NTCIR6OpinionSubmissionGuide

Call for Participation

Opinion Analysis Task at NTCIR Workshop 6

1. Introduction

Opinion Analysis is a pilot task in the series of NTCIR Workshops.　 In recent years, several important conferences such as AAAI, ACL, COLING, SIGIR, WWW, etc., have published works on opinion extraction, sentiment, and subjective information analysis.　 However, ~~the~~ no common platform exists that can be used ~~for the~~to ~~evaluation~~ evaluate of these technologies ~~is still absent~~.　 In 2005, the open submission session at NTCIR-5 ~~tried to~~ collected researchers’ comments ~~towards~~ about 　a new pilot task.　 ~~The~~ This pilot task aims to build an opinion extraction corpus based on the past NTCIR CLIR test collections, and to promote investigation of opinionated information access.　

Opinion extraction is one of the kernel technologies related to opinion analysis tasks.　 In this pilot task, sentences are the basic units for extraction and relevance judgments.　 Opinions and the opinion holders are the information we focus on.　 The test collection consists of topics and the relevant documents.　 For each topic and the corresponding relevant documents, participants have to report which sentences have subjective information relevant to the designated topic, their polarity, and the “explicit” opinion holder.　

If you are interested in this task, please join the discussion about task description through the mailing list by just write an email to the organizer at opinion-admin@nii.ac.jp, or send an email with thea command to “subscribe ntc-opinion@nii.ac.jp” to majordomo@nii.ac.jp in the message body.　 Please notice that all the participants who ~~would~~ register to for the Opinion task will be automatically ~~register~~ed added to this mailing list as well.

2. Task Description

To evaluate the technologies embedded, we divide opinion analysis into five subtasks.　 ~~The e~~Extractiong of opinion holders and opinionated sentences are mandatory.　 To ~~tell out~~indicate the relevancy of opinionated sentences to the given topics and/or determine the polarity of relevant opinionated sentences ~~are~~ is optional.　 In addition, there is an optional application-oriented subtask.　 The name of the opinion task describes the language, type, and granularity of the task.　 The format is L-T-G where L denotes the language L ~~(the language~~ of the materials), T the type Tof task, 　and G the granularity G (of the analyzed unit of materials).　 For example, C/J/E-OE-S denotes “Chinese/Japanese/English Opinion Extraction at the Sentence Level”.　 The following sections define the formats of topics, documents and answers.　 The Appendix shows sample topics, documents and answers.

2.1 Topics

Each topic has eight fields including <NUM>, <ONUM>, <SLANG>, <TANG>, <TITLE>, <DESC>, <NARR>, and <CONC>.　 The interpretation is similar to the NTCIR CLIR task except that <NARR> is revised to meet the needs of opinion extraction, and a new tag <ONUM> is added to each topic for recording the original number of the topic in the past NTCIRs.

2.2 Documents

Opinionated topics along with the corresponding relevant documents, which are selected from NTCIR-3, NTCIR-4, and NTCIR-5 CLIR tasks, will be delivered to the participants.　 The following is a brief description of tag set.

(1)　 Mandatory tags

<DOC></DOC> Tag for each document

<DOCNO></DOCNO> Document identifier

<STNO></STNO> Sentence identifier

<LANG></LANG> Language code: CH, EN, JA

<HEADLINE></HEADLINE> Title of news article

<DATE></DATE> Issue date

<TEXT></TEXT> Text of news article

(2)　 Optional tags

<P></P> Paragraph marker

<SECTION></SECTION> Section identifier in the original newspapers

<AE></AE> Whether the document Ccontains figures or not

<WORDS></WORDS> Number of words in 2 bytes

2.3 Format of Answer Report

An answer report consists of four types of information, including opinion holders, opinionated sentences, relevant sentences, and the opinion polarities of opinionated sentences.　 The former two are mandatory and the latter two are optional.　 The four types are defined as follows.

1. Opinion holders: Mandatory.　 The corresponding field is [OPHOLDER].

2. Opinionated sentences: Mandatory.　 The corresponding field is [OPINION].

3. Relevant sentences: Optional.　 The corresponding field is [RELEVANCE].

4. Opinion polarities of opinionated sentences: Optional.　 The corresponding field is [POLARITY].

The format of a report of each run is defined as follows. 　All the extracted information [OPHOLDER], [OPINION], [RELEVANCE] and [POLARITY] for a sentence [STNO] of a document [DOCNO] relevant to a specific topic [TOPICNO] in language [Lang] is written in one line in the following order.

