The outline, featuring the establishment of two new types of residence status, was shown to related cabinet ministers in a meeting held at the prime minister's office for discussing measures to increase foreign workers in Japan as a way to tackle the country's serious labor shortages.
The ministers agreed on a plan to submit bills to revise related laws based on the outline, including the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, to an extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, to be convened on Oct. 24.
"As labor shortages are growing more serious, we urgently need to create a structure for accepting a wide range of work-ready human resources from abroad," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at the meeting.
Type one status, which will allow residence for up to five years, will be granted to foreign nationals with "considerable levels of knowledge and experience," as well as Japanese language skills adequate for everyday conversation. Families of holders of this status will not be allowed to accompany them to Japan in principle.
Final preparations were under way Friday for the launch of a joint mission by European and Japanese space agencies to send twin probes to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. (Japan Times) 
Scandal-hit KYB Corp. on Friday disclosed the names of 70 government and municipal office buildings that used, or are suspected of having used, substandard earthquake shock absorbers in their construction. (Japan Times) 
Police said Friday they have arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the stabbing of his grandparents in the city of Wako in Saitama Prefecture. (Japan Today) 
An international team of researchers has given the name Godzilla to one of what it calls the modern constellations. The monster is among the most popular film characters created in Japan. (NHK) 
Japanese police are questioning staff from the Bulgarian national opera after being notified by the opera company that they are suspected of scrawling graffiti in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
(NHK) 
Tokyo's Shibuya Ward is asking people not to disturb others when celebrating Halloween.
(NHK) 
The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will reprimand a 52-year-old judge for his controversial social media post earlier this year, marking a first in Japan. (Japan Times) 
Around 70 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its annual autumn festival Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine. (Japan Times) 
For years, electronics giants have been developing smartphones with increasingly larger screens. Bucking the trend for phones to be bigger and flashier is a handset set to debut next month from NTT Docomo Inc. that can fit in your business card case. (Japan Times) 
The landmark Tokyo Skytree tower, facilities for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and more government offices are among the nearly 1,000 buildings using earthquake shock absorbers produced by KYB Corp, which admitted cheating quality inspection data for more than a decade, officials said Wednesday. (Japan Today)