Source: iStock/monzenmachi

A number of leading Japanese firms – including the operators of two of the country’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges – are taking steps to allow their employees to work from home or avoid rush-hour commutes as coronavirus fears deepen.

Media outlet Crypto Watch reports that GMO Internet, the company that operates the GMO Coin exchange, has begun a remote working policy, allowing some 4,000 employees to stay away from offices and complete their work duties from home.

The same media outlet states that Yahoo Japan, a subsidiary of the Softbank-backed Z Holdings and operator of the TaoTao crypto exchange platform, has also informed all 6,500 of its employees that they should make use of staggered work hours programs that will allow them to avoid commuting in rush hours.

The company has also relaxed limits on the number of days it allows employees to work from home.

Z Holdings’ Yahoo Japan is set to merge with chat app Line, also the operator of a crypto exchange, in October this year.

Japan has been one of the countries worst hit by the outbreak, with 74 confirmed cases (more than any other nation bar China and Singapore), as well as one virus-related death. Per John Hopkins data, 13 patients in the nation have so far recovered from the disease.

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