This week in Japan

The projections for Japan's Upper House elections came out late Sunday night, showing that Shinzo Abe's LDP with a coalition with the Komeito (the two parties formed a coalition back in 2012) took 58 of the 124 seats that were up for election. The 58 seats that were won paired with the 70 seats the coalition currently holds that were not up election give the ruling party coalition a total of 128 seats in the Upper House, securing them a majority. Voter turnout was at 27.3 % down 5.19 % from the previous Upper House election back in 2016. The low turnout rate shows that the opposition parties likely could not stir up support from swing voters, thus maintaining LDP rule in the Upper House. 

To read more about the election results here are some useful links

Nikkei Asian Review      Kyodo News

One year before the Olympic Games, Tokyo is carrying out large scale tests to ease the city's congestion. City workers will have staggered working hours or be allowed to telework. Private industries have also been encouraged to do the same for their employees. Traffic controls will also be set on certain roads including the Metropolitan Expressway (Shuto Expressway). The tests will be conducted for one week starting on Monday July 22, and the results will be analysed to see if additional measures will be need to ease congestion during the games. 

To read more about the efforts to easy traffic and congestion, here are some useful links:

The Japan Times     The Japan News

On Friday, the South Korean Foreign Minister announced that the country is developing a plan to reduce is reliance or Japanese imports particularly for key materials used by chipmakers. This announcement comes after Japan's recent announcement  tightening the export conditions on goods headed to South Korea. The country's trade policy director Lee Ho Hyun, announced that Japan's decisions restricting trade will not only adversely affect the two countries but would also affect global supply chains. The announcement by South Korean officials also stated that they intend to make Korean industries more "independent." 

To read more about the Japan-Korea conflict here are some useful links:

Nikkei Asian Review     The Mainichi

BITpoint suspended all services early Friday morning when they discovered that ¥3.5 ($32 million) was stolen from its exchanged due to a hack. They said that ¥2.5 billion belonged to their customers and the other ¥1 billion was owned by the company. The amount lost totals up to about 13 % of all the cryptocurrency entrusted to the BITpoint. The company president, Genki Oda, apologised for the incident in a press conference and vowed to have the money returned to all their customers. The funds were stolen from a hotwallet containing five different kinds of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. 

To read more about the hack, here are some useful links:

Bloomberg    Financial Times