The Coming Week in Asia: A Tale of Two Online Brokers in Japan

TOKYO -- The city's week is starting off on a cautionary note, with 71,000 home defense members, the military and the police taking part in a natural-disaster drill today.

Dubbed Big Rescue 2000, the exercise is intended to ease the minds of Tokyo-area residents, who have suffered through a number of earthquakes in the past two months.

But the government isn't thinking only of natural disasters. Last week, it took what is hoped will be a step to prevent any financial disasters that could stem from increased bankruptcies. To do so, it allocated nearly 15 trillion yen ($140 billion) in public funds to the Deposit Insurance Corp., an agency that bails out troubled banks. ...