JAPAN

JAPAN
Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, Nov. 9: Measures should be taken as soon as possible to aid former South Korean and Taiwanese leprosy sufferers who were segregated in leprosariums during Japan's colonial rule of the regions.
The government has said it will consider a comprehensive relief package for these former leprosy sufferers. It intends to seek a court-mediated settlement with the South Korean and Taiwanese plaintiffs.
Classes of sufferers
An important task facing the government is to ensure the South Korean and Taiwanese plaintiffs do not feel they are being treated less well than former Japanese sufferers in terms of what classes of sufferers will be compensated and how much they should receive. A government failure in this respect would antagonize them, causing them to brand Japan's actions a new form of discrimination.
The government must work to ensure not a single South Korea or Taiwanese litigant finds the aid unsatisfactory, which would leave the way open for the legal controversy to continue. No time should be wasted in aiding them.
All that needs to be done to include South Korean and Taiwanese sufferers in the list of victims to be compensated under the Hansen's law would be for the health, labor and welfare minister to issue a notice to that purpose. Although the health ministry is opposed to using that means to aid sufferers, that option should not be ruled out.
SOUTH AFRICA
The Cape Times, Nov. 7: British Prime Minister Tony Blair's judgment is in question. While David Blunkett was undoubtedly an impressive politician, it was wrong to bring him back into the government so quickly; it was right for him to resign; and it was wrong of Blair to say he need not have resigned because he had done nothing seriously wrong.
Blair on Wednesday sought to deflect criticism of Blunkett's judgment, and of his own judgment in supporting him, by saying the media "frenzy" made it impossible for the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions "to do that job properly." But any suggestion by Blair that The Independent on Sunday's report last week that Blunkett had broken the Ministerial Code was part of such a "frenzy" is unworthy.
Sober and factual
The report was sober and factual. Former ministers are required by the code to seek the advice of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before taking up paid jobs within two years of leaving office. They are not required to take the advice, but they are required to seek it. Blunkett did not. This seemed a sufficiently important issue to lead our front page.
The Ministerial Code is, rightly, taken extremely seriously by civil servants, ministers and the prime minister -- and journalists. Some people, including Blair, may reasonably take the view that Blunkett's breach did not justify his resignation. Others take a different view.
Blunkett's resignation was the right outcome, but was marred by Blair's insistence that "he goes ... with no stain of impropriety against him whatever." Gordon Brown would greatly strengthen his claim to succeed Blair if he were to promise that the Ministerial Code would be policed by an independent body, and not by the prime minister.