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

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

Japanese Companies in the United States: CHEMICALS.
March 31, 1999... The undisputed world market leader in polyester films will emerge from the planned September formation of a global joint venture by TEIJIN LTD. and E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS & CO., INC. to make and market polyethylene terephthalate and...

Japanese Companies in the United States: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS.
March 31, 1999... Computer industry analysts long have wondered which of Japan's diversified electronics makers would be the first to acknowledge that it had a bleak future in the brutally competitive American personal computer market. The initial candidate is...

Japanese Companies in the United States: CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE.
March 31, 1999... Corporate Japan continues to sell off its once extensive portfolio of commercial real estate to raise money for restructuring. Among the companies recently taking advantage of strong U.S. property prices was SUMITOMO REALTY & DEVELOPMENT CO.,...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FINANCIAL SERVICES.
March 31, 1999... BANK OF TOKYO-MITSUBISHI, LTD. might be Japan's biggest and healthiest commercial bank, but it, too, could not resist the chance to capitalize on strong American asset prices to generate an estimated $750 million. It did this by selling shares...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
March 31, 1999... In a wholesale pullback from the American market, big food processor NICHIREI CORP. is liquidating all six of its money-losing U.S. subsidiaries. These businesses include NICHIREI FOODS AMERICA, INC., a Fife, Washington manufacturer of frozen...

Japanese Companies in the United States: METALS AND FABRICATED PRODUCTS.
March 31, 1999... Steel pipe for ongoing and planned ATLANTIC RICHFIELD CO. oil and gas exploration and production projects around the world will be supplied primarily by MARUBENI CORP. The three-year contract volume could be around 550,000 tons, worth something...

Japanese Companies in the United States: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY.
March 31, 1999... JAPAN DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS, INC. has agreed to give WITHROW INDUSTRIES, INC. U.S. marketing rights to its BeltBridle Type-II coil slitting line. The Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture developer says that its system eliminates the problems...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS.
March 31, 1999... Deciding that in-store minilabs are the future of photo processing, KONICA CORP.'s East Hartford, Connecticut photofinishing subsidiary has an agreement in principle with QUALEX INC. to sell three of its six wholesale photofinishing plants. The...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
March 31, 1999... With the United States at the forefront of biochemistry research, YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORP. sees this market as the major source of sales growth for its real-time confocal microscopes. YEC has arranged to supply its new CSU10 confocal scanner for...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SEMICONDUCTORS.
March 31, 1999... To mark the 10th anniversary of its ownership of MICROSI, INC., a Phoenix, Arizona semiconductor materials supplier, SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD., the world's largest provider of materials to the semiconductor industry, renamed its subsidiary...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SERVICES.
March 31, 1999... The skyrocketing prices of Internet stocks have given SOFTBANK CORP. the financial means to expand its already substantial portfolio of investments in American Internet companies. Its U.S. holding company sold 3 million shares of search engine...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
March 31, 1999... Despite recent expansions, communications providers are having trouble staying ahead of the demand for transpacific Internet capacity. The coming transmission of video and other multimedia information via the Internet only adds to the problem....

Japanese Companies in the United States: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT.
March 31, 1999... The markers of how corporate Japan's problems are working to the advantage of expansion-minded U.S. companies now include one with an American/international angle as well as the typical Japanese face. Debt-laden SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES,...

Japanese Companies in the United States: MISCELLANEOUS.
March 31, 1999... The Wilsonville, Oregon plant of polishing materials manufacturer FUJIMI INC. is sampling slurries used in the chemical mechanical planarization semiconductor process. Volume production will begin once it lines up customers. The decade-old...

American Companies in Japan: CHEMICALS.
March 31, 1999... At a cost of $16.2 million, ABBOTT LABORATORIES bought more of partner DAINIPPON PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.'s share in DAINABOT CO., LTD. The transaction, which cut the midsized Japanese drug company's stake in the Osaka-based importer and...

