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

The Top Headline

—Ruling coalition pushes US$912 billion FY2018 national budget through the House of Representatives Budget Committee as well as through a plenary session of the House of Representatives. Now it is to be taken up by the House of Councillors.

Politics

—NHK has significantly reduced the number of hours it is broadcasting opposition party questions of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the Diet. The opposition believes that the government specifically designed the schedule to ensure much less time seeing Abe get questioned.

International

—New Minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs fails the perennial test of actually naming the four main islands of the supposedly-vital “Northern Territories.” He calls Shikotan “Shakotan.” He later apologizes.

—Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga to make his fourth visit to Washington DC from March 12 in latest attempt to induce the US government to pay attention to Okinawan opinions on US base issues.

Economy

—Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan calls for Party of Hope and Democratic Party to support a joint submission of its Zero Nuclear Basic Bill. It would seem that Edano’s team is not against opposition party cooperation so long as it is lined up behind its own policies.

Society

—Due to a reorganization of work tasks, the SNA series “This Week in Japan” has been suspended. We apologize to the fans of this series, but it has become necessary to discontinue it in order to focus on more essential duties.

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