[TOPICNO], [DOCNO], [STNO], [Lang], ”[OPHOLDER_1]”;”[OPHOLDER_2]”;…;”[OPHOLDER_N]”, [OPINION], [RELEVANCE], [POLARITY]

The meaning of each field is defined as follows.

(1)　 The value of the <DOCNO> tag and <STNO> tag in documents is used for identification of a sentence.　 If sentences do not contribute any information, we allow them not to be included in the report. 　The valid value of [Lang] for Chinese/Japanese/English opinion analysis is C/J/E.

(2)　 [OPHOLDER] is the holder of the opinion in [STNO]. It is written in CSV format which requires double quotes to express strings and can include comma (,). If a double quote occurs in an answer string, we use "" (double quote twice) to denote its occurrence.　 There could be more than one opinion holder in one sentence, and they are separated by semicolons in the answer.

(3)　 [OPINION] is the judgment of whether sentence [STNO] of document [DOCNO] is opinionated.　 The value of [OPINION] is either Y or N.　

(4)　 [RELEVANCE] is the relevance judgment of [STNO].　 If sentence [STNO] in [DOCNO] is relevant to topic [TOPICNO], then field [RELENANCE] is assigned to be Y.　 Otherwise, we let the value of [RELEVANCE] be N.　

(5)　 [POLARITY] denotes the judgment of the sentiment polarity of the opinion.　 Its value is only valid when the value of [OPINION] is Y.　 The polarity of one opinion can be positive, neutral, or negative, and the corresponding value of [POLARITY] is POS, NEU and NEG, respectively.　 For those sentences whose [OPINION] is Y, but [RELEVANCE] is N, we assign the value of [POLARITY] according to the attitude of opinions.　 For those sentences whose [OPINION] and [RELEVANCE] are both Y, we assign the value of [POLARITY] according to the description of the topic [TOPICNO].

We will release a program for participants to check if the submitted results ~~meeting~~ conform to the answer format.

2.4 Application-Oriented Subtask

Opinion-annotated data could be utilized not only for assessing the automatic evaluation of opinion sentence/holder, but for implementing opinion-related applications such as opinion-related QA, summarization, or positive/negative text generation. In this subtask, participants could use manual annotated data to produce texts, summaries or questions-related answers.

· The participants must evaluate their experimental results by themselves, but they could also have the opportunity to present their opinion-related applications in NTCIR-6 workshop meeting.

· Manually annotated data will be available after the submission deadline of the main subtask described from 2.1 – 2.3 (tentatively 2006/10/31).

· The participants for this subtask must submit papers to NTCIR-6 workshop by 2007/03/01, but do not need to submit the results to organizers.

3. Evaluation

There are two types of evaluation: the strict gold standard and the lenient gold standard.　 The difference between them is the selection of correct answers.　 Three annotators will label each type of information on each sentence.　 In the lenient gold standard, every answer is agreed ~~with~~ upon by at least two annotators (the majority).　 In the strict gold standard, every answer is agreed ~~with~~ upon by all annotators.　 Performance measurements according to both types of gold standard will be provided to participants.

Precision, Recall and F-score will be adopted in the evaluation.　 The evaluation report will consist of the following results.

(a) 　Mandatory evaluation

1. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder using lenient gold standard.

2. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder using strict gold standard.

3. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion using lenient gold standard.

4. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion using strict gold standard.

5. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder + Opinion using lenient gold standard.

6. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder + Opinion using strict gold standard.

(b) 　Option 1 evaluation

If Relevance information is provided, extra information will be reported including:

7. Precision, Recall and F-score of Relevance using lenient gold standard.

8. Precision, Recall and F-score of Relevance using strict gold standard.

9. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder + Opinion + Relevance using lenient gold standard.

10. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder + Opinion + Relevance using strict gold standard.

(c) 　Option 2 evaluation

If Polarity information is provided, extra information will be reported including:

11. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder + Opinion + Polarity using lenient gold standard.

