Thanks to the unsurpassed style of our chairman, it is also, on a subject previously the preserve of anoraks, readable.

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When asked if Japan faced the danger of a Russian-style collapse, Shoichiro Toyoda, the honorary chairman of Toyota Motor, says, "It is already in the middle of one, " but he complains that the country's leaders don't recognize it.

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His control was solidified shortly after the first chairman of the network was assassinated gangland-style.

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As for the Northwest dispute, some observers trace it not just to the 1993 agreement (in which the pilots' wage concessions were alleviated by the award of stock in the company and a seat on the board) but to dislike of the abrasive style of Al Checchi, chairman until last year, before his quixotic decision to run for governor of California.

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