Record rains in central Japan's Noto region, still recovering from a major New Year's Day earthquake, killed at least one person on Saturday, prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands and caused blackouts for more than 6,

TOKYO (Reuters) - Record rainfall on Saturday hit central Japan's Noto region, which was devastated by a major earthquake in January, prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents and causing a power outage for more than 5,000 households.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued the highest level of rainfall alert across multiple cities in the Ishikawa prefecture, warning of a "life-threatening situation." Another 16,000 residents in Niigata and Yamagata prefectures were also told to evacuate,

Japan and China said Friday they have reached a deal toward resolving their disputes over the discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea and Beijing’s ban on Japanese seafood.

China will soon begin easing an import ban on all Japanese seafood, after alleviating concerns related to monitoring treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, officials said Friday.

China and Japan reached an agreement over the discharge of wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, the two governments said on Friday, paving the way for a restart of seafood shipments from Japan to China.

Japan's core consumer inflation accelerated for the fourth straight month in August and tracked comfortably above the central bank's 2% target, data showed on Friday, keeping alive expectations for further interest rate hikes.

Japan’s key inflation gauge accelerated in August for a fourth consecutive month, hours before the Bank of Japan is scheduled to wrap up its latest policy decision meeting.

Japanese inflation rose slightly in August, with prices up 2.8 percent year-on-year, official data showed Friday, hours before the Bank of Japan was widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Japan erupted in cheers on Friday morning after national hero Shohei Ohtani blasted his way into Major League Baseball history as the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season. "Ohtani-san" was the top trending topic on X in Japan,