12. Precision, Recall and F-score of Opinion Holder + Opinion + Polarity using strict gold standard.

(d) 　Option 3 evaluation

If both Relevance and Polarity information is provided, extra information will be reported including:

13. Precision, Recall and F-score of Relevance + Opinion Holder + Opinion + Polarity using lenient gold standard.

14. Precision, Recall and F-score of Relevance + Opinion Holder + Opinion + Polarity using lenient gold standard.

4. Result Submission

Run submission is via e-mail: opinion-admin@nii.ac.jp with subject “Opinion Submission”. Runs are submitted as attached files with file names as RunIDs.　 The test set will be delivered at 2006/11/21 12:00 Tokyo time for Chinese and Japanese, 2006/12/11 for English.　 The results are due back 2006/11/30 for Chinese and Japanese, 2006/12/20 for English, 24:00 Tokyo time.10/1~~6 (Monday), 12:00, Tokyo time. The due time of run~~ ~~submission is at 10/31 (Sunday), 24:00, Tokyo time.~~ ~~(tentative)~~

The RunID is an identity for each run and its format is defined as follows.

GRPID-TASKID-PfrNo

where GRPID is the group ID, TASKID is the ID of opinion task (e.g., C-OE-S), and PfrNo is a 2-digit number ~~(e.g., C-OE-S)~~, which denotes the preference to be assessed among the results submitted by the same groups.　 The preference is in ascending order.　 For example, a group, NLPL, submits 3 runs for C-OE-_S task.　 They should be assigned RunIDs as

NLPL-C-OE-S-01, NLPL-C-OE-S-02, and NLPL-C-OE-S-03.

In addition to opinion extraction results, each participating group has to submit a file with the filename “GRPID-TechDesc”, which is the concise technique description for each submitted run. As mentioned above, GRPID is the group ID. In general, this file should contain the following information.

1. RunID: as defined as above

2. RelTech: the techniques used to identify relevant sentences, e.g., key word matching, Okapi, etc.

3. HolderTech: the techniques used to extract opinion holders, e.g., named entity extraction, POS, etc.

4. OpinionTech: the techniques used to identify opinionated sentence, e.g., dictionary lookup, probabilistic model, etc.

5. OpinionUnit: character, word, phrase, etc.

An example is listed below for reference.　 You could send this file in plain text format.

RunID	RelTech	HolderTech	OpinionTech	OpinionUnit
NLPL-C-OE-S-01	Okapi	Dictionary	Dictionary	Word
NLPL-C-OE-S-02	N/A	Named Entity Extraction	Machine Learning	Phrase

5. Tentative Schedule

2006/08?/01?: Start of Registration
2006/10?/07?: Registration Due
2006/110/2116: Testing Sets Release (Chinese and Japanese)
2006/110/301: Submission of Results (Chinese and Japanese)

2006/12/11: Testing Set Release (English)

2006/12/20: Submission of Results (English)
2007/02: Delivery of Evaluation Results
2007/03: Paper Due (for Proceedings)
2007/05/15 to 18: NTCIR Workshop-6 (Conference in Tokyo)

see also: http://research.nii.ac.jp/ntcir/ntcir-ws6/important_dates-en.html

6. How to Participate and Register

** How to participate is described at:

http://research.nii.ac.jp/ntcir/ntcir-ws6/howto-en.html

http://research.nii.ac.jp/ntcir/ntcir-ws6/howto-ja.html

** Online Registration is Available at:

http://research.nii.ac.jp/ntcir/ntcir-ws6/form_list-en.html

http://research.nii.ac.jp/ntcir/ntcir-ws6/form_list-ja.html

The signed user agreement forms are needed for data delivery.

If you have questions concerning registration matter, please ask the NTCIR secretary (ntc-secretariat@nii.ac.jp).

7. Resources

A Chinese sentiment dictionary NTUSD along with some tools are available for downloading at URL http://nlg18.csie.ntu.edu.tw:8080/opinion/index.html after filling in user agreement form.　 We also welcome the donation of any related resources and tools.　 Please send the information to the task organizers (opinion-admin@nii.ac.jp).　 We will put them on the opinion web site.

8. Task Organizers (in alphabetic order)

Hsin-Hsi Chen, National Taiwan University

David Kirk Evans, National Institute of Informatics

Noriko Kando, National Institute of Informatics

Lun-Wei Ku, National Taiwan University

Chin-Yew Lin, Microsoft Research Asia

Yohei Seki, Toyohashi University of Technology

9. Contact Information

If you have any questions, please contact the task organizers (opinion-admin@nii.ac.jp).

