture closer to serious fiscal distress. (News On Japan)

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s economic agenda came under fresh pressure on August 18 after weaker-than-expected growth figures exposed the fragility of Japan’s recovery, sharpening the political stakes around the Bank of Japan’s next rate decision, the weak yen, and the government’s plan to cut the consumption tax on food. (News On Japan)

The United States dropped 49 mock atomic bombs across Japan in the closing weeks of World War II, killing around 400 people as American air crews practiced the techniques later used in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. (News On Japan)

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and three other Cabinet ministers visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on August 15, the anniversary of the end of World War II, while Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi refrained from going in person and instead offered prayers from the Nippon Budokan. (News On Japan)

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on August 13 condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Northern Territories, saying it was "absolutely unacceptable," while Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russia's ambassador to Japan and lodged a strong protest. (News On Japan)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Etorofu Island, marking his first trip to the Russian-held islands claimed by Japan as the Northern Territories, according to the Kremlin. (News On Japan)

Reports that a man posing as an employee of Russian airline Aeroflot conducted intelligence operations in Tokyo have renewed attention on Russian espionage in Japan, a country former Soviet intelligence officers have described as unusually easy for spies to operate in because of weaknesses in its legal and counterintelligence framework. (News On Japan)

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held a telephone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on August 12, urging an early easing of military tensions in the Middle East while stressing the importance of free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz without additional costs. (News On Japan)

Prime Minister Takaichi said on August 10 that the government expects to apply the Disaster Victims' Livelihood Recovery Support Act across all of Kumamoto Prefecture, allowing households whose homes were completely destroyed in the Kumamoto earthquake to receive up to 3 million yen in assistance. (News On Japan)

Nagasaki marked the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on August 9 with a memorial ceremony near the hypocenter, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki declared nuclear weapons an "absolute evil" and called on the Japanese government to uphold its Three Non-Nuclear Principles. (News On Japan)