North Korea has informed Japan of its plan to launch a satellite in the coming days, which could be an attempt to put its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has ordered Japan's Self-Defense Force to shoot down the satellite or debris if any enters Japanese territory. The launch window is from May 31 to June 11, and the launch may affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and east of the Philippines' Luzon Island.

Japan scrambled fighter jets Thursday after Russian “intelligence-gathering” aircraft were detected off its coasts along the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan, the country’s Joint Staff said.

One Russian aircraft traveled from Japan’s north down along part of its west coast, while the other took a similar route along the opposite coast and returned the same way, the Joint Staff said in a brief statement.

“In response, fighters of the Air Self-Defense Force’s Northern Air Force and other units were scrambled,” it added.

The Japanese government has opted to build up a huge domestic fusion industry to secure a leading role in the future commercial utilization of fusion power.

This policy is clearly set forth in a document published on April 14 by the Japanese Cabinet, entitled “Fusion Energy Innovation Strategy.” The new policy goes far beyond merely stepping up the participation of Japanese industry and scientific institutes in international projects.

In Japan a 14-year-old girl died from multiple organ inflammation just 45 hours after getting her third dose of the Pfizer vaccine. A report conducted by researchers from Tokushima University Graduate School in Japan says the girl took the shot on August 10, 2022 and died shortly afterward.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is making arrangements to attend a NATO summit scheduled for July, government sources said Wednesday, as the Asian country has deepened ties with the trans-Atlantic alliance amid global security concerns.

On the sidelines of the summit in Lithuania, Kishida is expected to hold bilateral talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s plan to open a liaison office in Tokyo, the sources said.

A NASA lunar orbiter has spotted the final resting place of a private Japanese moon lander that failed in its touchdown attempt last month.

Japan held a ceremony on Wednesday marking its planned donation of about 100 military vehicles to Ukraine, as Tokyo seeks to provide equipment that can be of broader military use than its earlier shipments of helmets and hazmat suits.

In a ceremony at the Defense Ministry at which two half-ton trucks were on display, Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino handed a document to Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky listing the three types of vehicles included in the donation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s last-minute participation Sunday in the Group of Seven summit has brought intense global attention to Russia’s invasion of his nation. But it has also worried atomic bomb survivors who said the high-profile visit overshadowed a rare chance to push world leaders to focus on nuclear abolishment.