Overview
- A Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry council is advancing discussions on revising the Labor Standards Act for the first time in roughly 40 years, with caps on hours and consecutive workdays under review.
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi earlier directed the minister to consider easing time regulations, a reported instruction lacking specifics that has drawn concern from bereaved families of karoshi.
- Hokkaido Police reported 129 traffic fatalities in 2025 on a preliminary basis, an increase of 25 from 2024 yet still the fourth-lowest on record.
- Aoyama Gakuin University won the Hakone Ekiden outbound leg for the third year in a row and eighth time, surging from 16th after the first section with a decisive fifth-leg run by Asahi Kuroda.
- In Iwanai, Hokkaido, police and coast guard are searching for a man in his 70s who went fishing and failed to return, with an accidental fall into the sea being considered.