South Korea punished 44 times more minor offenders than Japan last year for disturbing the peace, being noisy at night or dumping garbage. This was disclosed on Tuesday by Grand National Party lawmaker An Kyung-ryul, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, during a parliamentary audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency based on data submitted by the Korean Embassy in Tokyo.

This difference is vast even given that Japan's Minor Offenses Act lists only 34 offenses against Korea's 54.

In the case of neighborhood disturbances, which are offenses in both countries, Korea saw 46,955 cases last year but Japan a mere 25. For garbage dumping, Japan punished 98 people and Korea 60,940, and for urinating in public, Japan booked 191 people but Korea 11,535. "The number of minor offense cases was 622 per 100,000 people in Korea, 44.4 times more than Japan's 14 per 100,000 people," An said.

The National Police Agency in August conducted a survey to sound out the reasons why people did not comply with public-order rules. Some 40.5 percent of respondents said because not many minor offenses are checked and punished, and 11 percent said compliance would be inconvenient.

An said if Korea is to become "a healthy society and a first-rate advanced nation," a public-order drive is urgently needed.