Japan-U.S. Business Report articles from April 1998

Japan-U.S. Business Report archives from April 1998

Japanese Companies in the United States: CHEMICALS
April 30, 1998... Pasadena, Texas will be the location of a $200 million acrylic acid plant built by AMERICAN ACRYL LLC. The year-old, equally owned joint venture between NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD.'s U.S. production subsidiary and ELF ATOCHEM NORTH AMERICA, INC....

Japanese Companies in the United States: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS
April 30, 1998... Under a memorandum of understanding, the leader in the American portable computer market, TOSHIBA CORP., will team up with the originator of the Java programming language, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC., to develop a mobile network computer system. By...

Japanese Companies in the United States: ELECTRIC MACHINERY
April 30, 1998... One of the big American names in batteries, RAYOVAC CORP., will continue to receive technical assistance from MATSUSHITA BATTERY INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. through the year 2003. Under the extended technology license, the world's largest producer of...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FINANCIAL SERVICES
April 30, 1998... After 46 years, SUMITOMO BANK, LTD. will pull out of California's retail banking market. The Osaka-based company has agreed to sell the 47-branch SUMITOMO BANK OF CALIFORNIA to ZIONS BANCORP. of Salt Lake City, Utah for roughly $546 million (see...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
April 30, 1998... Snack and cracker manufacturer SESMARK FOODS, INC., the top producer of Usuyaki (thin) rice crackers and sesame sticks in the United States, has mapped out a plan to boost revenues to $25 million this year from $20.3 million in 1997. It is adding...

Japanese Companies in the United States: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY
April 30, 1998... Whether American or Japanese, major construction equipment manufacturers see compact hydraulic excavators as the next hot product. Some time this year, HITACHI CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY CO., LTD. will join KOBE STEEL, LTD. (see Japan-U.S. Business...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS
April 30, 1998... PANASONIC CONSUMER ELECTRONICS CO., a U.S. marketing unit of MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD., hopes to stand out in the increasingly crowded market for digital cameras by introducing in May a product that produces pictures closer in...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SEMICONDUCTORS
April 30, 1998... The dive in the prices of dynamic random access memory chips continues to reverberate through Japanese-affiliated semiconductor plants in the United States (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 342, March 1998, p. 6). MATSUSHITA SEMICONDUCTOR CORP....

Japanese Companies in the United States: TELECOMMUNICATIONS
April 30, 1998... Another Japan-U.S. consortium plans to lay an undersea fiber-optic cable across the Pacific to handle the demand for capacity caused by surging Internet traffic and other communications services. Spearheaded by JAPAN TELECOM CO., LTD., the...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TEXTILES AND APPAREL
April 30, 1998... Designers of high-end clothing have a domestic source of supply for a new circular knit fabric known as bemberg (cupro ammonium rayon) that is characterized by a brilliant luster, a soft hand and a beautiful drape. ASAHI CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CO.,...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT
April 30, 1998... Industry sources speculate that the first product jointly designed and engineered by MAZDA MOTOR CORP. and its de facto parent, FORD MOTOR CO., will be a 2,000-cubic-centimeter sport-utility vehicle. Although the interiors and the exteriors of...

Japanese Companies in the United States: MISCELLANEOUS
April 30, 1998... A digital, interactive simulator ride system like no other is the lofty goal of a tie-up between HITACHI, LTD. and ENTERTAINMENT DESIGN WORKSHOP, LLC. The electronics giant, which created an amusement system planning department 18 months ago,...

American Companies in Japan: CHEMICALS
April 30, 1998... DUPONT DOW ELASTOMERS L.L.C. has added ASAHI CHEMICAL INDUSTRY CO., LTD. as an INSITE licensee. This DOW CHEMICAL CO.-developed technology is a constrained-geometry, single-site olefin polymerization catalyst. It is said to provide superior...

American Companies in Japan: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS
April 30, 1998... Production of DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP. desktop PCs for the local market has been switched to the company's Tama plant in Tokyo from Taiwan. The move is designed to make DEC a more nimble competitor in Japan's sluggish PC market. For better...

