The government may be succumbing to strong domestic political pressure to make Draconian cuts in Japanese official development assistance. If you want evidence, keep a close watch on an upcoming gathering of Vietnam's aid donors.

At an annual meeting of aid donors in Hanoi on Dec. 14-15, Japan will pledge fresh ODA worth between 70 billion yen and 80 billion yen for the Southeast Asian country, government sources said Friday.

That's sharply down from more than the 100 billion yen in ODA Japan committed for Vietnam last year.