from today's Nikkei

外貨資産残高　個人４０兆円　生保を逆転　昨年末　新たな円安要因に
Consumers' buying foreign currency assets has been sharply increasing.The balance of the foreign currency assets,such as investment trusts or deposits in foreign currencies,which Japanese consumers had, exceeded for the first time the 40 trillion yen level as of the end of 2006. This figure is more than that domestic life insurers marked in the period of the late 1980s,or bubble economy period.And this is believed to have played a role as a new key factor for weaker yen.

from today's Nikkei

郵政改革　特定局　４割が売却拒否　公社、賃料下げ要請へ　合理化に遅れも
It is learned Thursday that with regard to streamlining efforts of buying buildings of so-called small-sized-and-especially-designated post offices that the postal services corporation Japan Post,which is to be privatized in October,has been implementing as a pillar of curbing its costs,among some 2,400 targeted post offices, directors of about 40 percent post offices have refused to sell their facilities.Japan Post likely will continue its negotiations with the owners, but if not finished, it will then ask them to reduce their rents. Review of the current tokutei-yubin-kyoku system is a core part of postal services rationalization.If it does not proceed well, the total streamlining may fall behind the schedule.

参考：postal services rationalizationとは郵政事業サービスの合理化と言う意味ですが、このとき、postal services はもともと名詞であり、これをいわば形容詞的に使って後に来るrationalizationを修飾しています。こうしたときは本来は前の名詞は単数になります。けれども、この場合、複数なのは、郵政事業のサービスは複数あり（郵便、保険等）、それを明確に意識しているがために、あえて複数のままのにしています。

from today's Nikkei

自動車制御　トヨタが標準ソフト　ＩＴ化加速　安全性高める　開発コストを削減
Toyota Motor Corp. is going to originally develop a standard software installed in automobiles,which is equivalent to OS(Operating Software) in PCs. In the automobile industry, IT(Information Technology) has rapidly been developing. In these circumstances,the personnel and costs necessary for developing softwares also have been increasing.Toyota,ahead of other auto makers, aims to make its car development activities far more efficient by adopting the standard software and pave the way for advanced technologies like that in safety improvement.Another aim is to curb its increasing development costs as much as possible.

from today's Nikkei

松下、３万人に在宅勤務　ホワイトカラー　希望者週１、２回　育児・介護、働き方多様に
Mataushita Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd. will introduce a new working system, a teleworking system, for its about thirty thousanad employeees,whose number has been the largest ever for this kind of trial, starting it on April 1. Target workers include not only system engineers but also sales workers,administrative workers and personnel management workers. That means it includes almost the whole white-color workers.People who want to use the system can realy use it, maybe one or two times a week. Given the fact that a major company like Matsushita has adopted this kind of system, other companies will surely follow it.People's way of working is to be diversified,and managements have to take account of their emploees' social duties like child and family cares.

参考までにーotherwise のこんな使い方

副詞のotherwiseの使いかたで次のようなタイプがあります。これは覚えておくと便利です。
Efforts to make use of retail store food products that would otherwise end up in the garbage are examined. On a trial basis, a Yokohama outlet of convinience store chain Lawson has begun donating bento that have reached their use-by date to a local nonprofit organaization that uses them to provide low-income and homeless people with cheap meals.
下手な日本語のままで言えば、「もしそうしなければごみになってしまう小売店頭の食物を利用しようとする努力を、（この番組では）検証します。」と言う意味になります。これはThe Dily Yomiuri のTelevision Spotlightからの文章です。