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

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

Japanese Companies in the United States: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS.
September 30, 1998... Remaining a ranking player in the fluid American personal computer market is expensive. Just ask NEC CORP. Having already committed $1.3 billion in cash and assets to PACKARD BELL NEC, INC. since mid-1995, including $300 million at the end of...

Japanese Companies in the United States: ELECTRIC MACHINERY.
September 30, 1998... Japan's biggest independent distributor of electronic components, MARUBUN CORP., and the world's largest electronics distributor, ARROW ELECTRONICS, INC., have agreed to form an equal partnership to exclusively serve Japanese companies in North...

Japanese Companies in the United States: ENERGY RESOURCES.
September 30, 1998... With demand in Japan for liquefied natural gas forecast to jump 40 percent to 77 million tons in 2010, another trading company has signed on to a project to study the feasibility of exploiting gas reserves on Alaska's North Slope for export to...

Japanese Companies in the United States: FINANCIAL SERVICES.
September 30, 1998... In an unusual, perhaps unprecedented move for a Japanese financial institution, TOYO TRUST & BANKING CO., LTD. is transferring responsibility for managing investments in non-Asian stocks to its American and European subsidiaries. Its Manhattan...

Japanese Companies in the United States: METALS AND FABRICATED PRODUCTS.
September 30, 1998... RIGHTWAY FASTENERS, INC., a Columbus, Indiana manufacturer of high-torque tension bolts for the automotive industry and cold forgings, has completed a $3.5 million, freestanding surface treatment plant. When fully operational in the summer of...

Japanese Companies in the United States: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY.
September 30, 1998... The world's largest manufacturer of foundry equipment, SINTOKOGIO, LTD., has expanded its stable of North American affiliates to five. Through ROBERTS SINTO CORP. of Lansing, Michigan, it acquired SANDMOLD SYSTEMS, INC., which designs, makes...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PAPER AND PULP.
September 30, 1998... In what would seem like a major gamble, DAIO PAPER CORP. will shortly open a suburban Los Angeles marketing subsidiary in preparation for launching sales of facial tissues to supermarket and drugstore chains. Japan's fourth-largest paper...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS.
September 30, 1998... Already a force to be reckoned with in several areas of the U.S. copier market, CANON INC. has set its sights on several additional segments, including XEROX CORP.'s high-volume territory. Its ammunition there is the NP 9120, a...

Japanese Companies in the United States: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
September 30, 1998... MITSUBISHI CHEMICAL CORP. continues to shed or reorganize unprofitable U.S. manufacturing operations acquired as part of a late 1980s' diversification strategy (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 347, August 1998, p. 3 and p. 5). Its latest...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SEMICONDUCTORS.
September 30, 1998... The long and deep slump in the worldwide market for dynamic random access memories has claimed another Japanese-affiliated production venture in the United States. Effective September 30, OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD. closed its back-end...

Japanese Companies in the United States: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SERVICES.
September 30, 1998... International trade over the Internet moved closer to reality when MITSUBISHI CORP. and CommerceNet, a Palo Alto, California-based industry association promoting electronic commerce over the Internet, announced the availability of standardized...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
September 30, 1998... Stiff competition in the American market for cellular telephones and the transition from analog handsets to digital ones forced money-losing OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD. to end production of analog cell phones at its Suwanee, Georgia...

Japanese Companies in the United States: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT.
September 30, 1998... A FORD MOTOR CO. supplier is setting up shop in Bowling Green, Ohio. TOCHIGI FUJI INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. has earmarked $18 million to build a plant scheduled for opening in May 1999. Before then, SUMITOMO CORP. will invest in TOCHIGI FUJI AMERICA...

Japanese Companies in the United States: MISCELLANEOUS.
September 30, 1998... The Bellevue, Washington sales subsidiary of ICOM INC., a manufacturer of radio communications equipment for both amateur use and commercial applications, won a $12 million contract from the Department of Defense for high-performance...

American Companies in Japan: CHEMICALS.
September 30, 1998... A four-year collaboration between REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. and SUMITOMO PHARMACEUTICALS CO., LTD. to develop the Tarrytown, New York partner's brain-derived neurotrophic factor for the Japanese market has progressed to the point that...