Also, please see the website: http://research.nii.ac.jp/ntcir/ntcir-ws6/opinion/index-en.html

10.　 Appendix

10.1. Sample Topic

10.1.1. Sample Chinese Topic

<TOPIC>

<ONUM>NTCIR3-019</ONUM>

<TITLE>歐洲貨幣組織的經濟影響</TITLE>

<DESC>

有關於歐洲貨幣組織的經濟影響之文章

</DESC>

<NARR>

歐洲十一個國家的貨幣由歐盟特別討論會議決議所統一，「歐元」概念在1999 年一月呈

現。儘管要到2002 年真正稱為歐元的鈔票和硬幣才可見於市場，歐元信用卡或歐元支

票已經可以被用來購物，而歐元的價格也在零售店面被展示出來。若一文章關於此貨幣

組織的經濟影響，其為相關。若一文章有關其他地區貨幣組織的實踐，如亞洲國家，則

其為部分相關。凡與以上主題相關的意見皆視為相關。

</NARR>

<CONC>

歐洲貨幣組織，歐元，歐洲貨幣，歐盟，EU，歐洲經濟共同體，歐洲中央銀行，貨幣

與金融政策，經濟落差

</CONC>

</TOPIC>

10.1.2. Sample Japanese Topic

<TOPIC>

<ONUM>NTCIR3-019</ONUM>

<TITLE>欧州通貨統合の経済的影響</TITLE>

<DESC>

ヨーロッパの通貨統合の経済的影響についての記事を読みたい。

</DESC>

<NARR>

EU特別首脳会議の決議により、欧州11カ国の通貨が統合され、1999年1月からから

新通貨「ユーロ」が登場した。ユーロという紙幣・コインが実際に出回るのは2002

年からであるが、ユーロ・クレジットカードやユーロ小切手で買い物ができるよう

になり、小売店でもユーロでの価格が表示されている。この通貨統合による経済的

影響についての記事であれば要求を満たす。アジア諸国などの他地域での通貨統合

の実現に関連した記事も部分的に要求を満たす。

</NARR>

<CONC>

欧州通貨統合, ユーロ, ユーロ通貨, 欧州連合, EU, 欧州経済共同体, 欧州中央銀行,

通貨・金融政策, 経済格差

</CONC>

</TOPIC>

10.1.3. Sample English Topic

<TOPIC>

<ONUM>NTCIR3-019</NUM>

<TITLE>Economic influence of the European monetary union</TITLE>

<DESC>

Articles relating to economic influence of European monetary union.

</DESC>

<NARR>

The currency of eleven nations in Europe was unified by the resolution of

the EU special summit meeting, and new currency, the "Euro", appeared conceptually

in January, 1999. Although it will be 2002 when the bill and coin called the Euro

actually appears on the market, a Euro credit card or a Euro cheque may be used

for shopping, and the price in Euros is also displayed in retail stores. If an article is about

the economic influence of this monetary union, it is relevant. If an article is

about the realization of the monetary union in other areas, such as Asian countries, it is partially relevant.

