Only one U.S. marketer of nitrile-butadiene rubber will be left once ZEON CHEMICALS L.P. completes the purchase of this part of GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO.'s synthetic rubber business. The transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed, will give the NIPPON ZEON CO., LTD. subsidiary global sales rights to roughly 14,300 tons of product. With that addition, the Japanese company will have 40 percent of the world NBR market versus 33 percent now, further distancing itself from number-two BAYER AG, which controls about 24 percent of international sales. NBR is used to make such automotive parts as engine hoses and oil seals. Earlier this year, Louisville, Kentucky-based Zeon Chemicals acquired worldwide sales rights to the American-produced NBR output of another company (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 352, January 1999, p. 2). The leading U.S. producer of elastomers, it has manufacturing facilities in Louisville as well as in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Bayport, Texas.
The world's fourth-largest supplier of fluoropoly-mers soon will become the second biggest. At a cost of $136 million, ASAHI GLASS CO., LTD. has agreed to acquire the international Fluon polytetrafluoroethylene business of IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES PLC. This part of the British multinational's operations had revenues of $110 million in 1998. It employs close to 400 people. Production facilities are located in Bayonne, New Jersey and the United Kingdom, with a downstream specialty PTFE plant in Thorndale, Pennsylvania. Fluoropolymers are used in a variety of industrial applications, ranging from nonstick coatings for cookware to architectural coatings. Asahi Glass sees the deal as a way to bolster its position in a growth market in which it already has a strong presence. E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS & CO., INC. is the world's top producer of fluoropolymers.
Corporate restructuring cuts both ways. Case in point: KOBE STEEL, LTD.'s decision to sell before April 2000 GLASTIC CORP. to CRAWFORD GROUP LLC, a Detroit-based investment firm. Together with trader ITOCHU CORP. (15 percent), the steelmaker had purchased the manufacturer of reinforced thermoset materials and components and electrical and structural- grade fiberglass-reinforced plastics in 1988. Glastic, which has plants in Cleveland and Jefferson, Ohio and some 375 people on the payroll, had sales of $51.4 million in 1998. It was profitable through 1996 but lost money the following two years.
NIPPON SODA CO., LTD. has identified agrichemicals as one of its core businesses. To date, herbicides have accounted for most of its sales in this field, but the company hopes to add insecticides as an equal contributor. To that end, Nippon Soda established a laboratory to work on insecticide intermediates at a high technology research center in Alachua, Florida run by the state government and the University of Florida. By developing its own intermediates through the collaborative efforts of the American facility and its Japanese research center and manufacturing them at a new, $27.8 million plant in Toyama prefecture, the Tokyo firm believes that it can strengthen its international competitiveness in the insecticide market.
Although it recently started to market in the United States its own prescription drug for the treatment of adult-onset or Type II diabetes (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 359, August 1999, p. 2), TAKEDA CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, LTD. acquired the rights to commercialize and sell outside Japan and three other major Asian markets a diabetes therapy discovered by DAINIPPON PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. New York City-headquartered TAKEDA PHARMACEUTICALS AMERICA, INC. hopes to start U.S. clinical trials of AJ9677 through a contract research organization before yearend. Its target date for Food and Drug Administration marketing approval is late 2005. Takeda Chemical's own ACTOS (pioglitazone hydrochloride) is off to a fast sales start in this country.
OTSUKA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. has gained some powerful help in bringing to the market in the United States, the European Union and other key markets outside Japan and certain additional Asian countries its potential agent for schizophrenia. Here and in the EU, BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CO. will comarket and copromote aripiprazole with Otsuka Pharmaceutical under the Japanese company's trademark, according to a recently signed development, commercial-ization and collaboration agreement. Aripiprazole, which Otsuka Pharmaceutical discovered in 1988, currently is in Phase III clinical testing in the United States. To date, the new compound with its unique mechanism of action has shown greater efficacy and fewer side effects than current antipsychotics. Otsuka Pharmaceutical and BMS plan a regulatory filing in this country for aripiprazole in late 2001.
In their second such arrangement in a year, SANKYO CO., LTD. signed a research agreement with QUARK BIOTECH, INC. This one covers autoimmune diseases. Under it, the Pleasanton, California company will use its gene-discovery technology to identify key genes and pathways responsible for the apoptosis of particular cells and tissues caused by such problems as chronic rheumatism, hepatitis and nephritis. QBI also will target candidates for drug discovery and, in time, conduct clinical testing of selected therapeutic candidates. For this work, it will receive research and development funding, milestone payments and royalties on the sale of any resulting products. In exchange, Sankyo will have exclusive rights to market worldwide drugs emerging from the research program. The initial collaboration between Japan's second-biggest pharmaceutical house and QBI involves the study of gene responses to Type II diabetes and the identification of possible treatments (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 354, March 1999, p. 2).
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 molecule drugs, brings together TANABE SEIYAKU CO., LTD. and OSI PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. It will build on the drug discovery alliance between the Uniondale, New York company and the Vanderbilt University Diabetes Center that has been underway since April 1998. Tanabe Seiyaku and OSI Pharmaceuticals will focus their research on normalization of the elevated plasma glucose levels seen in the large and rising number of people with noninsulin-dependent diabetes. The terms of the agreement call for the Japanese partner to make an up-front payment to OSI Pharmaceuticals, plus fund a four-year research program in exchange for exclusive worldwide marketing rights. Successful clinical development, which will be Tanabe Seiyaku's responsibility, could trigger milestone and other payments to the U.S. firm in excess of $30 million in addition to royalties.
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 chronic rejection of transplanted kidneys and that can result in end-stage renal disease and repeated chronic transplant rejection. Its collaborator is FIBROGEN, INC. Together, they expect to develop human monoclonal antibodies that neutralize the effects of connective tissue growth factor, a key cytokine in fibrosis. Taisho Pharmaceutical will provide funding for its South San Francisco, California partner's work in the form of equity purchases, milestone payments and money for half of the global costs of preclinical and clinical development outside of Asia. The Japanese firm will have exclusive commercialization rights in that area. FibroGen will retain those rights elsewhere.
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 its lead optimization libraries. The targets of interest to the Japanese firm were not described. Under the pact, ChemRX will develop the chemistries on a fee-for-service basis. It will provide them exclusively to Kirin Brewery for screening in a wide range of that firm's internal assays. No additional money will change hands.
The Food and Drug Administration approved for marketing anti-allergy eye drops discovered and commercialized by SANTEN PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. The Napa, California subsidiary of Japan's top supplier of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals plans to launch ALAMAST (pemirolast potassium) 0.1% in the United States in the spring of 2000. This treatment for what technically is called allergic conjunctivitis will be the first Santen Pharmaceutical product sold here. ALAMAST will be manufactured by the company's Finnish unit and marketed to physicians by a 30-person sales force. The Japanese drug company hopes to introduce antibiotic eye drops in this country in 2001.
Relief could be on the way for people who suffer from atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema. FUJISAWA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.'s Deerfield, Illinois subsidiary submitted a new drug application to the FDA for tacrolimus ointment, reportedly the first new drug designed specifically to treat the chronic skin conditions caused by eczema in more than 40 years. If cleared for sale, tacrolimus ointment will be manufactured at FUJISAWA HEALTHCARE, INC.'s Grand Island, New York plant. Production of the drug already has started in Japan, where it will be sold as an atopic dermatitis remedy under the Protopic brand name. .....FUJISAWA HEALTHCARE, INC. expects tacrolimus ointment to be as big a seller in the United States as its Prograf immunosuppressant, which is made from the same chemical substance. To help insure that outcome, the company will hire in the coming months an additional 40 to 50 sales people. It now has some 100 medical representatives on staff.
