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Jobless tax bill
merits support

THE ISSUE The Legislature is considering a bill that would lower the unemployment tax and raise the minimum wage.

HAWAII'S growing economy has resulted in its lowest jobless rate in 14 years, and legislators are poised to adjust both the unemployment tax and the minimum wage accordingly. The two actions are included in the same bill, which should bring bipartisan support.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reports that Hawaii's March jobless rate was 2.8 percent, down from February's 3 percent. Those rates translate into a worker shortage; full employment is regarded as 4 percent, when those who are unemployed are either unqualified for the available jobs or are merely moving from one job to another.

Governor Lingle says that should prompt reduction of the maximum wage base for the unemployment tax from $32,300 to the federal minimum of $7,000 for 2005 through 2007. That would save employers $196 million over the three-year period.

Hawaii's unemployment tax rate is the nation's highest, resulting in the accumulation of $400 million in the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, far more than is needed. "Instead of having money sit idle in the state coffers," Lingle says, "companies could use the savings from the lower unemployment insurance taxes and reinvest it in their employees and their businesses, and in turn further stimulate the economy."

Part of those employer savings would be spent on an increased minimum wage from $6.25 to $7 an hour in July and to $8 in 2008, according to a bill nearing passage in the Legislature. More than a dozen states have minimum wages that exceed the federal level of $5.15. California's is $6.75 an hour.

Increasing the minimum wage has caused problems for small businesses in past years, when the state's economy was struggling. The proposed increase, coupled with the unemployment tax reduction, makes sense in today's economy, which is expected to continue growth in the years ahead.

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China is no textbook
for Japan to follow

THE ISSUE Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan has apologized for his country's World War II aggression against its neighbors.

JAPANESE Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "deep remorse and heartfelt apology" for his country's 20th century colonial misconduct is identical to that given by his predecessor Keizo Obuichi seven years ago. Japanese textbooks remain distorted, but the admonition that Japan "needs to face up to history squarely" is farcical coming from Premier Wen Jiabao of China, which is guilty of similar revisionism.

The past is being argued as Japan seeks United Nations status equal to that of China, a permanent member of the Security Council. Protests in China have erupted over revisionist history in Japan's junior high textbooks.

For example, one Japanese textbook refers to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre of as many as 300,000 Chinese civilians as an "incident" in which "many" were killed. A 1997 textbook stated that "700,000 people were forcibly taken to Japan between 1939 and 1945" as laborers. The newest edition omits "forcibly," stating only that Koreans and Chinese "were brought to Japan and made to work against their will."

Obuchi apologized in 1998 to South Koreans for sexual servitude of "comfort women" in Korea, but revisionism continues. All seven textbooks distributed to Japanese schools in 1997 stated that Japan "took away young Korean and other women as comfort women to battlefields." Only two out of eight of today's textbooks tell of the "comfort women," and neither uses that term.

Chinese textbooks are no better. They make no mention of the 30 million Chinese who died in famines because of the 1958-1962 agrarian policies of Mao Zedong. A textbook instructs children that "the Central Committee took action in time and restored calm" at Tiananmen Squire in 1989; no mention is made of protesters being massacred. Nor are children told of China's 1950 invasion of Tibet and 1979 aggression against Vietnam.

In other words, Wen is asking Japan to teach as China says, not as China teaches.

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