American Companies in Japan: COMPUTERS AND PERIPHERALS.
September 30, 1998... To hold down costs in today's tight consumer spending environment, FAMILYMART CO., LTD. is replacing its expensive-to-maintain, nonstandardized computer systems with PC servers built by COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. The third-largest operator of...

American Companies in Japan: CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE.
September 30, 1998... Malls are the future of retailing in Japan. That at least is what a number of big American shopping center developers and/or operators apparently believe. The latest U.S. company with plans for the market is CHELSEA GCA REALTY PARTNERSHIP LP....

American Companies in Japan: ELECTRIC MACHINERY.
September 30, 1998... LightCaster microdisplay panels, developed and made by DISPLAYTECH, INC., will be available next year through exclusive distributor NISSHO ELECTRONICS CORP. According to the Longmont, Colorado company, the innovative ferroelectric liquid...

American Companies in Japan: FINANCIAL SERVICES.
September 30, 1998... Retail and institutional investors interested in exploring the opportunities available to them as a result of the deregulation of Japan's financial services market can tap the expertise of a growing number of U.S. firms. The latest entrant is...

American Companies in Japan: FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.
September 30, 1998... The convenience of lettuce and other salad ingredients ready to use right out of the package has come to Japan. The first seller of DOLE FOOD CO.'s product is INAGEYA CO., LTD., a supermarket chain that operates in Tokyo and in neighboring...

American Companies in Japan: MERCHANDISING.
September 30, 1998... MAIL BOXES ETC., the San Diego, California franchiser of retail business communications and postal service centers, is moving into the Japanese market through a master franchise agreement with a subsidiary of big convenience store operator...

American Companies in Japan: NONELECTRIC MACHINERY.
September 30, 1998... Japan's economic woes are creating opportunities not only for expansion-inclined U.S. financial services providers but also for like-minded manufacturers. In the best example to date of this reality, CARRIER CORP., the world's biggest maker of...

American Companies in Japan: PHOTO EQUIPMENT AND COPIERS.
September 30, 1998... APPLIED SCIENCE FICTION INC. has opened an office in Tokyo to complement its headquarters in Austin, Texas. The start-up has commercialized a preprocessing surface defect correction system that automatically cleans up film and negatives without...

American Companies in Japan: PRECISION AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.
September 30, 1998... A Los Angeles start-up that runs centers performing surgical vision correction, or refractive surgery, has gained an instant presence in Japan by acquiring a firm in the same business. Under a contract signed in June, VISION CORRECTION CENTERS...

American Companies in Japan: SEMICONDUCTORS.
September 30, 1998... A Pentium II processor with a clock speed of 450 MHz is now shipping from INTEL CORP.'s subsidiary. Priced at $675 each in quantities of 1,000, it is the fastest engine available for high-end corporate desktop machines, PC servers and PC...

American Companies in Japan: SOFTWARE AND INFORMATION SERVICES.
September 30, 1998... Trying to make up for its relatively late entry into the Japanese market, EXCITE, INC.'s subsidiary bought the established on-line search service founded by a HI-TACHI, LTD. subsidiary. The former Hole-in-One site includes such services as...

American Companies in Japan: TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
September 30, 1998... In a major expansion of its business in Japan, PSINET INC., the largest independent commercial Internet service provider, bought two domestic ISPs in the space of a few weeks. First, it acquired RIMNET CORP. for an undisclosed price. One of the...

American Companies in Japan: TEXTILES AND APPAREL.
September 30, 1998... North Hollywood, California's INDUSTRIES WERTS, INC. has tied up with SAZABY INC., a designer of handbags and other personal accessories, to bring trendy West Coast-style clothes and other products to Japan. Tokyo-headquartered AMERICAN RAG CIE...

American Companies in Japan: TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT.
September 30, 1998... With Japan's car and truck market in a prolonged, deep slump, the Big Three U.S. automotive manufacturers are being forced to reconsider their sales and marketing strategies. FORD MOTOR CO. is perhaps further along in this process than its...

American Companies in Japan: MISCELLANEOUS.
September 30, 1998... In a first for the defense industries of the United States and Japan, LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. and MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP. have reached a basic agreement to collaborate on the development of military hardware for sale to the Japan Defense...