Like top-tier Japanese pharmaceutical houses frustrated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare's frequently slow drug-approval process, midsize ZERIA PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. has come to see offshore clinical testing as a primary way to expedite the introduction of money-making new products. It plans to sign up an American contract research organization to conduct clinical trials on a drug that has shown effectiveness in treating patients with a dwindling white blood-cell count. Such a product would have obvious application for people fighting the human immunodeficiency virus.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
Next spring, HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP. will open a 450,000-square-foot distribution and warehouse facility in Plainfield, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. Located within 24 hours by truck of three-fourths of the company's existing and potential customers, the center will enable the Santa Clara, California supplier of high-end servers and multiplatform storage subsystems to provide next-day delivery to most businesses. In time, the Plainfield facility, which will employ 100 people, will replace Hitachi Data Systems' distribution centers in San Jose, California and Laurel, Maryland.
Hoping to win the business of small companies looking for an affordable way to expand their Internet presence, HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP. redefined the low end of its VisionBase server family (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 360, September 1999, p. 3). The VisionBase 8245 can be configured with one or two 600-MHz or 550-MHz Pentium III processors with 512 kilobytes of Level-2 cache per processor, as much as 1 gigabyte of synchronous dynamic random access memory, up to 90 GB of internal storage and six PCI (peripheral component interconnect) slots. VisionBase 8245 pricing begins at an affordable $2,700.
TOSHIBA AMERICA INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC. is leveraging the power of the 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon processor in its quad-processing Magnia 7010 series of enterprise-class servers. Suited for enterprise management, electronic commerce, data bases, data warehousing and general high-volume business processing, the build-to-order line starts at $7,300 for a single processor with 512 KB of L-2 cache, 256 MB of DRAM memory, a 32X CD-ROM (compact disc-read-only memory), a PCI graphics adapter and six 3.5-inch hot-swap drive bays that support 18-GB drives.
The fast-expanding market for low-cost (sub-$800) desktop machines has attracted another competitor: TOSHIBA AMERICA INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC. The Irvine, California company's V3100 line starts at $550 for a system with a 366-MHz Celeron processor; a 15-inch TAIS monitor adds about $160 to the price. Many BTO options are available for buyers interested in machines for Internet browsing, electronic mail and basic productivity applications. These include Celeron processor speed (up to 500 MHz), 64 MB or 128 MB of system memory, 4-GB to 13-GB hard drives, a 40X CD-ROM drive, modem or network interface cards and a choice of Microsoft operating systems.
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 processor, 64 MB of SDRAM memory, a 10-GB hard drive, an 8X digital video disc-ROM drive, and two iLINK (IEEE-1394) digital interface ports, plus two USB (universal serial bus) ports. Three higher-end models — the PCV-R536DS, the PCV-R538DS and the PCV-R539DS — are available as well, each with increased processor power (450-MHz to 550-MHz Pentium IIIs) and bigger hard drives (10 GB or 17 GB). They also feature 128 MB of system memory, three-dimensional, 2X AGP (accelerated graphics port) graphics, 8 MB or 16 MB of video memory, an 8X DVD-ROM drive, a CD-Rewritable drive in the two high-end models, two iLINK ports and two USB ports.
SONY ELECTRONICS, INC. also broadened its popular line of VAIO 505 SuperSlim notebooks with their sleek, rugged magnesium-alloy cases. For high-end business travelers and road warriors, the company added two SuperSlim Pro models that weigh less than 3.5 pounds and have a 1-inch profile. Both Z505 models have a 12.1-inch XGA (extended graphics array) active-matrix TFT (thin-film-transistor) display. The $2,500 VAIO Z505R has a 366-MHz mobile Pentium II processor, 64 MB of SDRAM and a 6.4-GB hard drive, while the VAIO Z505RX, which has an estimated selling price of $3,000, features a 400-MHz mobile Pentium II chip, 128 MB of system memory and an 8.1-GB hard drive. Both also come with a dedicated Memory Stick media slot, a pair of USB ports and an iLINK port. In addition, Sony Electronics extended its original SuperSlim notebook series, adding two models with a 10.4-inch XGA active-matrix TFT display, 64 MB of SDRAM and a 6.4-GB hard drive. The VAIO N505VE, which goes for about $1,700, is powered by a 333-MHz mobile Celeron processor. The $2,200 or so VAIO N505VX uses a mobile Pentium II processor running at the same speed.
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 SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.'s power-saving Geode processor running at 200 MHz, the CARD- PCI/GX is said to be 30 percent smaller and thinner than its closest competitor. It also is claimed to be more than 20 percent less expensive than alternatives at $300 each in 10,000- unit lots. The CARD-PCI/GX is fully compatible with the Windows CE, 95/98 and NT operating systems. It also supports leading real-time operating systems. The PCI motherboard is targeted at applications where high performance, low cost and low power consumption are all at a premium. Those include factory automation, mobile test equipment, ruggedized notebooks, dedicated Web servers and compact PCI-compliant boards.
Complementing its channel strategy, FUJITSU COMPUTER PRODUCTS OF AMERICA, INC. formed an Internet Sales and Distribution Division to spearhead Internet-based sales and service of its hard drives, tape drives, magneto-optical drives, scanners and printers. The San Jose, California supplier also opened a new on-line store at its Web site.
The Hitachi Freedom Storage 5800 family of multiplatform, high-availability storage subsystems has a new, lower-capacity member. The Model 5840 also is the first product that HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS CORP. is releasing through a two-tiered sales model of systems integrators and value-added resellers as well as its existing large-account sales team. The Model 5840 houses up to 10 36-GB disk drives in a standard 19-inch rack-mount chassis, and six subsystems can be mounted in a single rack. That capability on top of the interoperability and the connectivity of the Hitachi Freedom Storage 5800 family enables channel partners to build storage solutions supporting SANs (storage area networks), electronic business, data warehousing and back-office applications for their clients. Pricing of the Model 5840 with Fibre Channel or SCSI (small computer system interface) connectivity starts at under $20,000.
People who take laptop or handheld PCs on the road can take along a 1.1-pound printer. PENTAX TECHNOLOGIES CORP., a wholly owned Broomfield, Colorado subsidiary of ASAHI OPTICAL CO., LTD., has introduced the PocketJet 200 portable printer. Compatible with any Windows-based device, the thermal system prints 200-dots-per-inch text and graphics at speeds of up to three letter-size pages per minute. It will generate approximately 40 pages per battery charge. The PocketJet 200 has a suggested list price of $320.
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 print resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. Designed for large workgroups in networked environments, this $1,100 printer has a 166-MHz PowerPC 603e processor and comes standard with 16 MB of memory. Its $900 midvolume mate, the FS-1750 for small, networked groups, prints 14 ppm, also with a 1200 x 1200-dpi resolution. It is equipped with a 100-MHz PowerPC 603e chip and 8 MB of memory.
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 compact desktop machine has a suggested street price of $200.
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 white with a 600-dpi resolution. Aimed at graphic arts and print-for-pay businesses as well as at markets where color output is becoming increasingly important, Sharp says that the AR-C150 is both the fastest machine in its class and the most compact four-drum copier/printer sold. The basic unit, which incorporates a Fiery print controller from ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING, INC., has a suggested retail price of $21,800.
