31.   The Fiscal System Council, an advisory panel for the finance minister, has set a numerical target for cutting the ballooning general government deficit to more manageable proportions.

32.   The Japanese are dead set against numerical targets, which they label managed trade that violates free-trade principles.

33.   The Japanese government did not, to its credit, agree to numerical targets for imports.

34.   The important point for Clinton to absorb is that the meager economic gains to be had by winning numerical targets are not worth risking a trade war.

35.   The Japanese never liked the numerical targets in the semiconductor pact, which they say were informal goals the U.S. side twisted into ironclad promises.

36.   The United States now concedes that it is not seeking numerical targets, though it had mentioned such goals at earlier stages in the negotiations.

37.   The United States had wanted numerical targets for Japanese imports.

38.   They say it may not have happened without the stimulus provided by a numerical target.

39.   Yet what the banks agreed to do was simply to try to make more money, by cutting their own costs according to overall numerical targets.

40.   Opposition parties wanted the Liberal Democrats to publish numerical targets for cutting spending.