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

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

Shares of TOYOTA MOTOR CORP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Shares of TOYOTA MOTOR CORP., the world's third-largest automotive manufacturer, now are trading on the New York Stock Exchange and on the London Stock Exchange in addition to their Tokyo Stock Ex-change listing. Executives of the cash-flush...

FUJISAWA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... With drug discovery becoming an ever higherstakes process for pharmaceutical companies that want to be counted among world leaders, FUJISAWA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. established a $5 million fund to make equity investments in start-up American...

HIKARI TSUSHIN, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... HIKARI TSUSHIN, INC., which has started to make a name for itself over the last year or so as an investor in American Internet and other high-technology start-ups, joined two California venture capital firms in providing $22.25 million in...

KIKKOMAN CORP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Its Folsom, California soy sauce plant is not even a year old (see JapanU.S. Business Report No. 350, November 1998, p. 5), but KIKKOMAN CORP. already has announced aggressive expansion plans for the facility. It will spend $18.5 million to...

ITOCHU CORP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Responding to the backlash in Japan against food products made from bioengineered soybeans, ITOCHU CORP. has decided that almost all of the 165,000 tons to 220,000 tons of soybeans that it buys annually from the United States for tofu and...

ITOEN CO., LTD.(green tea)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... With some recent studies indicating that drinking green tea can be good for a person's health, Japan's top maker of canned and bottled green tea sees a marketing opportunity in the United States. ITOEN CO., LTD. will open a representative...

OAK-MITSUI, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Copper foil manufacturer OAK-MITSUI, INC. opened a $2 million plant at its Hoosick Falls, New York production complex, enabling the joint venture between MITSUI MINING & SMELTING CO., LTD. (49 percent) and ALLIEDSIGNAL INC. (51 percent) to...

TANABE SEIYAKU CO., LTD. and OSI PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Yet another Japanese pharmaceutical company is teaming up with an American drug discovery firm in the hope of accelerating its search for a commercializable treatment for Type II diabetes. This pairing, intended to discover and develop small...

TAISHO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... To help advance its research on kidney disease, TAISHO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. chose a pioneer in the field of therapies to treat kidney fibrosis - a problem that can be caused by diabetes, hypertension and immune diseases as well as by...

KIRIN BREWERY CO., LTD.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... KIRIN BREWERY CO., LTD.'s aggressive Pharmaceutical Division has contracted with CHEMRX, the wholly owned chemistry services subsidiary of San Diego, California's DISCOVERY PARTNERS INTERNAtionAL, to develop multiple classes of compounds for...

SANTEN PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The Food and Drug Administration approved for marketing antiallergy eye drops discovered and commercialized by SANTEN PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. The Napa, California subsidiary of Japan's top supplier of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals...

FUJISAWA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Relief could be on the way for people who suffer from atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as ecze-ma. FUJISAWA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.'s Deerfield, Illinois subsidiary submitted a new drug ap-plication to the FDA for tacrolimus ointment,...

ZERIA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Like toptier Japanese pharmaceutical houses frus-trated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare's frequently slow drug-approval process, midsize ZERIA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. has come to see off-shore clinical testing as a primary way to...

HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Next spring, HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP. will open a 450,000-squarefoot distribution and warehouse facility in Plainfield, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. Located within 24 hours by truck of threefourths of the company's existing and potential...

TOSHIBA AMERICA INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... TOSHIBA AMERICA INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC. is leveraging the power of the 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon processor in its quadprocessing Magnia 7010 series of enterprise-class servers. Suited for en-terprise management, electronic commerce, data...

SONY ELECTRONICS, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... People interested in near-professional digital video editing have four new choices in SONY ELECTRONICS, INC.'s VAIO Digital Studio PC line. Ranging in price from $900 to $2,000, they include the entry-level PCV-R532DS with a 466-MHz Celeron...

SEIKO EPSON CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The first product in a planned SEIKO EPSON CORP. family of PCI bus-based card PCs will be available in production quantities in December. One of the initial card PCs based on NATIONAL SEMICONDUC-TOR CORP.'s powersaving Geode processor running...

FUJITSU COMPUTER PRODUCTS OF AMERICA, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Complementing its channel strategy, FUJITSU COMPUTER PRODUCTS OF AMERICA, INC. formed an Internet Sales and Distribution Division to spearhead Internetbased sales and service of its hard drives, tape drives, magnetooptical drives, scanners and...

Hitachi Freedom Storage 5800 family.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The Hitachi Freedom Storage 5800 family of multiplatform, high-availability storage subsystems has a new, lowercapacity member. The Model 5840 also is the first product that HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP. is releasing through a twotiered sales...