USB compatibility is now available for SHARP CORP.'s IMAGER series of desktop multifunction peripherals. With this technology, a user simply plugs the new AR-150 line of 15-ppm digital copiers/laser printers/facsimile machines into a PC. All the necessary drivers then are loaded automatically, with little or no configuration required. IN-SYSTEM DESIGN of Boise, Idaho and LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. designed and implemented the USB device for Sharp.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 to sell the Miramar Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica, California to MARITZ, WOLFF & CO. The price is thought to be more than $92.6 million. The Los Angeles-based investment group is a major shareholder in the company that manages the Four Seasons and Fairmont hotel chains.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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, INC. of Mountain View, California licensed its technology to MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. for what the winner of the videocassette recorder design standard bills as hard disk recorders (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 358, July 1999, p. 6). Now, rival TIVO INC. has forged a capital and technology alliance with SONY CORP., the loser in the VCR format battle. Under it, SONY CORP. OF AMERICA will spend $27.5 million to acquire a 7.5 percent stake in the Sunnyvale, California company, which has announced plans for an initial public offering. At the same time, TiVo licensed its platform for devices that Sony is calling personal video recorders. However they are known, the devices are hard drive-equipped set-top boxes. Together with either the ReplayTV service or the TiVo Personal Television Service, they record television programming in progress, allowing consumers to pause and rewind. The devices also can be set to record programs automatically. For Sony in particular, the tie-up with TiVo is appealing because it provides a pipeline for getting Sony movies and Sony television programming into homes. The first Sony-branded PVRs that support TiVo Personal Television Service could be in stores as early as the spring of 2000 at prices around $500. That is the cost of similar devices for TiVo service subscribers that were just released by PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV.
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 was shifted to PIONEER ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY, INC.'s Pomona factory. The stereo speakers that had been produced there since 1978 were outsourced to American and Japanese-affiliated companies to make room for the TV sets. The closure of PET's Chino plant cost 100 jobs.
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 the lack of agreement on a single digital HDTV format. Nonetheless, Japanese suppliers continue to refine their technology. For instance, HITACHI AMERICA, LTD. introduced a 61-inch HDTV set at the high end of its three-tiered UltraVision Digital lineup. The wide-screen, 16 x 9 ratio 61HDX98B is a fully integrated unit. It receives signals from the four available broadcasting sources: all 18 ATSC local digital broadcasting formats, standard and high-definition satellite and today's NTSC analog format. High-definition broadcasts are displayed at the highest level possible, while other formats automatically are converted and displayed in enhanced form. However, Hitachi's 61-inch HDTV set still is on the expensive side with a suggested retail price of $8,000.
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 compatibility. The SharpVision LC- 20VM2U LCD AVC Monitor was designed so that people could buy one product for all of their entertainment viewing requirements, including DVDs and PC graphics. It is just 1.9 inches deep and weighs only 15.4 pounds. The LC-20VM2U will be available in December at an estimated retail price of $6,000. Sharp's LCD video monitor line already includes a 15-inch model that lists at $1,900 and a 12.1-inch display that goes for about $1,500.
The same LCD technology found in SHARP CORP.'s video monitors is used in the company's home theater projection products. Those now include the full-featured but compact SharpVision XV- Z1U LCD front projector. Like the rest of the SharpVision LCD front projector line, the new model not only is engineered for multisystem video compatibility with analog formats but also is equipped with component video inputs to provide compatibility with current high-end DVD players. In addition, it has S-video and composite inputs for access to other digital sources. Weighing only 16 pounds, the XV-Z1U offers a picture ranging from 30 inches all the way up to 300 inches. These features are not inexpensive: the XV-Z1U is an estimated $4,000.
With the much-hyped Sega Dreamcast video game console going on sale in the United States in early September (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 356, May 1999, p. 5), SONY COMPUTER, INC. announced the details and the launch schedule for the follow-on to the PlayStation, the best-selling video game console in this country. The PlayStation2 will debut in North America in the fall of 2000 following its March 2000 release in Japan. Sony Computer boasts that the PlayStation2 will create a new world of computer entertainment since, in addition to its game-playing capabilities, it will support the audio CD and the DVD-Video formats. Like the Dreamcast, the unit will incorporate a 128-bit architecture. It will have 32 MB of Direct Rambus DRAM main memory, plus 4 MB of video RAM. U.S. pricing has not been decided. In Japan on launch, the PlayStation2 will have a suggested price of about $370.
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 efficiency and better serve customers' needs. The rechristened MATSUSHITA HOME APPLIANCE CO. (formerly Matsushita Home Appliance Corp. of America) of Danville got its start as a MEI company through a 1990 acquisition. It employs 1,700 people who produce vacuum cleaners and microwave ovens for sale under the Panasonic name as well as other brands. The renamed MA-TSUSHITA ELECTRIC MOTOR CO. (previously Matsushita Electric Motor Corp. of America) in Berea opened in the fall of 1996. Its 200 employees produce electric motors for vacuum cleaners, automotive antilock braking systems and power windows.
Over the next four years or so, TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD. could invest as much as $92.6 million in a state-of-the-art printed circuit board factory in Poway, California. Operations are scheduled to start in the summer of 2000 following a July groundbreaking. TOPPAN ELECTRONICS, INC. makes PCBs at a plant in nearby San Diego that it acquired in 1988. However, strong orders from major American electronic equipment original equipment manufacturers and their suppliers are straining capacity at the 500-employee plant. The Poway facility, which could make such products as multilayer and high-density circuit boards, will lift Toppan Electronics' capacity by 50 percent in 2003.
YASKAWA ELECTRIC CORP. is looking for a site in Silicon Valley that will enable it to combine the employees and the work of its current semiconductor office in Santa Clara, California with its new Yaskawa USA Development Center. This technology and business development unit is scheduled to begin operations in November. It will be staffed initially by some 20 Yas-kawa Electric workers transferred from Japan, although the company hopes to hire an equal number of Americans. Their immediate mandate is to develop next-generation servo motors, controllers and inverters for factory automation open systems and networks. Yaskawa Electric makes computer numerical controls at a Northbrook, Illinois plant opened in 1990. It also owns robotics manufacturer MOTOMAN, INC. of Dayton, Ohio (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 352, January 1999, p. 6).
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 business in the United States. PATLITE CORP.'s Torrance, California marketing subsidiary is spearheading the drive. For starters, it is opening a branch office in Rolling Meadows, Illinois in November to extend sales coverage to the Midwest and the South from the West Coast. More money also will be earmarked for marketing, including advertising. At the same time, Osaka-based Patlite is taking steps to streamline its U.S. product delivery system. The company's visual indicators and audible alarms are designed for any automated assembly line setting. Most of its business today comes from semiconductor makers.
TOKIN CORP., a midsize manufacturer of electronic materials, devices and systems, has big plans for its San Jose, California marketing subsidiary. The Sendai prefecture company has identified five product areas where it believes that North American sales can be built into annual businesses of $18.5 million each within 2000. They are: cellular phone antennas; optical isolators for high-speed, long-distance, large-capacity optical communications transmissions; solid-chip noise suppressors for computer equipment; contactless integrated circuit cards for building security and management control; and sensors for automotive applications. Tokin says that it will consider onshore production if all its sales targets are achieved.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 Exchange listing. Executives of the cash-flush company said that the two listings were designed to give investors around the world easier access to its stock rather than to raise capital. Coming at a time of consolidation in the world automotive industry, though, analysts saw in the move an attempt by Toyota to highlight its position as a global, first-tier company. In conjunction with the listings on the NYSE and the LSE, Toyota adopted accounting practices that make its finances more transparent to investors. The shares offered on the New York exchange were part of the 45 million shares released by three major Toyota stockholders: MITSUI TRUST & BANKING CO., LTD., MITSUI MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE CO. and CHIYODA FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE CO., LTD.
