SNA (Tokyo) — The following stories were reported today by the Shingetsu News Agency.

The Top Headline

—The Abe government’s Way of Working Reform Bill is under attack from the opposition. Since it allows employers to force employees to do up to 100 hours overtime work a month, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Edano is denouncing it as the “Death-by-Overwork Permission Bill.”

International

—China Foreign Ministry adds its voice to criticism of the Abe government’s new territorial claims propaganda exhibition in Tokyo: “We are strongly dissatisfied with what the Japan has done, and I want to emphasize that nothing can change the fact that Diaoyu belongs to China.”

—Abe government bestows Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun on former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who played an instrumental role in crushing the Yukio Hatoyama administration when it proposed relocating the US Marines out of Okinawa Prefecture in 2009.

—Official campaign period for Nago mayoral election begins tomorrow. Anti-base incumbent Susumu Inamine is looking for his third term, while the Abe government and all its allies are going full force to replace him with challenger Taketoyo Toguchi.

Economy

—$534 million worth of the cryptocurrency NEM has disappeared from the Coincheck exchange, which is more than disappeared from Mt. Gox in 2014. Hacking is thought to be the cause. Operations of the exchange have been suspended while an investigation is conducted.

—Coincheck under fire for managing all its customer assets in more vulnerable “hot wallets” whereas the cryptocurrency industry standard is to keep about 90% of the assets in “cold wallets.” This flaw, which had been pointed out previously, appears to be a key factor in hacking.

—Tokyo Metropolitan Government now admits that it estimates the cost of hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be in the US$20 billion range.

Society

—Japan Meteorological Agency estimates that volcanic eruptions at Mt. Kusatsu-Shirane are likely to continue, perhaps on a similar scale as occurred on January 23.

—Transport Ministry planning to further tighten regulations on flying drones, excluding them from skies above events where large numbers of people gather.

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