Japan-U.S. Business Report articles from February 1999

Japan-U.S. Business Report archives from February 1999

Japanese Companies in the United States: CHEMICALS.
February 28, 1999... Two of the biggest players in the American market for industrial gases, both owned by Japan's top company in this field, NIPPON SANSO CORP., have been merged in a cost-cutting move. The merger combined TRI-GAS INC. of Irving, Texas with...

Japanese Companies in the United States: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS.
February 28, 1999... To better position HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP. as a solutions provider in the extremely competitive North American market, majority owner HITACHI, LTD. will buy out ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS CORP.'s 16.2 percent stake in the Santa Clara,...

Japanese Companies in the United States: CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE.
February 28, 1999... The unwinding of corporate Japan's portfolio of high-profile American real estate continues. The latest property to be sold is the Essex House hotel, located on Central Park South in Manhattan. JAPAN AIRLINES CO., LTD. sold the 597-room Art...

Japanese Companies in the United States: ENERGY RESOURCES.
February 28, 1999... Trader MITSUBISHI CORP. and SGI INTERNATIONAL, a developer of energy technologies, have formed a company to advance the La Jolla, California partner's liquids from coal technology. This patented process turns low-grade coal into higher Btu,...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FINANCIAL SERVICES.
February 28, 1999... At a time when other Japanese banks are pulling out of the U.S. marketplace, INDUSTRIAL BANK OF JAPAN, LTD. strengthened its commitment by buying the shares it did not own in IBJ SCHRODER BANK & TRUST CO. IBJ acquired a 49 percent stake in the...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
February 28, 1999... Through a series of acquisitions dating back to 1985, SUNTORY WATER GROUP, INC., a wholly owned subsidiary of SUNTORY LTD., has emerged as the second-largest supplier of bottled water for both home and office delivery and retail sale in the...

Japanese Companies in the United States: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY.
February 28, 1999... Machine tool builder SHIN NIPPON KOKI CO., LTD., in partnership with DAIWA CAN CO., acquired ORLANDO MACHINE ENGINEERING CENTER from steel container manufacturer U.S. CAN CORP. of Oak Brook, Illinois for an undisclosed price. The renamed...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS.
February 28, 1999... The CVC-1000 progressive scan video camera that COGNEX CORP., the world leader in machine vision systems used to inspect the surfaces of products manufactured in a continuous fashion, recently introduced was developed to the Natick,...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
February 28, 1999... The Food and Drug Administration has approved NIDEK CO., LTD.'s EC-5000 excimer laser for use in photorefractive keratectomy, a surgical procedure designed to correct mild to moderate myopia or nearsightedness by altering the shape of the...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SEMICONDUCTORS.
February 28, 1999... In a huge boost for its business prospects, the Salem, Oregon subsidiary of MITSUBISHI MATERIALS CORP. will be the primary supplier of silicon wafers to MOTOROLA INC. For 40-odd years, the big semiconductor maker has made many of its own...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SERVICES.
February 28, 1999... At a cost of $11.2 million, NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORP. bought an 80 percent stake in AUTOWEB COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Formed in March 1997, the Oak Park, Michigan company has developed secure platforms using original encryption...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
February 28, 1999... NEC BUSINESS NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC., the Irving, Texas communications systems integration subsidiary of NEC CORP., exercised a December 1997 option to purchase the network integration division of ENTERPRISE NETWORKING SYSTEMS, INC. The...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT.
February 28, 1999... Starting in the spring of 2000, TOYODA TRW AUTOMOTIVE INC., a manufacturer of pumps and hoses for power steering systems, will switch to the P4 power steering pump at its Morristown, Tennessee factory. The nine-year-old joint venture among...

Japanese Companies in the United States: MISCELLANEOUS.
February 28, 1999... MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD., the prime contractor for Japan's all-domestic H-II heavy-lift booster, has won a contract to supply second-stage liquid hydrogen fuel tanks for the Delta IV, the next-generation launch vehicle being developed...

American Companies in Japan: CHEMICALS.
February 28, 1999... In what surely is a record for action by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Viagra (sildenafil citrate), PFIZER INC.'s oral therapy for erectile dysfunction, was cleared for marketing in just six months (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No....

American Companies in Japan: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS.
February 28, 1999... For whatever reason, American vendors have won few government-funded contracts for supercomputers, whether traditional vector machines or massively parallel processing systems, lately. IBM JAPAN LTD. is a rare recent exception. It received an...