With drug discovery becoming an ever higher-stakes 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 drug research ventures. The goal of FUJISAWA INVESTMENTS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP, L.P. is to supplement its parent's drug-discovery work with the innovative research ideas or technologies of entrepreneurial businesses. FUJISAWA RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF AMERICA, INC., the firm's U.S. research arm, is in charge of Evanston, Illinois-based FITE.
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 financing for STOCKPOWER INC. The San Francisco business has created a transaction and security system that enables Fortune 500 companies to sell stock directly to individual investors via their Web sites. StockPower will use the trio's money for continued e-commerce technology and product development as well as for national marketing.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
Its Folsom, California soy sauce plant is not even a year old (see Japan-U.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 boost capacity by 50 percent to nearly 4 million gallons a year in 2000. In Kikkoman's current thinking, this increase will be the first stage of a $138.9 million, seven- or eight-year process that will raise the Folsom brewery's annual output to 10.6 million gallons. If plans proceed on schedule, Kikkoman will be able to make by the late 2000s 31.7 million gallons of soy sauce a year in the United States, with about two-thirds of the production coming from its original Walworth, Wisconsin plant. The company, which controls roughly half of the American soy sauce market, expects demand to continue to rise by approximately 5 percent a year.
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 similar products will not be genetically modified. The trader's wholly owned QUALITY TRADERS INC. subsidiary of Cincinnati, Ohio, which was formed in the fall of 1997, is in charge of this project. QTI will use a storage facility it owns in Sharon, Wisconsin to segregate GM-free soybeans that it grows on neighboring land or that it buys from contract farmers from the modified variety. The business already does this for corn. Trading companies handle the bulk of the American-grown soybeans exported to Japan, whether for food products or the far bigger volume that is crushed for oil and feed.
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. ITO-EN CO., LTD. will open a representative office in New York City in May 2000. According to current plans, it will launch sales of its green tea drinks sometime in 2001 after setting up a marketing subsidiary. Initially at least, Ito-En will contract production out to an American beverage manufacturer, although it will import tea leaves and other materials from Japan as well as from its tea-growing operations in the People's Republic of China and Australia.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 expand output of conductive panels for high-end printed circuit board applications. The new facility is equipped with proprietary ultrasonic welding equipment. It also has high-specification clean rooms to minimize contamination of the copper foil. Oak-Mitsui, in business since 1976, has a plant in Camden, South Carolina as well.
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 Hanover Park, Illinois, where the Tokyo parent has had a marketing unit for 30 years. Despite this longtime presence, Nitto Kohki's U.S. coupling sales total less than $1 million a year, giving it a negligible share of the market. With an onshore assembly capability, the manufacturer predicts that revenues will climb to $5 million in 2004.
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 year through March 1999, but competition from Southeast Asian-made products reportedly has caused net losses in recent years ranging from $185,200 to $277,800.
In back-to-back announcements, MITSUBISHI MATERIALS CORP. said that it was closing two U.S. money-losing operations: CYBEQ NANO TECHNOLOGIES, a San Jose, California maker of chemical mechanical polishing equipment (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 360, September 1999, p. 8), and NEOMET CORP. A West Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania producer of rare earth metals, the latter firm was established in 1987.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 of 12.5-horsepower, 14- hp and 17-hp lawn tractors, which the company has made since 1995, and the TG Series, an 18-hp lawn and garden tractor that was added to the production line in 1997. With the extra capacity, the wholly owned KUBOTA CORP. subsidiary hopes to boost lawn tractor output to $60.2 million in 2000, about twice the level projected for this year. KMA, which is close to employing 600-plus people, was set up to make front-end loaders. It now turns out 2,000 such units a month. It also produces backhoes, a 1990 addition, and roll bars for tractors.
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 numerically controlled) lathes and machining centers to a job shop here and there, the company has won its first big contract. ZOLLNER PISTONS LLC of Fort Wayne, Indiana ordered 29 of Ikegai's TC26 two-axis, chucker- type CNC lathes in a deal worth roughly $1.9 million. Most of the machines will be delivered in 2000. Ikegai is estimating its U.S. sales at $18.5 million in 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 made-in-Japan models. A recently formed division at OKUMA AMERICA CORP., the company's Charlotte, North Carolina production unit, is spearheading the drive. Twelve of Okuma's 40 U.S. distributors now handle low-end products. The firm believes that it can sell between 10 and 20 less expensive CNC lathes and MCs a month despite the fact that this part of the American market has been soft so far in 1999 and the yen's strength makes exports less competitive.
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 tons or 280 tons, these ultraprecision machines are capable of molding products as thin as 0.08 millimeter with no irregularities in the surface, thanks to automatic adjustment of pressure and resin amount. Moreover, with two motors, the injection speed is double that of conventional plastic injection molders.
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 PRESSTEK, INC., a supplier of digital imaging and printing plate technologies for the printing and graphic arts industries. They will bring digital imaging to the Tokyo company's J Print, a compact, multicolor press with a unique linear transfer arrangement that permits printing on both sides of the sheet in one pass. The new J Print DI press will use the Hudson, New Hampshire partner's digital plate media. It is expected to debut in 2000.
KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD. licensed its patented tungsten carbide nozzle for water-jet cutting machines to Latrobe, Pennsylvania-head-quartered KENNAMETAL INC., the North American leader in consumable tools for the metalworking industry. Designed for machines that combine ultra-high-pressure water and fine abrasive powder to cut such hard materials as metal, glass and ceramics, the KHI technology yields nozzles that are 10 to 20 times more wear-resistant than ones made from traditional cemented carbide.
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 Tonawanda, New York forging facility and shipped to Koyo Seiko's wheel bearing plants in Orangeburg and Blythewood, South Carolina. Annual production volumes for each part range from roughly 200,000 units to double that amount. One of the rotating wheel hubs is for the BMW Z3 Roadster; the other goes into the Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager van. The wheel spindle is made for the Ford Lincoln LS sedan. It is used as well in Jaguars.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 capture and storage via an 8- GB hard drive, a 3.5-inch magneto-optical disk drive or a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Buyers also can select the interface for computer control, data transmission and data output. WESTERN GRAPHIC, INC. believes that the WR1000, which its parent views as a strategic product, can be as big a seller in the United States as in Japan. At home, the system mainly is used by the automotive industry for collision testing, bench tests and running tests. Here, though, the main WR1000 applications could be turbine inspection and maintenance by utilities and rolling stock testing by railroads.
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, including related software, for the American market. It will contract out production to a U.S. manufacturer. Nihon Kohden's Irvine marketing unit will handle sales and maintenance of these patient monitoring systems and any imported from Japan.