</NARR>

<CONC>

European monetary union, Euro, Euro currency, European Union, EU, European

Economic Community, the European Central Bank, monetary and financial policy,

economic gap

</CONC>

</TOPIC>

~~<TOPIC>~~

~~<NUM>026</NUM>~~

~~<ONUM>NTCIR~~3-019~~</ONUM>~~

~~<SLANG>JA</SLANG>~~

~~<TLANG>JA</TLANG>~~

~~<TITLE>欧州通貨統合の経済的影響</TITLE>~~

~~<DESC>~~

~~ヨーロッパの通貨統合の経済的影響についての記事を読みたい。~~

~~</DESC>~~

~~<NARR>~~

EU~~特別首脳会議の決議により、欧州~~11~~カ国の通貨が統合され、1999~~年1~~月からから~~

~~新通貨「ユーロ」が登場した。ユーロという紙幣・コインが実際に出回るのは2002~~

~~年からであるが、ユーロ・クレジットカードやユーロ小切手で買い物ができるよう~~

~~になり、小売店でもユーロでの価格が表示されている。この通貨統合による経済的~~

~~影響についての記事であれば要求を満たす。アジア諸国などの他地域での通貨統合~~

~~の実現に関連した記事も部分的に要求を満たす。~~

~~</NARR>~~

~~<CONC>~~

~~欧州通貨統合~~, ~~ユーロ~~, ~~ユーロ通貨~~, ~~欧州連合, EU,~~ ~~欧州経済共同体~~, ~~欧州中央銀行~~,

~~通貨・金融政策~~, ~~経済格差~~

~~</CONC>~~

~~</TOPIC>~~

10.2. Sample Document

10.2.1. Sample Chinese Document

<DOC>

<HEADLINE><STNO>0000</STNO>●歐元正式使用</HEADLINE>

<TEXT>

<P>

中華日報新聞編譯中心／綜合外電一日報導

</P>

<P>

歐元今天凌晨零時起正式上路，歷經四十年的努力，歐元圈十一國成為全球矚目焦點，歐元效應將進一步擴散。

這項行動代表一個擁有二億九千萬消費者的單一貨幣區的誕生。

這個地區約佔全球經濟產量的五分之一，約略僅次於美國，在貿易方面，「歐元區」將是全世界的超強區，佔全球進出口貿易的百分之十八點六。

</P>

<P>

昨晚除夕夜，對於歐洲金融界而言，不是人手一杯香檳迎接新年，而是對著電腦挑燈夜戰，迎接歐元的誕生。

從昨天中午（台北時間卅一日晚間七、八時），歐盟部長會議決定歐元與各國貨幣兌換價位後，各國銀行及股市要在新年假期的四天之內完成歐元計價工作。

</P>

<P>

匯率的兌換由歐洲中央銀行和各國中央銀行的銀行家作成最後決定。

歐洲中央銀行是一個權大勢大的機構，它將管理歐元，並訂定利率。

</P>

<P>

歐元匯率的訂定採取和歐洲貨幣單位 (ＥＣＵ) 等值，歐洲貨幣單位是由十二種貨幣組成的一籃貨幣，包括未加入歐元的英鎊、丹麥幣和希臘幣。

</P>

<P>

歐元匯率將在芬蘭時間今天凌晨（台北時間一日上午六時）開始生效，這比多數其他歐元區國家提早一小時。

</P>

<P>

歐元對其他主要國際貨幣的幣值，將在今天印度孟買市場首先進行交易。

印度孟買是少數在今天新年仍進行交易的市場之一。

</P>

<P>

從一月四日開市起，歐元圈十一國所有銀行之間帳目往來均採用歐元計算，即銀行白天對一般客戶使用本國貨幣，結帳則必須全部換成歐元。

</P>

<P>

歐洲經濟暨貨幣同盟將於一九九九年元旦正式使用歐元，在無匯兌風險下，經濟可望大幅成長，經濟學家預估，如果歐洲國家陸續加入歐元圈，未來可能成為超越北美自由貿易區的超級經濟大集團。

</P>

<P>

行政院經建會主委江丙坤指出，歐洲貨幣聯盟逐步推展後，經貿版圖將擴及中東歐國家，長期遠景樂觀。

整體而言，歐洲金融市場的規模將足以與美國匹敵，且由於境內資金流通無阻，歐洲金融市場的深度與廣度必然相應提高，歐盟的資本市場與貨幣市場也將因為資金流動性提高、資金成本透明而更加活絡。

</P>

<P>

歐元強勢自然對美元產生衝擊，未來數年各國的外匯存底將提高以歐元持有的比例，預計有五千億至一兆美元的外匯存底轉換為歐元，對美元的價位會產生衝擊，導致美元貶值；同時，在金融市場部份，預計全球三分之一以上的資金將由美元轉換為歐元，五年內，美元與歐元將分佔全球金融版圖的百分之四十，國際金融市場將由美元獨大的局面轉變為美元、歐元分庭亢禮雙元化體系。

</P>

<P>

江丙坤表示，在貿易部份，短期內將產生貿易移轉效果，也就是歐元區國家將減少自區外的進口，不利我國產品輸歐，但假以時日，歐盟整合帶來強勁的成長動力，也可以促進其整體貿易發展，增加與區外的貿易；在投資部份，歐元區國家經濟成長率若提高，其內需市場也會擴大，提供更多商機，國內廠商應把握機會，前往直接投資，以分散出口市場，增加貿易機會。

</P>

<P>

歐盟十五國已成為我國產品第三大出口地區，僅次於美國和中國大陸，歐盟同時也為我第三大進口來源地區，僅次日本和美國，同時我對歐元十一國出進口比重均在百分之十以上，歐元使用對我出進口貿易將有直接的影響。