PENTAX TECHNOLOGIES CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... People who take laptop or handheld PCs on the road can take along a 1.1-pound printer. PENTAX TECHNOLOGIES CORP., a wholly owned Broom-field, Colorado subsidiary of ASAHI OPTICAL CO., LTD., has introduced the PocketJet 200 portable printer....

KYOCERA ELECTRONICS, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... KYOCERA ELECTRONICS, INC. has added a high-volume network laser printer and a midrange counterpart to its Ecosys printer line, which is designed to minimize the total cost of ownership. The Duluth, Georgia firm's FS-3750 outputs 18 ppm with a...

OKI DATA AMERICAS, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Going after the growing market for printers among small businesses and home users, OKI DATA AMERICAS, INC. of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey released the OKI-PAGE 6w. A six-ppm digital LED (light-emitting diode) printer with a 600-dpi resolution, the...

SHARP CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The first color copier/printer designed by SHARP CORP. is available in the United States through its Mahwah, New Jersey marketing unit. The midvolume AR-C150 Digital Color IMAGER operates at speeds of 15 ppm in color and 25 ppm in black and...

FUJITA CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The sell-off of what 10 years ago was corporate Japan's extensive portfolio of U.S. properties continues building by building as companies attempt to lighten their debt burden. In one of the latest deals, midsize contractor FUJITA CORP. agreed...

Digital video recording devices.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Each of the Silicon Valley start-ups promoting a format for the digital video recording devices that soon could make personal television a reality has enlisted the help of a Japanese consumer electronics powerhouse. First, REPLAY NETWORKS,...

PIONEER ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Deciding that it no longer could justify two California consumer electronics plants, PIONEER CORP. closed its facility in Chino, which had made large-screen television sets, including projection units, since 1988. Production of these products...

HITACHI AMERICA, LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The mass market in the United States for high-definition TVs has not developed as quickly as set manufacturers had hoped, in part due to the combination of high costs and limited programming but also because of technical drawbacks that reflect...

SHARP CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... SHARP CORP., which ranks among the world's leading manufacturers of LCDs (liquid crystal displays), has released through one of its U.S. marketing units what is said to be the first 20-inch LCD monitor to offer video component inputs and PC...

SONY COMPUTER, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... With the much-hyped Sega Dreamcast video game console going on sale in the United States in early Sep-tember (see JapanU.S. Business Report No. 356, May 1999, p. 5), SONY COMPUTER, INC. announced the details and the launch schedule for the...

MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Two formerly wholly owned MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. factories in Kentucky have been merged into the company's principal North American subsidiary in an effort to boost efficien-cy and better serve customers' needs. The...

TOPPAN PRINTing CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Over the next four years or so, TOPPAN PRINTing CO., LTD. could invest as much as $92.6 million in a stateof-the-art printed circuit board factory in Poway, California. Operations are scheduled to start in the summer of 2000 following a July...

YASKAWA ELECTRIC CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... YASKAWA ELECTRIC CORP. is looking for a site in Silicon Valley that will enable it to combine the em-ployees and the work of its current semiconductor of-fice in Santa Clara, California with its new Yaskawa USA Development Center. This...

PATLITE CORP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Japan's top maker of visual and audible signaling devices - a category that includes signal towers, cube towers, rotating warning lights, voice synthesizers and audible alarms - has set its sights on doing more busi-ness in the United States....

TOKIN CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... TOKIN CORP., a midsize manufacturer of elec-tronic materials, devices and systems, has big plans for its San Jose, California marketing subsidiary. The Sen-dai prefecture company has identified five product areas where it believes that North...

OAK-MITSUI, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Copper foil manufacturer OAK-MITSUI, INC. opened a $2 million plant at its Hoosick Falls, New York production complex, enabling the joint venture between MITSUI MINING & SMELTING CO., LTD. (49 percent) and ALLIEDSIGNAL INC. (51 percent) to...

NITTO KOHKI CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Next spring, NITTO KOHKI CO., LTD. will start U.S. assembly of air conduit couplings for the automotive industry. Recently formed NITTO KOHKI COU-PLING LLC has a roughly $925,900 plant and equipment budget. Its operations will be located in...

SUNCALL CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Ten years after acquiring SWISSTRONICS, INC. of Watertown, Massachusetts, SUNCALL CORP. has decided to liquidate the maker of turned metal parts and custom screw machine products. Swisstronics had estimated revenues of $11.1 million in the...