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 U.S.-patented ozone-based system, which contains ozone in the proportion of four parts per million units of water, is effective against a wide range of germs and bacteria. Core also says that MediAqua works more quickly and is less expensive than alternative means of disinfecting hands. In addition, it is environmentally friendly because the ozone in the water decomposes naturally.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
To accelerate attainment of a leadership position in the system-on-a-chip market while continuing its success in memories and other commodity electronics products, NEC ELECTRONICS, INC. set up separate organizational structures for these businesses at its Santa Clara, California headquarters. The new System LSI Division offers SOC solutions ranging from standard products to fully customized ASICs (application-specific ICs). The unit's focus also has been expanded to include the automotive and Windows CE markets as well the existing areas of communications equipment, consumer products, PCs and PC peripherals. In another initiative to support SOC development, NEC Electronics established a U.S. Technology Center to centralize R&D on advanced processors, including parent NEC CORP.'s VR Series of RISC (reduced instruction-set computing) processors as well as on mixed-signal products and processor cores. The new operation is the counterpart to NEC's Japan Technology Center and its European Technology Center. NEC Electronics has made DRAMs and other ICs in Roseville, California since 1984.
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, California company that specializes in parts for high-speed networking and other data transmission market segments — and Vertex Networks entered into a development partnership. The goal of the alliance is a new generation of highly integrated, low-power Fast Ethernet (10/100 megabits per second) switch and PHY (physical layer) single-chip devices for the local area network and wide area network markets. The first products from the tie-up, which will draw on TDK Semiconductor's experience in low-power PHY technologies, are expected in the next few months. TDK CORP. formed TDK Semiconductor in mid-1996 from what had been the communications products division of SILICON SYSTEMS INC. after selling the rest of that company's chip business to TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC.
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 without cables or the line-of-sight and distance limitations of infrared communications. Realizing this capability involves embedding inexpensive short-range transceivers in mobile devices or adapter devices like PC Cards. The Hitachi-Silicon Wave Bluetooth interface will represent the marriage of the Japanese company's 16-bit CISC (complex instruction-set computing) H8S/2238 baseband controller — its first Bluetooth-targeted product — with the San Diego, California venture's RMC (radio modem controller) family. Start-up Silicon Wave will provide the Bluetooth firmware for the H8S baseband controller.
In their latest semiconductor packaging tie-up, SHARP CORP. and AMKOR TECHNOLOGY, INC. have agreed to share their stacked-die chip-scale packaging assembly technologies. The Osaka manufacturer licensed its tape-based stacked-chip packaging know-how to Chandler, Arizona- based Amkor, the world's largest independent IC packaging and test contractor, to make stacked ICs for Sharp and other manufacturers. In turn, Sharp has the right to use Amkor's laminate- based ChipArray technology to package any of its products. The two companies also will work together to enhance stacked CSP technologies and cut the cost of this packaging method. Stacked- chip CSP technology combines flash and static RAM memory devices on top of each other in a package that is not much bigger than the chips themselves. Stacking is key to small cellular phone handsets and other portable wireless devices.
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 1998. To backstop this expansion, Advantest increased its ranks of engineers to 60 from 25. It also formed ADVANTEST TEST ENGINEERING CORP. in Santa Clara, California, which already was home to marketer ADVANTEST AMERICA, INC. and to ADVANTEST AMERICA R&D CENTER, INC. The company sees high-end logic testers as a primary means to bigger sales over the near term, particularly the just-introduced 500-MHz T6672 Logic Test System for high-volume production testing and the companion T6682 VLSI Test System for 1,024-pin testing of system-level ASICs and high- speed processors at data rates of 500 MHz to 1 GHz. Since 1987, Advantest America has had an ATE plant in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
Few dot-coms have been more successful than BUY.COM CORP. in attracting financing from SOFTBANK CORP. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 351, December 1998, p. 8). In the third and biggest investment to date by the firm and its affiliates, a syndicate led by SOFTBANK CAPITAL PARTNERS LP purchased $165 million of the Aliso Viejo, California firm's stock. The deal gives the Softbank Group a stake of roughly 31 percent in Buy.Com, which runs seven on- line specialty stores through an e-commerce portal that offer brand-name computer hardware and peripherals, software, books, videos, DVDs, computer games, music and surplus equipment at low prices. Along with the latest cash infusion, Buy.Com and Softbank agreed to bring the Buy.Com business model to Japan as well as to the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.
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 XENOTE, INC. In early 2000, this San Mateo, California Internet company hopes to roll out new services for connecting consumers to the Web. .....TRANS COSMOS INC.'s American investment unit also participated with three new investors and four existing ones in raising $18.8 million of third-round financing for PLACEWARE, INC. The Mountain View, California firm provides Web conferencing software and services that enable corporations to deliver presentations to as many as 1,000 people with just a Web browser and a phone. PlaceWare, which already has signed up more than 240 big-name companies for its services, will use the new money for sales and marketing, branding, product development, partnerships and international expansion.
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 visiting, interacting with or shopping at select Web sites. People then can use their beenz to buy goods and services from participating traders. Hikari Tsushin, the largest distributor of cellular phones in Japan, and beenz.com are talking about a joint venture to launch a Japanese version of beenz.
The leader in the on-line video gaming business, VR-1, INC., also obtained investment funds from HIKARI 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 funding. The Boulder, Colorado company will use part of this money to underwrite R&D on applications for its VR-1 Conductor networking technology that go beyond on-line gaming and to move into the console video game industry. Some of the new funding also will be used to finance VR-1's operations in Japan, where it purchased a video game developer last spring (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 355, April 1999, p. 32).
In the fall of 1996, big materials-handling equipment manufacturer DAIFUKU CO., LTD. bought two automation software companies — AUTO-SOFT CORP. of Salt Lake City, Utah and Bountiful, Utah-based AUTOSIMULATIONS, INC. — so that it could offer customers a complete solution. For reasons that were not disclosed, however, Daifuku has agreed to sell both companies to BROOKS AUTOMATION, INC. The Chelmsford, Massaschusetts firm already is a major supplier of integrated automation solutions for semiconductor, data storage and flat-panel display manufacturers. When the deal is finalized, Brooks will become the top provider of automation software to the semiconductor industry. Daifuku and Brooks plan some type of collaboration in the field of semiconductor factory automation, although the details still must be worked out.
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 fulfillment processes. eBusiness Process Framework serves as a platform for building and deploying next-generation XML-based business-to-business applications in such areas as supply chain management and customer relationship management. The XML "nerve center" in the framework is supplied by OBJECT DESIGN, INC.'s eXcelon XML e-business information server.
At the same time, San Jose, California-headquar-tered NEC SYSTEMS, INC. released the English-language version of NEC CORP.'s Obbligato II product data management software. Designed for small and midsize manufacturers and product development organizations, Obbligato II comes in three preconfigured packages that provide document management, supply chain optimization and collaborative computer-aided design capability. Each can be implemented separately or together. NEC has been Japan's leading supplier of PDM solutions since 1995.
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, Canon Web Publisher and Canon Screen Grab. Canon Publishing Suite is marketed by Canon Software Publishing, a Costa Mesa, California division of CANON COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC. The unit was formed in 1998 to develop, publish and distribute software primarily in North and South America.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
In a twist on the expected, SONY CORP. is moving into the U.S. market for cable television digital set-top boxes on its own rather than through its alliance with GENERAL INSTRUMENT CORP. — to date the dominant supplier of these products (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 352, January 1999, p. 8). The consumer electronics giant won an order valued around $1 billion from CABLEVISION SYSTEMS CORP. to provide a minimum of 3 million next-generation set-top boxes to the cable operator, which serves some 3.4 million homes in the greater New York City area. The new partners plan to develop a platform that will enable Cablevision to deliver enhanced digital services to its subscribers, including video on demand and interactive video gaming as well as high-speed Internet access. The set-top boxes will incorporate Sony's IEEE 1394-compliant, high-speed iLINK interface for connecting PCs and various other digital devices.
