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December 2013

Public Pension Forum Held by the Manhattan Institute to Discuss ‘Crowd-Out’ Issue for Local Governments

In October, staff from the Japan Local Government Center attended a forum on the fiscal problem facing many if not all local government employee pension systems in the United States. The forum lasted all morning, with two discussion panels of experts on the subject and two keynote speeches. The first panel discussed what the fiscal problem was and the second panel talked about how to fix these fiscal problems. In the first panel, discussion focused on how the local government public pension system is affecting local government fiscal solvency. We all talk about public pensions becoming a major burden on local government finances but the real issue is the fact… Read More »Public Pension Forum Held by the Manhattan Institute to Discuss ‘Crowd-Out’ Issue for Local Governments

An Update on the City of Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing

As many of you are aware, the City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy under the federal bankruptcy law; it is Chapter 9 under that law. That was in July 2013. The case has been before Judge Steven Rhodes. The filing is not official until the Judge agrees in a ruling, because a municipal government must show that it meets certain conditions before it is allowed to proceed under the terms of the law. That ruling came on 3rd December 2013. Judge Rhodes agreed that the City of Detroit is ‘insolvent’. As a result, he declared that the City of Detroit is eligible for a bankruptcy proceeding under the federal bankruptcy… Read More »An Update on the City of Detroit’s Bankruptcy Filing

Tokyo Governor Announces Expansion of Its JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program Participation

The Governor of Tokyo, Mr. Inose, announced on November 15th in a regular news conference that Tokyo would expand its participation in the JET Program and hire about 100 ALTs, or Assistant Language Teachers, in 2014. Tokyo has been selected as the host city for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 and is taking this opportunity to move forward with sweeping reform of English education along with promoting further internalization of its overall curriculum. Only five JET participants were employed by Tokyo in 2013, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will hire about 100 participants in 2014 and 100 more in 2015. Tokyo expects that high school students will have… Read More »Tokyo Governor Announces Expansion of Its JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program Participation