American Companies in Japan: CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE.
February 28, 1999... The world's top real estate services company, Los Angeles-based CB RICHARD ELLIS, will merge its Tokyo operations with those of IKOMA CORP. and acquire 20 percent of the real estate services market leader in Japan. IKOMA/CB RICHARD ELLIS, to...

American Companies in Japan: ELECTRIC MACHINERY.
February 28, 1999... RIMAGE CORP., the largest manufacturer of replication and finishing equipment for CD-ROM, CD-R and other digital media, has moved into the Japanese market through a distribution arrangement with MARUBENI MACHINERY CORP. The Tokyo company will...

American Companies in Japan: ENERGY RESOURCES.
February 28, 1999... Still attempting to reap the efficiency gains of a merger without actually taking this step, EXXON CORP.'s two affiliates will combine their sales, finance, management and distribution divisions by June or July (see Japan-U.S. Business Report...

American Companies in Japan: FINANCIAL SERVICES.
February 28, 1999... GE CAPITAL CORP. is known for its willingness to use acquisitions to build a leading position in different parts of Japan's financial services market. It now has the distinction of paying the highest price ever for a Japanese company -- an...

American Companies in Japan: FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
February 28, 1999... The 17 independent COCA-COLA CO. bottlers in Japan -- the second-biggest contributor to the soft drink giant's bottom line -- long have resisted consolidation and the efficiency gains that mergers would bring to production and distribution....

American Companies in Japan: METALS AND FABRICATED PRODUCTS.
February 28, 1999... For reasons that were not disclosed, TITANIUM METALS CORP. has decided not to buy 5 percent of the stock of new business partner TOHO TITANIUM CO., LTD. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 350, November 1998, p. 19). Other details of their...

American Companies in Japan: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY.
February 28, 1999... Some of the world's biggest makers of bearings are headquartered in Japan. That does not deter the subsidiary of TIMKEN CO., a Canton, Ohio supplier of roller and other types of bearings. Its latest strategy is to modularize its bearings and...

American Companies in Japan: PAPER AND PULP.
February 28, 1999... Two of the biggest North American forest products companies -- Atlanta's GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORP. and Vancouver, British Columbia-headquartered CANFOR CORP. -- have decided to join forces in the tough Japanese market to build sales of market pulp...

American Companies in Japan: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
February 28, 1999... In its largest single order ever, WATERS CORP. has won an $8 million contract from the National Police Agency for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry systems. Forensic scientists at police laboratories across Japan will use this equipment...

American Companies in Japan: SEMICONDUCTORS.
February 28, 1999... In an attempt to boost its sales of DRAMs to $265.5 million in FY 1999 from just a fraction of that amount, MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC. gave KOBE STEEL, LTD. affiliate SHINSHO CORP. the right to market its computer memory chips in the huge Japanese...

American Companies in Japan: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SERVICES.
February 28, 1999... A joint venture backed by BROADCAST.COM INC. (40 percent), SOFTBANK CORP. (50 percent) and YAHOO! JAPAN CORP. (10 percent) is launching a major Internet streaming service. BROADCAST.COM JAPAN INC., which is expected to begin operations this...

American Companies in Japan: TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
February 28, 1999... The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has given PRIMUS TELECOMMUNICATIONS GROUP, INC.'s subsidiary the go-ahead to build, own and operate its own communications facilities (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 346, July 1998, p. 27). With...

American Companies in Japan: TEXTILES AND APPAREL.
February 28, 1999... Brand-name marketer CHEROKEE INC. has changed its approach to the Japanese market. Under a long-term agreement, the Van Nuys, California licensor named ITOCHU CORP. as its master licensee. The big trader has the right to manufacture, promote,...

American Companies in Japan: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT.
February 28, 1999... The 30 dealerships that SATURN CORP. has established around the country hope that the company's innovative three-door SC2 coupe will give a much-needed lift to sales. The third door is located on the passenger side of the right-hand-drive car,...

American Companies in Japan: MISCELLANEOUS.
February 28, 1999... The Microelectronics Materials Division of CABOT CORP. has inaugurated operations at its chemical mechanical planarization slurry facility in Geino, Mie prefecture (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 342, March 1998, p. 27). The plant has the...