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 WAVESPLITTER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. The Fremont, California manufacturer has developed a DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) architecture that addresses bandwidth bottlenecks in the metropolitan access market rather than in the long-haul market, the original target of DWDM technology. WaveSplitter's modular, all-fiber-optic, cost-effective line of DWDM products consists of the Wave-Xpander, the WaveSplitter and the WavePump.
The company that pioneered the development of Internet-based 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 existing and new investors in providing $21 million in third-round funding for MIRAPOINT, INC. of Cupertino, California. The company, which launched its first Internet e-mail server appliance last December and now has three product lines on the market, will use the money in part to support its product development initiatives. Mirapoint also has earmarked money for worldwide sales programs. One is directed at Japan, where Nissho Electronics will market the full complement of Mirapoint's dedicated messaging appliances. A system for 300 users will list for $20,400, while one for an unlimited number of business customers will go for $58,300.
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 company in Palo Alto, California. Under NTT DOCOMO USA, INC. will be DOCOMO COMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES USA, INC. Its mission is to identify existing know-how that can be adapted for Internet-capable mobile phones, such as the iMode phones currently available from NTT DoCoMo, as it is known in Japan, and the forthcoming third generation of wireless devices (IMT-2000) and to explore new mobile Internet and other advanced software technologies. In time, DoCoMo Labs USA could employ as many as 50 people. The holding company also will have under it wing DCM INVESTMENT, INC. NTT DoCoMo set up this Boston-based firm in March 1996 to invest in communications-related companies in the United States and venture funds.
In a deal valued at $140 million, SANYO FISHER (U.S.A.) CORP. of Chatsworth, California is supplying Internet-capable CDMA (code-division multiple access) cellular phones make by parent SANYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD. to the Sprint PCS unit of SPRINT CORP. The Sanyo SCP-4000 is equipped with a microbrowser that gives users Internet access via the handset's display. The phone went on sale October 1 at Sprint PCS and Radio Shack stores across the United States.
By next spring, subscribers to NIPPON IDOU TSUSHIN CORP.'s cdmaOne digital mobile phone service should be able to use their phones in North America. IDO's handsets feature Japan's first international roaming capability, which makes them work overseas using the same numbers as in Japan. The company will have to tie up with U.S. cellular phone operators to implement the new benefit.
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 Japan-U.S. backbone to 555 megabits per second from 400 Mbps. INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. has the more ambitious goal of quintupling the capacity of its Japan- U.S. backbone to 1 gigabit per second within 2000.
Three more American TV broadcasting facilities have installed SONY CORP.'s NewsBase nonlinear, server-based news production system, including DNE-1000 digital news-editing workstations with Sony's ClipEdit software. San Antonio-based Texas News Channel, Texas Cable News of Dallas and KHON-TV in Honolulu join 12 other broadcasters that have been sold on the significant time savings for newsroom operations that the Sony equipment provides.
The restructuring plan that SONY CORP. announced last spring has claimed a second casualty among the multinational's American operations. This past summer, the company announced that it was exiting the North American wireless phone handset market (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 359, August 1999, p. 11). Now, a SONY ELECTRONICS, INC. broadcasting equipment plant in Boca Raton, Florida is being closed in a cost-saving move. Sony had produced professional audio-visual equipment in Florida since 1982. Most recently, the Boca Raton factory made digital studio cameras for TV networks and commercial stations as well as editing equipment. Production of these products will be shifted to other Sony factories, primarily in the United Kingdom and Japan. The closure cost the jobs of 200 people.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 fibers for use in hygienic and other applications on an international basis excluding Japan. Chisso and FiberVisions will combine all of their bicomponent fiber operations and activities into equally owned ES FIBERVISIONS, which will have its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. The Japanese partner will license its technology to the joint venture for the production and sale of bicomponent fibers. ES FiberVisions will have access to Chisso's manufacturing facilities in Moriyama, Shiga prefecture and China and to FiberVisions' factories in Athens, Georgia and in Denmark. Hercules apparently was the initiator of the joint venture, seeing it as a way to expand FiberVisions' bicomponent fiber business without committing additional capital to it. ES FiberVisions is expected to be operational January 1, 2000.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
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 wide- ranging global alliance under which the Akron, Ohio company took control of SRI's Dunlop tire operations in North America and Europe (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 354, March 1999, p. 11). Goodyear also will become the second-largest shareholder in Sumitomo Rubber with a 10 percent interest and a minority owner of two tire manufacturing companies in Japan. To equalize the value of the various transactions, Goodyear, once more the world's number-one tire producer, made a cash payment of $936 million to SRI.
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 opened roughly two years ago to make all of the steel body panels for the Mercedes-Benz M-class sport-utility vehicle produced in nearby Vance, Alabama and, more recently, in Austria. It now employs about 320 people. Ogihara will install a $20 million tandem stamping press line that can stamp parts in both steel and aluminum. At least for now, the company's Howell, Michigan plant, which has been in business since 1987, will continue to turn out just steel stampings for its many customers. Ogihara had U.S. sales of $294 million in 1998.
A $46 million expansion is underway at AISIN AUTOMOTIVE CASTING, INC. in London, Kentucky. 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 covers primarily for the North American operations of TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. The new capacity, scheduled to go onstream in July 2001, will be used to make transmission cases for TOYOTA MOTOR MANUFACTURING WEST VIRGINIA, INC. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 360, September 1999, p. 10). The expansion will create between 120 and 130 jobs at Aisin Automotive Casting. It now employs more than 200 people.
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. Capacity production of 350,000 units a month should be reached by mid-2001. All of the output initially will go to TOYOTA MOTOR CORP.'s North American operations. The start of direct ignition system coil production will generate another 50 jobs at the factory, which now has close to 450 people on its payroll. The expansion also is expected to double projected 1999 sales of $130 million. These are derived from the production of injectors and oxygen sensors. Denso Manufacturing Tennessee's main plant, opened in 1990, is located in Maryville. It employs more than 2,300 people to turn out starters, alternators and other electric and electronic parts as well as instruments gauges for Toyota, HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.'s North American assembly plants and DAIMLERCHRYSLER AG. DMT, a DENSO CORP. company, predicts that the Maryville complex will have revenues of $1 billion in 1999.
Automotive speaker maker ONKYO AMERICA, INC. of Columbus, Indiana is buying TOP SOURCE AUTOMOTIVE, INC. from TOP SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. The Palm Beach Gardens, Florida company's product line includes the MotorCheck On-Site Analyzer, which it calls an oil analysis minilab in a box, and proprietary overhead sound systems. The ONKYO CORP. subsidiary is paying $8.5 million in cash in addition to the $500 million it spent in July to acquire a 4.9 percent stake in TSA, plus $1 million in convertible preferred Onkyo America stock.
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 vehicles a year starting in 2001. The first such contract awarded by the number-two U.S. automotive maker will run for eight to 10 years, giving a 10 percent or even larger boost to FREUDENBERG-NOK's annual sales. The turnkey engine sealing system, which includes roughly 80 parts, will be used in the new, four-cylinder-engine Ford Focus.
In another contract award, FORD MOTOR CO. named TOKICO, LTD. and its own Visteon Automotive Systems unit to supply a new type of suspension system for luxury vehicles set to debut in the 2002 model year. The system uses electronic control technology to dampen vibrations from the road surface. TOKICO (USA), INC. will assemble the main suspension system; Visteon, the world's second-largest automotive parts manufacturer, will provide the electronic controllers. Berea, Kentucky-based Tokico figures that the order will add approximately $925,900 to its monthly revenues once deliveries start in 2001. The contract is just the latest one that Tokico has received from the big U.S. vehicle builder (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 355, April 1999, p. 11).
