Japan's once enviable jobless rate will soar to double-digit levels if—and the warning is a big one—firms opt for drastic Western-style layoffs to boost profits. While Japan's life-time employment system is visibly unravelling, many economists still doubt whether a scenario of soaring joblessness will occur, given that economic incentives to slash payrolls clash with social and political pressures to save jobs. A kinder, gentler approach to restructuring would soften the social instability many fear would result from doubling the jobless rate, already at a record high.

　　Critics believe it would also cap gains in profit margins and stifle economic vitality, especially in the absence of bold steps to open the door to new growth, industries. Some economists believe different methods of counting mean Japan's jobless rate is already close to 7 per cent by United States standards, not that far from the 7.8 per cent peak hit in the US in 1992 when it began to emerge from a two-year slump.

　　中譯英6

　　黃浦江縱橫南北，把上海分為兩部分。浦東因位于黃浦江以東而得名。本世紀20—30年代，隨著以外灘為核心的金融、商貿(mào)區(qū)的建立，外商和我國民族資本事開始把經(jīng)濟活動伸向浦東地區(qū)。但黃浦江的阻隔，極大地影響了浦東的經(jīng)濟發(fā)展。浦江兩岸形成了一邊，是萬商云集的十里洋場，一邊是以自然農(nóng)作物為主的大片農(nóng)田的鮮明對照。

　　自1990年中央宣布開放浦東以來，浦東新區(qū)的建設日新月異，突飛猛進。高樓大廈如雨后春筍，拔地而起，田園風光和現(xiàn)代建筑交相輝映，浦東正以嶄新的面貌跨人新世紀。