Talk of forming a coalition government has become a topic in politics since the April 13 general election, which relegated the ruling party to the second-largest party and which did not give any party a majority control of the parliament. The proposal for a coalition government comes mostly from members of the People’s Party, a splinter opposition group that emerged as the third-largest party by winning 38 parliamentary seats. The proposal is apparently aimed at increasing political clout of the

Editorial April 28, 2016

The founding families of Korea’s chaebol have both positive and negative public images. In hard times, the negative image tends to overwhelm the positive one. Chaebol families are often identified as the main culprit when their businesses go bad to the point of bankruptcy or government-aided bailouts. To make matters worse, they often try to avoid responsibility – both legal and moral – and are caught trying to protect their own personal wealth. So they become the target of public criticism, whi

Editorial April 28, 2016

Facebook has dramatically upped the technology ante with a feature enabling users to become live broadcasters, even receiving and responding to feedback in real time.　Despite being a communications marvel, Facebook Live also poses all sorts of problems. The impact is sure to be significant, but to what extent the impact is negative remains to be seen.　Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s founder, knows he’s on to something big, and it’s probable that Facebook’s rivals will seek to emulate the f

Viewpoints April 28, 2016

Most foreign visitors stepping into Junction Square in Myanmar‘s biggest city Yangon are in for a shock.　The medium-sized mall is packed with imported items and boasts an ice cream parlor as well as air conditioning and a gleaming tiled floor. It looks much like any big community mall in Bangkok.　Compare that with a mall in Shenzhen, China. The one I visited about five years ago shocked me with goods placed haphazardly in a poorly ventilated dusty interior.　Given that Myanmar only opened its doo

Viewpoints April 28, 2016

If in the early hours of a Saturday morning there’s a traffic jam in your neighborhood, it won’t be because it’s the opening day of the county fair. These days, it’s more likely to be Donald Trump. In Waterbury, Connecticut, this weekend, three days before the state primary, people began lining up at 4 a.m.; the doors opened at 7 for a rally scheduled for 10. The adults being led to the overflow room were as disappointed as the children finding out that that they’d been awoken early for politics

Viewpoints April 28, 2016

One hundred days remain before the 31st Summer Olympic Games kick off for a 17-day competition in Rio de Janeiro.A noteworthy event for local spectators is whether the country’s soccer team will advance to the semifinals, as they did four years ago in London, taking bronze. Fans are pinning their hopes on forward Son Heung-min, who plays in the English Premier League.Another is whether LPGA star Park In-bee or one of the other Korean female players will capture gold in golf, which has been desig

Editorial April 27, 2016

According to the National Pension Research Institute, South Korea is projected to see the number of seniors aged 65 or older take up about 45 percent of the population by 2060. This means the proportion of the population who are of working age -- between 15 and 64 -- will decrease sharply over the next few decades.As the drop in the working-age share of the population is set to start next year, concerns are mounting over the low birthrate. The International Monetary Fund forecast last year that

Editorial April 27, 2016

The many campaigns that have been waged over the past decade to get American children to avoid unhealthy foods have not been fruitless. The national childhood obesity rate has stopped rising. Yet neither is it falling. What kids need is not just a better diet, but also a better media diet.　The U.S. childhood obesity rate stands firm at 17 percent. And many overweight children and adolescents in the U.S. are growing even heavier. The number who are severely obese -- with a body mass index of 35 o

Viewpoints April 27, 2016

China’s adventurism in the South China Sea has prompted a change in Australian policymaking that merits wide international attention. In making maintenance of a “rules-based global order” a core strategic priority, Australia’s new Defense White Paper adopts language not often found at the heart of national defense charters. It is all the more surprising coming from a conservative government that is usually keen to follow the United States down any path it takes.Australia wanted a readily defensi

Viewpoints April 27, 2016

The military commander of the breakaway Armenian republic of Karabakh predicted in an interview Monday that a fragile cease-fire could collapse within days. By that night, Azerbaijani shelling had killed two Armenian soldiers in a northern border town, amid accusations by each side that the other had violated the truce. The “frozen conflict” here, stalemated for 22 years, exploded on April 2, when Azeroi forces attacked across the 200-kilometer front line. The Azeri seized ground for the first t

Viewpoints April 27, 2016