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 found on the Toyota Camry Solara coupe built in Canada, uses a combination of sensors and electronic circuity to detect glare from trailing vehicles and automatically darken the mirror to eliminate glare.
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, California that allow drivers to enter commands by voice. The system determines a route by asking the driver a series of brief questions. It then retrieves route information from NavTech-brand digital map CDs supplied by NAVIGATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP. of Rosemont, Illinois. Travel directions are both heard through the stereo system and displayed. The voice capabilities of the Eclipse Commander, which costs $300 without the CD player, can be used to dial cell phones, control vehicle electronics and operate a vehicle's audio system. Fujitsu Ten is projecting sales of 800 Eclipse Commanders a month.
Every seat aboard 17 of JAPAN AIRLINES CO., LTD.'s 747-400 and 747-300 aircraft will be equipped with an in-flight entertainment system from the Rockwell Collins unit of ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa division's Total Entertainment System gives each passenger a screen and access to several channels of video programming that they can control. The contract could be expanded to 28 747s. JAL is the ninth major airline to select the Rockwell Collins system for in-flight entertainment on their wide-body planes.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
For better or for worse, JAPAN TOBACCO INC. now owns what were the non-U.S. tobacco operations of RJR NABISCO HOLDINGS CORP. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 355, April 1999, p. 11). It ended up paying RJR Nabisco slightly less than $7.8 billion for these businesses. JT also repaid a $5 billion bridge loan used to finance part of the purchase. Already, though, the company has downgraded the expected near-term business results of JT INTERNATIONAL BV, in part because of weak sales in Eastern Europe. Sales over the May- December period now are projected at $3.3 billion compared with the $4 billion estimated earlier, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization predicted at $250 million, down from an initial $430 million.
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. subsidiary's plastic strapping band factory. The poles, in diameters of 8mm and 11mm, will be shipped to a Tustin, California distributor for sale to home centers. Sekisui Jushi America believes that the new product will add $3 million to its annual revenues in the first year and about $5 million after three years.
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 require products with high chemical and leak resistance for use in their operations. Nippon Pillar is projecting American sales of $2.3 million in FY 1999 and $3.1 million in FY 2000.
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 mid-August. The five-year or six-year transpacific project will focus on an improved version of the SM-3 missile used in the U.S. Navy's Theater Wide missile defense program. MHI already has received an $8.3 million government contract keyed to Japan's part of the program. That involves the development of a lightweight nose cone, an infrared search and tracking sensor, a kinetic warhead equipped with course correction and a propulsion system for a second-stage rocket. MHI will work closely with RAYTHEON CO.'s Defense Systems unit in Tucson, Arizona, the prime contractor for the Navy's Theater Wide system.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
One of the first companies to take advantage of Japan's decision to allow the sale of oral contraceptives (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 358, July 1999, p. 14) was the Wyeth- Ayerst Laboratories division of AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS CORP. Its WYETH (JAPAN) LTD. subsidiary is marketing Tridiol 21 (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol tablets), which contains the world's most prescribed low-dose oral contraceptive regimen. It is sold in the United States as Triphasil.
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 evaluation process for innovative HIV therapies. One is Prozei (amprenavir), a twice-daily HIV protease inhibitor that is indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents. Known outside Japan by the trade name Agenerase, Prozei was discovered by VERTEX PHARMACEUTICAL INC. It is available through the Cambridge, Massachusetts firm's local development and commercialization partner KISSEI PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 359, August 1999, p. 14). The other new HIV treatment is a once-daily nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor that was discovered by MERCK & CO., INC. but is sold in the United States by the pharmaceuticals subsidiary of E.I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS & CO., INC. as Sustiva (efavirenz). In Japan, it is on the market as Stocin through Merck affiliate BANYU PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. It, too, is recommended in combination with other antiretroviral agents. Banyu expects sales of Stocin to be around $2.8 million a year, or about the amount of business it does with Crixivan (indinavir sulfate), another Merck drug that was the first HIV protease inhibitor approved for sale in Japan.
For reasons that were not detailed, the subsidiary of BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CO. and YOSHITOMI PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES, LTD. ended their comarketing arrangement on two drugs. One is BMS's ZERIT (stavudine, d4T), a thymidine nucleoside analog for the treatment of HIV. Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical had ZERIT sales of $5.6 million in FY 1998. That equaled BMS's revenues from the sale of Serotone, a drug for controlling nausea and vomiting that was discovered and commercialized by Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical and JAPAN TOBACCO INC.
One of the world's biggest clinical contract research organizations, COVANCE INC. of Princeton, New Jersey, has teamed up with INA RESEARCH INC., a Nagano prefecture preclinical CRO, to offer pharmaceutical companies a comprehensive array of third-party testing services. The collaborative effort could significantly shorten time to market for viable therapies. Ina Research will be responsible for animal testing, while Covance will handle Phase I clinical trials as well as the first part of Phase II testing. The partners, which plan to open consulting and marketing offices in Tokyo and Osaka, predict that first-year revenues could reach as much as $23.1 million.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
Business prospects in the supercomputer field seem to be improving for SILICON GRAPHICS, INC.'s subsidiary, both on its own and through a new alliance with NEC CORP. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 360, September 1999, pp. 12-13). In its latest victory, SGI retained TOSHIBA CORP. as a high-performance computing customer, moving the electronics giant from the Cray T916 vector supercomputer it had used since 1996 to a SGI Origin 2000 scalar machine. Equipped with 32 processors, the system, including auxiliary equipment, cost $13.9 million. Toshiba reportedly was persuaded to stay with SGI in part because of the inducements the company was offering to make the switch to a scalar supercomputer but also due to the easy expandability of the SGI Origin 2000 and a change in the types of applications it was running on its high-performance computer. Toshiba apparently is so satisfied with SGI and its equipment that it plans to order a 100-processor SGI Origin 2000 next year.
A massively parallel Compaq NonStop Himalaya S700-A server or a Compaq ProLiant 1600 PC server is at the heart of the round-the-clock settlement system for debit-card transactions that COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. and TOYO INFORMATION SYSTEMS CO., LTD. are marketing to retailers. TIS provided the software for the system, which is said to be priced at about half of what competitors charge for a similar capability. The standard CardWorks S package for big store chains lists for $553,700, while the base configuration of the CardWorks NT version for small and midsize retailers goes for $180,600. Compaq and TIS expect their initial collaboration to produce revenues of $27.8 million in the first year.
In its second such move, DELL COMPUTER CORP.'s subsidiary released a PC tailored for customers of NIKKO BEANS INC., the start-up on-line brokerage affiliate of NIKKO SECURITIES CO., LTD. The space-saving model is powered by a 400-MHz Celeron processor. It lists for $1,600 without a monitor. Dell will handle installation and provide support. It has a similar arrangement with MATSUI SECURITIES CO., LTD. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 356, May 1999, p. 13).
The effort by GATEWAY 2000, INC. to extend its customer base beyond individuals and small and midsize businesses has paid at least one dividend (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 357, June 1999, pp. 14-15). The direct marketer has a deal to supply its ALR series of Windows NT servers to recently established regional communications services providers NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE EAST CORP. and NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WEST CORP. for use in the computer telephony integration systems that they market. These CTI solutions can serve up to 24 PCs and 20 phone lines. NTT East and NTT West have priced a system with an ALR server, 10 multifunction phones and four ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines are $24,100.