American Companies in Japan: CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE
April 30, 1998... DP PROPERTIES INC., a Tokyo real estate subsidiary of MORGAN STANLEY & CO., will buy some 1,200 condominium units from DAIKYO INC. The 50 buildings containing the units, located in metropolitan areas across Japan, were built in 1992 and 1993....

American Companies in Japan: ELECTRIC MACHINERY
April 30, 1998... Despite a promising sales start, WHIRLPOOL CORP. has pulled out of Japan's appliance market. The Benton Harbor, Michigan supplier of refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines, dryers and similar products cited the country's prolonged...

American Companies in Japan: FINANCIAL SERVICES
April 30, 1998... The largest foreign-owned consumer finance company in Japan, the AIC CORP. subsidiary of ASSOCIATES FIRST CAPITAL CORP., soon will also have the title of the nation's sixth-biggest finance firm based on total receivables. The company has a...

American Companies in Japan: MERCHANDISING
April 30, 1998... The Nicole Miller line of designer clothing is available at a freestanding Nicole Miller boutique in Osaka under a 10-year arrangement between the brand's manufacturer, New York City-based KOBRA INTERNATIONAL LTD., and SANKYO SEIKO CO., LTD....

American Companies in Japan: METALS AND FABRICATED PRODUCTS
April 30, 1998... After supplying several HITACHI METALS, LTD. divisions with specialty metal powders over the years, ULTRAFINE POWER TECHNOLOGY, INC. has named HITACHI METALS TRADING CO., LTD. as the exclusive distributor of its UltraFine gas-atomized products....

American Companies in Japan: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY
April 30, 1998... A team of 35 engineers has been assembled at VICKERS JAPAN, LTD. in Tokyo to develop by the year 2000 electronically controlled hydraulic equipment for use with construction machinery. KOMATSU LTD. and its KOMATSU ZENOAH CO. affiliate bring to...

American Companies in Japan: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS
April 30, 1998... Retailers now are carrying Kodak Advantix color film in speeds of 100 and 200. Like other Advanced Photo System-based film from EASTMAN KODAK CO., the film cassette just drops into the camera. Information exchange between film and camera records...

American Companies in Japan: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
April 30, 1998... By the year 2001, police stations across Japan will be equipped with systems that digitally scan suspects' fingerprints and palm prints for transmission to the automated fingerprint identification system at National Police Agency headquarters in...

American Companies in Japan: SEMICONDUCTORS
April 30, 1998... Shipments of flash memories have started from FUJITSU-AMD SEMICONDUCTOR LTD.'s second wafer fabrication facility in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture. At full capacity, the factory will be able to produce approximately 6,500 8-inch wafers a...

American Companies in Japan: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
April 30, 1998... The ferment shaking up the U.S. market for Internet search services has reached Japan. YAHOO! JAPAN CORP. has announced that it will link its Internet search service with the one sponsored by NTT ADVERTISING, INC., a unit of NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND...

American Companies in Japan: TELECOMMUNICATIONS
April 30, 1998... For approximately $32 million, wireless services provider NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. of McLean, Virginia acquired a 21 percent stake in J-COM CO., LTD., which later this year will launch iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network) services for...

American Companies in Japan: TEXTILES AND APPAREL
April 30, 1998... New York City fashion design house DONNA KARAN INTERNATIONAL INC. and its Singapore partners sold the local Donna Karan subsidiary to ONWARD KASHIYAMA CO., LTD. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 340, January 1998, p. 26). That deal complements...

American Companies in Japan: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT
April 30, 1998... CHRYSLER JAPAN SALES LTD. now is wholly owned by CHRYSLER CORP. For an undisclosed price, the automotive maker bought the remaining 30 percent of its local distribution unit from J. OSAWA & CO., LTD. The Seibu Saison Group member put up 85...

American Companies in Japan: MISCELLANEOUS
April 30, 1998... The Japan Defense Agency has taken delivery of two of the four AWACS (airborne warning and control system) planes it has on order with BOEING CO. The first such aircraft in the Air Self-Defense Force's fleet, the E-767s, which are based on the...