MITSUBISHI MATERIALS CORP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... In back-toback announcements, MITSUBISHI MATERIALS CORP. said that it was closing two U.S. money-losing operations: CYBEQ NANO TECHNOL-OGIES, a San Jose, California maker of chemical me-chanical polishing equipment (see JapanU.S. Business...

KUBOTA MANUFACTURING OF AMERICA CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Just two months shy of the tenth anniversary of operations in Gainesville, Georgia, KUBOTA MANUFACTURING OF AMERICA CORP. doubled its capacity to manufacture lawn tractors. The expansion, which cost some $19.4 million, covers both the T Series...

MITSUI MACHINE TECHNOLOGY, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Fifteen months after the Glendale Heights, Illinois marketing subsidiary of machine tool builder IKEGAI CORP. tied up with MITSUI MACHINE TECHNOLOGY, INC. in an attempt to move its business beyond the sale of one or two CNC (computer...

OKUMA CORP.(looking to meet low-end US machine tool market)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Although best known for its midsize and large CNC lathes and machining centers, big machine tool manufacturer OKUMA CORP. is trying to develop the low end of the American market with madeinJapan models. A recently formed division at OKUMA...

TOYO MACHINERY & METAL CO., LTD.(introduces computerized plastic injection molding machines)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Market newcomer TOYO MACHINERY & METAL CO., LTD. of Hyogo prefecture is introducing through an unnamed distributor its three-model Si Series of computerized plastic injection molding machines. Available with a clamping force of 50 tons, 150...

AKIYAMA PRINTING MACHINERY MANUFACTURING CORP. and PRESS-TEK, INC.(direct imaging press for the book printing market is being developed)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... The first direct imaging press for the book printing market is the initial objective of a development alliance between press maker AKIYAMA PRINTING MACHINERY MANUFACTURING CORP. and PRESS-TEK, INC., a supplier of digital imaging and printing...

KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.(licenses waterjet cutting nozzle to Kennametal Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD. licensed its patented tungsten carbide nozzle for waterjet cutting machines to Latrobe, Pennsylvania-headquartered KENNAMETAL INC., the North American leader in consumable tools for the metalworking industry....

KOYO SEIKO CO., LTD. contracted with AMERICAN AXLE & MANUFACTURing, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... In its first such deal, the U.S. production unit of bearing manufacturer KOYO SEIKO CO., LTD. contracted with AMERICAN AXLE & MANUFACTURing, INC. for three forged products. The two rotating wheel hubs and a wheel spindle will be made at AAM's...

GRAPHTEC CORP.(launches WR1000 Series Thermal Arraycorder in the US)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... For large-capacity data capture, GRAPHTEC CORP. released through its Irvine, California marketing subsidiary the WR1000 Series Thermal Arraycorder. The configurable system offers a choice of eight, 16, 24 or 32 data input channels and data...

NIHON KOHDEN CORP.(subsidiary Nkus Lab will develop software)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... In an effort to expand U.S. sales of its patient monitoring systems, NIHON KOHDEN CORP. transformed its Irvine, California development operation into a wholly owned subsidiary. NKUS LAB has been given responsibility for developing products,...

CORE MEDICAL MANUFACTURING INC.(establishes US marketing subsidiary to sell medical sterilization system)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... CORE MEDICAL MANUFACTURING INC. has established a marketing subsidiary in Denver to launch sales of its MediAqua handwashing sterilization system for surgical and other hospital personnel. The Shizuoka prefecture manufacturer claims that the...

NEC ELECTRONICS, INC.(reorganization to help system-on-a-chip development)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... To accelerate attainment of a leadership position in the system-ona-chip market while continuing its suc-cess in memories and other commodity electronics products, NEC ELECTRONICS, INC. set up separate organizational structures for these...

At a cost of $25 million, TDK SEMICONDUCTOR CORP. acquired a 25 percent interest in VERTEX NETWORKS INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... At a cost of $25 million, TDK SEMICONDUCTOR CORP. acquired a 25 percent interest in VERTEX NETWORKS INC., a fabless Irvine, California provider of chips for Layer 3 Internet Protocol routing switches. In addition, TDK Semiconductor - a Tustin,...

The San Jose, California semiconductor subsidiary of HITACHI, LTD. is collaborating with SILICON WAVE, INC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... The San Jose, California semiconductor subsidiary of HITACHI, LTD. is collaborating with SILICON WAVE, INC. on a Bluetooth hardware/software solution. Bluetooth is a low-cost, short-range radio interface that connects mobile electronic devices...

