U.S. calls for more telecommunication deregulation in Japan.(Government Activity)

FRESH FROM ITS JULY success in signing a key telecommunications agreement with Japan, the U.S. government published its annual review of deregulation and competition in Japan and continued to keep the pressure on the Asian nation to open up its markets.

In its Fourth Annual Submission on Deregulation and Competition Policy, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) devotes eight of the report's 49 pages to issues associated with telecommunications and information technology, and this year, for the first time, includes commentary on areas of emerging technologies.

With the July signing of an agreement on interconnection rates -- the charges levied by dominant local …