American Companies in Japan: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS.
March 31, 1999... The world's largest electric utility is ready for any emergency that knocks out its main computer system. COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. has installed a backup server in Saitama prefecture that is linked via a very high-speed network with TOKYO ELECTRIC...

American Companies in Japan: CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE.
March 31, 1999... Factory outlet mall operator CHELSEA GCA REALTY PARTNERSHIP LP and partners MITSUBISHI ESTATE CO., LTD. and NISSHO IWAI CORP. will open their first outlet mall in the summer of 2000 in Gotemba, Shizuoka prefecture (see Japan-U.S. Business...

American Companies in Japan: ELECTRIC MACHINERY.
March 31, 1999... A decade after it established a company with JAPAN STORAGE BATTERY CO., LTD. to market uninterruptible power supplies, EXIDE ELECTRONICS GROUP, INC. sold its share of GS-EE CO., LTD. to its partner. The Raleigh, North Carolina manufacturer did...

American Companies in Japan: FINANCIAL SERVICES.
March 31, 1999... Despite a proliferation of transpacific alliances over the last year or so, the asset-management expertise of American financial services providers still is in demand in Japan. One of the latest tie-ups brings together the investment management...

American Companies in Japan: FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
March 31, 1999... Country Morning Granola, a KELLOGG CO. cereal, is now available in Japan. AJINOMOTO CO., INC. is handling sales. An 8-ounce box costs about $3.45. Kellogg's subsidiary is aiming its promotional campaign at health-conscious women in their 20s...

American Companies in Japan: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY.
March 31, 1999... One of the world's leading makers of machines and tooling for the production of gears now has a wholly owned sales and service organization in Japan. GLEASON CORP. acquired for cash the 80 percent of OGA CORP. that it did not own already from...

American Companies in Japan: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS.
March 31, 1999... The world's largest supplier of consumables to the graphic arts industry got bigger April 1. That date marked the formation of KODAK POLYCHROME GRAPHICS JAPAN LTD. through the merger of parts of the Japan-based graphic arts businesses of...

American Companies in Japan: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
March 31, 1999... FISHER CONTROLS INTERNATIONAL, INC. is one of the world leaders in process control equipment, but its market share in Japan has lagged. Now, its FISHER-ROSEMOUNT JAPAN CO., LTD. subsidiary has set its sights on gaining 10 percent of the...

American Companies in Japan: SEMICONDUCTORS.
March 31, 1999... Worried about the availability of next-generation Direct Rambus DRAM chips, INTEL CORP. has approached MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP., NEC CORP. and TOSHIBA CORP. about possibly providing financing to help them ramp up production of this...

American Companies in Japan: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS.
March 31, 1999... Hoping to keep its sales momentum going in Japan, APPLE COMPUTER, INC. opened an on-line store that carries all of its hardware and software products. Local customers now can browse and order iMac, Power Macintosh G3, PowerBook G3 and Macintosh...

American Companies in Japan: TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
March 31, 1999... The world's largest ISP, UUNET TECHNOLOGIES, INC., has formed a subsidiary, the first step toward its goal of becoming the top provider of Internet services to corporate Japan. Over the next three years, the Herndon, Virginia firm plans to...

American Companies in Japan: TEXTILES AND APPAREL.
March 31, 1999... Beginning this fall, DESCENTE, LTD. will market a line of STARTER SPORTSWEAR, INC. clothing targeted at youth. The New Haven, Connecticut company has licensing rights to the logos associated with the North American professional baseball,...

American Companies in Japan: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT.
March 31, 1999... Continuing the rollout of its 1999 right-hand-drive product line, CHRYSLER JAPAN SALES LTD. introduced the Plymouth Voyager. The LE version of the minivan has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $29,800, while the LX edition lists for...

American Companies in Japan: MISCELLANEOUS.
March 31, 1999... As part of its strategy to become the number-one global supplier of products and services to concrete and cement producers, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Grace Construction Products, part of W.R. GRACE & CO., became the majority owner of its...