SHARP CORP. and AMKOR TECHNOLOGY, INC.(Amkor licenses Sharp semiconductor packaging technology)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... In their latest semiconductor packaging tie-up, SHARP CORP. and AMKOR TECHNOLOGY, INC. have agreed to share their stacked-die chip-scale pack-aging assembly technologies. The Osaka manufacturer licensed its tape-based stacked-chip packaging...

ADVANTEST CORP.(planning expansion in the US)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... ADVANTEST CORP., the world leader in automatic test equipment for the semiconductor industry, is extremely optimistic about its U.S. market prospects. It is projecting revenues of $463 million in FY 2000 versus sales of some $278 million in FY...

SOFTBANK CAPITAL PARTNERS LP.(buys share in Buy.com Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Few dot-coms have been more successful than BUY.COM CORP. in attracting financing from SOFT-BANK CORP. (see JapanU.S. Business Report No. 351, December 1998, p. 8). In the third and biggest investment to date by the firm and its affiliates, a...

TRANS COSMOS INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Two more companies have been added to TRANS COSMOS INC.'s already considerable portfolio of Internet concerns. Its Bellevue, Washington strategic investment and business development unit led an $8.5 million round of follow-up financing for...

BEENZ.COM.(gets $20 million in funding)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... BEENZ.COM received an additional $20 million in third-round private funding from HIKARI TSUSHIN, INC. and four other investors. The New York City company is the creator of beenz, a Web currency that can be earned by consumers by simply...

VR-1, INC., obtained investment funds from HI-KARI TSUSHIN, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The leader in the online video gaming business, VR-1, INC., also obtained investment funds from HI-KARI TSUSHIN, INC. as well as from two other strategic partners in addition to raising $25 million or so in a second round of private placement...

DAIFUKU CO., LTD.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... In the fall of 1996, big materials-handling equipment manufacturer DAIFUKU CO., LTD. bought two automation software companies - AUTOSOFT CORP. of Salt Lake City, Utah and Bountiful, Utah-based AUTOSIMULATIONS, INC. - so that it could offer...

NEC SYSTEMS, INC.'s eBusiness Process Framework.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Beta testing is underway of NEC SYSTEMS, INC.'s eBusiness Process Framework. Developed by NEC CORP.'s Boston Technology Center, the system allows companies to integrate via the Internet their external business processes with internal...

CANON INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... CANON INC. has moved in the American desktop publishing market with the $90 Canon Publishing Suite. Targeted at computer users of all levels of experience, the package includes Canon Publisher, Canon Draw, Canon Photo Editor, Canon 3D Text,...

SONY CORP. alliance with GENERAL INSTRUMENT CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... In a twist on the expected, SONY CORP. is moving into the U.S. market for cable television digital settop boxes on its own rather than through its alliance with GENERAL INSTRUMENT CORP. - to date the domi-nant supplier of these products (see...

WAVESPLITTER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... NIPPON INVESTMENT & FINANCE CO., LTD., the venture capital arm of DAIWA SECURITIES CO., LTD., and SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, LTD. were part of an international group of venture investors that raised $21 million in equity financing for...

MIRAPOINT, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The company that pioneered the development of Internetbased messaging servers for reliable, secure and cost-effective electronic mail services has won the financial endorsement of NISSHO ELECTRONICS CORP. The distributor joined a group of...

NTT MOBILE COMMUNICAtionS NETWORK, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... A high-flying NTT MOBILE COMMUNICAtionS NETWORK, INC. is strengthening its research capabilities to ensure that it remains at the forefront of the cellular mobile communications business. In early November, it will establish a U.S. holding...

SANYO FISHER (U.S.A.) CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... In a deal valued at $140 million, SANYO FISHER (U.S.A.) CORP. of Chatsworth, California is supplying Internetcapable CDMA (codedivision multiple access) cellular phones make by parent SANYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD. to the Sprint PCS unit of SPRINT...

Two Internet services providers have announced plans to expand their transpacific Internet backbones.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Two Internet services providers have announced plans to expand their transpacific Internet backbones in just the latest attempt to accommodate surging traffic. KDD CORP. will upgrade its JapanU.S. backbone to 555 megabits per second from 400...

SONY CORP.'s NewsBase.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Three more American TV broadcasting facilities have installed SONY CORP.'s NewsBase nonlinear, serverbased news production system, including DNE-1000 digital newsediting workstations with Sony's ClipEdit software. San Antoniobased Texas News...