</P>

</TEXT>

</DOC>

10.2.2. Sample Japanese Document

<DOC>

<HEADLINE><STNO>0000</STNO>２大通貨時代に　産業、金融、合従連衡加速へ－－ユーロあす発足</HEADLINE>

<TEXT>

【ブリュッセル３０日松木健】先進７カ国蔵相・中央銀行総裁会議（Ｇ７）が、世界的な通貨安定を目指し外国為替市場で目標相場圏の導入も含めた「準為替管理制度」の検討に入った。

アジアやロシアの金融危機防止だけでなく、欧州単一通貨ユーロの導入は国際金融システムを大きく塗り替える可能性があり、「ドル、ユーロ、円の３極通貨で為替安定を図る必要がある」（宮沢喜一蔵相）という発想が根底にある。

ロシア危機に際して、欧州単一通貨・ユーロの傘の下に入るか否かで、同じ北欧でもフィンランドの通貨マルカが安定していたのに対しスウェーデン・クローナは市場の攻撃を受けた。

ユーロのインパクト、存在意義の大きさがスタート前から証明された形だ。

これまで、ユーロ圏１１カ国の通貨での世界貿易の取引は３割、外貨準備でも２割弱に過ぎず、ドルのひとり勝ちだった。

しかし、日本に次ぐ外貨準備高を持つ中国は、その相当部分をドルからユーロに切り替えると表明。

ドルからユーロへの巨額の資金移動は「ドル・ユーロ２大通貨時代」の始まりを意味する。

一方で、ユーロは欧州の産業、金融にも強烈な地殻変動をもたらしている。

銀行、保険、証券など金融界の国境を越えた合従連衡だけでなく、為替リスクの消失を受けて欧州では電機最大手のフィリップスや乗用車メーカーのフォルクスワーゲン（ＶＷ）がスペインなど雇用コストが安い国へ生産拠点を移す動きを本格化させている。

その分、国内の雇用が失われるのは当然で、シュレーダー独政権が、法人税などの低い国にその水準を上げさせ「欧州の税制調和を図ろう」と主張しているのは、いまさら構造改革に手をつけても遅れを取り戻すのは難しいと考えているためだろう。

「欧州はそう簡単に構造改革を進められないだろう」と見ている米国は、ユーロをドルの“補完通貨”という視点でとらえている。

だが、欧州がユーロという共通通貨にだけよりかからず改革を進めれば、ドルからユーロへの資金シフトは急ピッチで進み、米国の巨額の経常赤字を海外から流入する資金で埋め合わせることはできなくなる。

通貨統合発足前の最後のウィーン首脳会議で、ＥＵは北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）と一線を画す独自の安全保障体制を構築することで合意した。

しかし、直後に起きた米英によるイラク攻撃に対しフランスは極めて冷ややかで、米英支持に回ったドイツも今後の“封じ込め”には消極的と、ＥＵ共通外交・防衛政策の難しさを露呈した。

ユーロ誕生で、欧州はユーロの将来を左右する政治統合という新たな段階を迎える。

</TEXT>

</DOC>

10.2.3. Sample English Document

<DOC>

<HEADLINE>[EDITORIAL]Japan's place in the world</HEADLINE>

<TEXT>

　The years since the end of the Cold War have seen the world groping for a new　direction.

With a new century just around the corner, a pattern for international relations over the next decade or so finally seems to be emerging.

　The United States, as the world's sole superpower, will continue to exercise leadership in the political, economic and security fields and attempt to maintain its lead in telecommunications, aeronautics, energy and finance.

　To challenge this new Pax Americana, the nations of Europe will escalate their efforts to integrate.

The initial members of the monetary union that will adopt the euro as its currency will be decided in May.

And with the expansion of NATO to include former Warsaw Pact states, negotiations for accession to the European Union by East European and Baltic countries will also move into higher gear.

　The future of Russia, meanwhile, is somewhat murky, as a successor to President Boris Yeltsin has yet to emerge.

　A return to Stalinism is not in the cards, however, and a new generation of leaders could help build a stabler and more just　society.

　China will likely continue to grow for the time being, but it will eventually　have to confront such problems as the widening gap between rich and poor, overcrowding, energy shortages, pollution, rising crime and the graying of its population.

Moreover, it remains to be seen how long it can maintain its socialist doctrines in the face of dynamic economic growth.

