In his Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech, President Lee Myung-bak pledged to achieve a balanced budget during his term, which ends in February 2013. Following Lee’s pledge, officials of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance moved forward the target year for budget balance to 2013 from 2014.In drawing up the 2012 budget bill, they put priority on strengthening fiscal health. The bill proposes 5.5 percent growth in spending, a modest increase compared with the expected 9.5 percent growth in revenue.Und

About one in every five families with a mortgage in this country is “underwater” ― owing more on the loan than the home is worth. That’s part of a slow rot that is spreading through our economy. (None of which is helped, by the way, by the failure members of the congressional supercommittee to do anything but blame each other for doing nothing.)In the four years since the housing bubble burst, the banks, the Wall Street “packagers,” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal government have don

The latest friendly fire incident in Pakistan has plunged the already strained relationship between the United States and Pakistan to a new low. The feud between the United States and Pakistan over the U.S.-led NATO cross-border air strikes that killed at least 24 Pakistani troops on Sunday, should prompt Washington to reflect upon its relationship with Islamabad and its anti-terror strategy in South Asia. While the U.S. has offered its condolences to Pakistan and the families of those killed, t

What kind of greenhouse gas emissions rules should be made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012?The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opened in South Africa on Monday.The Kyoto Protocol is a set of international rules that is riddled with defects, as it obliges only advanced nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Japanese government needs to maintain its stance of opposing extension of the protocol.Emerging na

The health and welfare ministry announced on Nov. 9 that the number of people on welfare receiving livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection) reached 2,050,495 nationwide as of July 2011, topping the monthly average record of 2,046,646 marked in fiscal 1951, when Japan was in the midst of postwar social and economic confusion. Behind this is an increase in the number of elderly people and prolonging economic stagnation.Especially worrisome is the fact that the

Judges, as public officeholders, are constitutionally required to remain politically neutral. They are not allowed to take sides. The ethics committee of the Supreme Court drove this point home when it called on judges to exercise prudence on the use of the social networking services on Tuesday.The committee’s call for caution followed a political comment that a judge recently posted on Facebook. But the committee chose not to take any disciplinary action against the judge when it was called int

The ruling Grand National Party acknowledges that it is in crisis. Yet, it shows few signs of trying hard to pull itself out of the quandary. No wonder supporters are turning their backs on the party.The lethargy manifested itself when the party recently summoned its lawmakers to a conference on improving its image among the electorate ahead of the next parliamentary elections in April. The conference, rather than serving as a forum on proposed reforms, ended in a dispute over who would hold swa

On Jan. 24, 1943, 230 French women who had been arrested for resistance activities were put on a train at Compiegne, outside Paris, and sent to Auschwitz. The youngest had just celebrated her 17th birthday; the oldest was 67. They were teachers and seamstresses, students and farmers’ wives; there was a doctor, a dentist and several editors and chemists. They were to be a lesson to other would-be troublemakers.The women were not Jewish, so they were not sent immediately to be gassed. However, the

This month, the U.S. Department of Commerce launched a formal investigation into complaints, lodged by the U.S. solar-cell manufacturers, that the government of China is funneling loan guarantees, grants and subsidies to its solar-cell companies. Apparently, the Commerce Department is shocked, shocked to learn that a government would subsidize the solar industry. A few days later, the New York Times described a “gold rush” under way in the U.S. as builders of wind and solar farms cash in on gran

When NATO aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a strike near the Afghan border on Nov. 25, U.S. press reports called it a case of “friendly fire.” That seems the wrong term. It has been some years since the U.S. and Pakistan could be accurately described as friends. The U.S. and Pakistan have a handful of common goals but far more that conflict. The U.S. wants to fight all forces opposed to Afghanistan’s government; Pakistan nurtures remnants of the Haqqani Network and the Afghanistan Taliba

The government and the ruling Grand National Party are promoting a plan to convert some 30 percent of nonregular workers in the public sector into indefinite-term employees as part of their efforts to curb the continued growth of irregular workforce.According to Statistics Korea, the number of irregular workers reached 5.99 million as of August, accounting for 34.2 percent of the nation’s 17.5 million paid workers. The figure represented a 5.4 percent increase or 309,000 workers from a year ago.