CHISSO CORP., and FIBERVISIONS, L.L.C. subsidiary, have agreed to establish a Company.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... The global leader in bicomponent fibers, CHISSO CORP., and the world's top maker of polypropylene staple fiber, HERCULES INC.'s wholly owned FIBERVISIONS, L.L.C. subsidiary, have agreed to establish a company to develop and market bicomponent...

SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES, LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The future of SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES, LTD., at least as a tire manufacturer, now is largely in the hands of GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO. On schedule, the two formed a wideranging global alliance under which the Akron, Ohio company took...

OGIHARA CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... With automotive makers using more aluminum in their cars and trucks, OGIHARA CORP. is spending some $35 million to enable its plant near Birmingham, Alabama to produce body panels and other stamped aluminum parts. The $100 million factory...

AISIN SEIKI CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... A $46 million expansion is underway at AISIN AUTOMOTIVE CASTING, INC. in London, Ken-tucky. Operational since April 1998, the AISIN SEIKI CO., LTD. company now makes oil pumps and other cast aluminum engine parts as well as timing chain...

DENSO MANUFACTURING TENNESSEE, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... DENSO MANUFACTURING TENNESSEE, INC. will add coils for electronically controlled ignition systems (which have no distributor) to the product line at its Athens factory in March 2001. The expansion will require an investment of $24 million....

ONKYO AMERICA, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Automotive speaker maker ONKYO AMERICA, INC. of Columbus, Indiana is buying TOP SOURCE AUTOMOTIVE, INC. from TOP SOURCE TECH-NOLOGIES, INC. The Palm Beach Gardens, Florida company's product line includes the MotorCheck OnSite Analyzer, which...

FORD MOTOR CO.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The Plymouth, Michigan partnership between NOK CORP. and Germany's FREUDENBERG & CO. has won a $1 billion contract from FORD MOTOR CO. for a complete engine sealing system for 2 million vehi-cles a year starting in 2001. The first such...

GENTEX CORP.(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... Automatic dimming rearview mirrors made by GENTEX CORP. are standard equipment on the Toyota Avalon sedan assembled by TOYOTA MOTOR CORP.'s Georgetown, Kentucky plant. The Zeeland, Michigan company's Night Vision Safety mirror, which also is...

FUJITSU TEN LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... FUJITSU TEN LTD.'s Torrance, California marketing unit has released a mapless vehicle navigation system. The voice-interactive Eclipse Commander uses speech-recognition and interactive technologies from PRONOUNCED TECHNOLOGIES, LLC of Reseda,...

JAPAN AIRLINES CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Every seat aboard 17 of JAPAN AIRLINES CO., LTD.'s 747-400 and 747-300 aircraft will be equipped with an inflight entertainment system from the Rock-well Collins unit of ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa division's Total...

JAPAN TOBACCO INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... For better or for worse, JAPAN TOBACCO INC. now owns what were the non-U.S. tobacco operations of RJR NABISCO HOLDINGS CORP. (see JapanU.S. Business Report No. 355, April 1999, p. 11). It ended up paying RJR Nabisco slightly less than $7.8...

SEKISUI JUSHI AMERICA, INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Beginning in November, SEKISUI JUSHI AMERICA, INC. will make plastic-covered steel garden poles at a new plant in Cartersville, Georgia. The $3.2 million facility is adjacent to the SEKISUI JUSHI CORP. sub-sidiary's plastic strapping band...

NIPPON PILLAR PACKING CO., LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Osaka's NIPPON PILLAR PACKING CO., LTD. formed a subsidiary in California to boost U.S. sales of its fluorocarbon resin connectors and other mechanical seals. Marketing will be targeted at semiconductor manufacturers and other producers that...

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... Although all the details have not been finalized, MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD. will be a key Japanese industry participant in the work on a sea-based theater missile defense system that Washington and Tokyo agreed to research in...

AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS CORP.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... One of the first companies to take advantage of Ja-pan's decision to allow the sale of oral contraceptives (see JapanU.S. Business Report No. 358, July 1999, p. 14) was the Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories division of AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS CORP. Its...

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICAL INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... The number of people in Japan who have HIV is relatively limited. By one count, however, 14 treatments have been approved for sale by the Health and Welfare Ministry. Two of the latest were cleared under MHW's recently introduced fast-track...

COVANCE INC. has teamed up with INA RESEARCH INC.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 1999... One of the world's biggest clinical contract research organizations, COVANCE INC. of Princeton, New Jersey, has teamed up with INA RESEARCH INC., a Na-gano prefecture preclinical CRO, to offer pharmaceutical companies a comprehensive array of...