　The financial crisis that struck South Korea and other Asian "tigers" was a heavy body blow, but this is part of the maturing process.

The Asia-Pacific region as a whole should continue to grow.

　The big question mark is Japan.

In spite of its economic might, the nation has a surprisingly weak global presence.

Although the credit ratings of many leading financial institutions have been lowered, the stock market is stagnant and the yen has tumbled, the weakness is not just economic.

　Scandals involving top bureaucrats as well as halfhearted attempts to implement administrative reform have　prompted Tokyo-based journalists to dispatch stories critical of Japan.

　Such criticism is often directed at the closed nature of Japanese society and　the rules and practices that set it apart from many other countries.

Another problem is the slow pace of deregulation.

The European Union thoroughly revamped its regulations in creating a single market, and the United States is among the least regulated societies in the world.

Japan must seem to be a country full of antiquated rules.

　Partly to deflect this criticism, the administration promised to carry out a bold program of reform and deregulation.

That initiative, however, has run into opposition from bureaucrats, their political cronies and some powerful lobbies.

　Such shortcomings all derive from a Japanese tendency to reject anything that　disrupts the supposed "harmony" of the status quo.

　This is at odds with the norms of modern democracy and capitalism, which presuppose the existence of competing forces to check and balance one another.

　While politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders call for internationalization, they are often the ones who still　play by the old rules.

　Japan must adopt the rules of the international community and display the courage necessary to carry out the reforms that will get the nation back on its feet.

Let us hope that 1998 will be the year that Japan truly opens itself to the outside world.

　(From the Mainichi Shimbun, Jan. 5)

</TEXT>

</DOC>~~<DOC>~~

~~<DOCNO>JA-981231014</DOCNO>~~

~~<LANG>JA</LANG>~~

~~<SECTION>~~３面~~</SECTION>~~

~~<AE>~~無~~</AE>~~

~~<WORDS>1058</WORDS>~~

~~<HEADLINE><STNO>0000</STNO>２大通貨時代に　産業、金融、合従連衡加速へ－－ユーロあす発足</HEADLINE>~~

~~<DATE>1998-12-31</DATE>~~

~~<TEXT>~~

~~<STNO>0001</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0002</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0003</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0004</STNO>~~

~~ユーロのインパクト、存在意義の大きさがスタート前から証明された形だ。~~

~~<STNO>0005</STNO>~~

~~これまで、ユーロ圏１１カ国の通貨での世界貿易の取引は３割、外貨準備でも２割弱に過ぎず、ドルのひとり勝ちだった。~~

~~<STNO>0006</STNO>~~

~~しかし、日本に次ぐ外貨準備高を持つ中国は、その相当部分をドルからユーロに切り替えると表明。~~

~~<STNO>0007</STNO>~~

~~ドルからユーロへの巨額の資金移動は「ドル・ユーロ２大通貨時代」の始まりを意味する。~~

~~<STNO>0008</STNO>~~

~~一方で、ユーロは欧州の産業、金融にも強烈な地殻変動をもたらしている。~~

~~<STNO>0009</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0010</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0011</STNO>~~

~~「欧州はそう簡単に構造改革を進められないだろう」と見ている米国は、ユーロをドルの“補完通貨”という視点でとらえている。~~

~~<STNO>0012</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0013</STNO>~~

~~通貨統合発足前の最後のウィーン首脳会議で、ＥＵは北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）と一線を画す独自の安全保障体制を構築することで合意した。~~

~~<STNO>0014</STNO>~~

~~<STNO>0015</STNO>~~

~~ユーロ誕生で、欧州はユーロの将来を左右する政治統合という新たな段階を迎える。~~

~~</TEXT>~~

~~</DOC>~~

10.3. Sample Opinion Annotation

10.3.1. Sample Chinese Opinion Annotation

· A sample output of the sentence “行政院經建會主委江丙坤指出，歐洲貨幣聯盟逐步推展後，經貿版圖將擴及中東歐國家，長期遠景樂觀。” is as follows.

026, chd_int_19990101_0001, 0015, C, ”行政院經建會主委江丙坤”, Y, Y, POS

10.3.2. Sample Japanese Opinion Annotation

· A sample output of the sentence “「欧州はそう簡単に構造改革を進められないだろう」と見ている米国は、ユーロをドルの“補完通貨”という視点でとらえている。” is as follows.

026, JA-981231014, 0011, J, ”米国”, Y, Y, NEG