In the hope of signing up 1 million new customers for its OCN Internet service over the next two years, long-distance/international carrier NTT COMMUNICATIONS CORP. tied up with IBM JAPAN LTD. to offer potential subscribers a low-cost package deal. People willing to sign a three-year service agreement can get an Internet-ready version of the Aptiva 20J desktop and 100 hours of on-line time for approximately $37 a month, although this charge does not include telephone fees. At the end of the contract, subscribers will have the option to renew at the same price and get a new PC, remain an OCN customer for $26 a month or cancel their contract at a cost of $280.
IBM JAPAN LTD. has made several other moves recently to ensure that it capitalizes on the market's growth now and down the road. In an initiative that goes beyond a new HEWLETT- PACKARD JAPAN LTD. program (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 360, September 1999, p. 13), the firm will provide hardware, software and technical support free of charge to at least 10 promising Internet start-ups. Successful candidates will receive as much as $925,900 in IBM Japan help over three years, including servers and desktop PCs. The selection process should be finished by the end of the year. At the same time, IBM Japan is investing more effort in reaching the huge number of small businesses in Japan. That includes opening the Small Business Center on its Web site. Here, the company offers complete solutions, such as a Netfinity 1000 server running the Linux operating system packaged with all the software that a smaller firm might require for $6,400.
In a potentially more significant move, IBM JAPAN LTD., which generated some 60 percent of its 1998 revenues of $13.6 billion from software and services, will expand staffing at its 16 service-oriented subsidiaries over the next year. The company hopes to add 1,000 technicians and systems engineers to the 3,200 or so already employed by these affiliates to handle what it predicts will be a continued upswing in corporate outsourcing of information technology operations. This already is a big business for IBM Japan, with revenues projected to hit $926 million in 2000. .....IBM JAPAN LTD. also will open a customer support center in Naha, Okinawa prefecture next April. It will have 50 employees initially, but as many as 300 people could be on the payroll in 2001.
Visitors to GATEWAY 2000, INC.'s Japanese Spot Shop Internet site, which was opened last April, soon will find a broader selection of products — four times as many, according to plans. The company is boosting its lineup of peripherals, software, DVD movie titles and Gateway logo products. It also will add computer-related furniture and other office products. Gateway executives say that the site not only has had a high number of hits but, more importantly, has produced strong sales.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. has packaged the performance-enhancing technology of its fifth and sixth generations of high-end S/390 enterprise servers into a compact, lower-cost server designed to meet the current and future e-business requirements of small and midsize companies and corporate departments. The three models of the S/390 Multiprise 3000 enterprise server, which run all of IBM's enterprise operating systems, incorporate the input/output and storage subsystems of the S/390 for greater throughput, plus 12 slots for parallel or ESCON adapters for high-speed access to peripherals. They also integrate 100/10-Mbps Ethernet for LAN connectivity and come with seven industry-standard slots for additional options. In two other adaptations for e-business applications, the Multiprise 3000 can be equipped with as much as 4 GB of main memory and up to 792 GB of internal storage. Packaged solutions are available as well to help companies tap the potential of e- business. IBM JAPAN LTD. has priced the Multiprise 3000 from $624,000.
In another worldwide release, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. introduced the 64- bit RS/6000 Enterprise Server Model S80, which it claims is the world's fastest e-business server. System improvements on existing S family servers include 24-way SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) capability, 64-GB memory capacity and a new backplane that nearly quadruples internal bandwidths. Performance is boosted further by the use of 450-MHz RS64 III RISC processors, each with 8 MB of L-2 cache and featuring IBM's copper interconnect technology, and the optimization of the AIX 4.3.3 operating system for e-businesses applications. S80 pricing in Japan is around $490,700. .....The RS/6000 line of Unix servers also has a new member developed specifically for Internet and application services providers. The low-cost ($5,500 in Japan), high-density, rack-mount Model B50, which runs AIX 4.3.3 as well, features the 375-MHz PowerPC 604e processor with 1 MB of L-2 cache, up to 1 GB of main memory and a maximum 36.4 GB of internal storage capacity. As many as 20 B50 servers fit into an industry-standard 19-inch rack.
Going after the workgroup server market, particularly Unix customers with compute-intensive requirements, SILICON GRAPHICS, INC.'s subsidiary put on the market the SGI 2100 server. It is a true 64-bit system, featuring not only two to eight R10000 MIPS RISC processors but also this architecture in its I/O system, the file system and the IRIX operating system. Moreover, like the SGI Origin 2000 series of servers, the SGI 2100 leverages the company's ccNUMA (cache-coherent nonuniform memory access) technology to eliminate memory bottlenecks. These and other enterprise-caliber capabilities are priced aggressively, with an entry-level SGI 2100 starting at $98,200.
The first product based on SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.'s Hot Desk software technology has arrived in Japan as well as in other markets. The book-sized Sun Ray 1 is the industry's first true enterprise appliance, Sun says, because all computing resources are accessed from the Sun Ray enterprise server software residing on Sun Enterprise or Sun workgroup servers. This setup has numerous benefits for a company, starting with zero administration requirements since all software upgrades, resource management and configuration takes place on the server. For workgroup users, the Sun Ray appliance offers such advantages as instant access to any application or information on the server and mobility via smart-card technology. Sun's subsidiary priced the device, which comes with 10/100BaseT connectivity, a smart-card reader, two USB ports, a keyboard and a mouse, at $535, including a monitor. The Sun Ray enterprise server software costs $825.
Engineers who are nearing system limits in running electronic design automation and mechanical design automation applications have a way out. HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. released worldwide the HP VISUALIZE J7000, a four-way SMP system that delivers what is said to be a workstation-record 8 GB of RAM memory. The technical workstation is built around HP's 64- bit PA-8500 RISC processor operating at 440 MHz and deploys the power of the 64-bit HP-UX operating system. A variety of graphics packages is available. HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. priced a typical low-end configuration at $120,400, which includes four processors, 4 GB of internal memory, 18 GB of disk storage, a monitor and VISUALIZE EG graphics.
Redefining the low end of its Unix lineup, HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. announced for world markets a family of mission-critical, Internet-optimized HP 9000 Enterprise Servers. The two HP 9000 L-Class products — the dual processor-capable L1000 and the L2000, which can support as many as four 360-MHz or 440-MHz PA-8500 processors — are designed to enable ISPs and midmarket firms to deploy emerging e-services across the Internet. Among other innovations, the entry-level systems run an Internet-enabled version of HP-UX 11. HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. priced the L1000 model from $29,900; the L2000 model starts at $40,000. As is typical with HP 9000 servers, HITACHI, LTD., MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP., NEC CORP. and OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD. also will sell the L-Class machines on an OEM basis.
The Linux bandwagon rolls on in Japan as well as in the United States. For instance, COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. introduced through its direct sales channel six Prosignia servers with the freeware version of Unix preinstalled. The high-end Prosignia Server 740 Model 660 uses a 600-MHz Pentium III processor. It lists for $3,200 or so. The least expensive Linux machine, the Prosignia Server 720 Model 6450, goes for $1,800. It is powered by a 450-MHz Pentium II. Buyers of these build-to-order systems can get a year of access to a help desk for $1,700. .....Likewise, DELL COMPUTER CORP.'s affiliate is marketing Precision workstations with Linux, although customers have to install the open-source operating system themselves since these systems come with Windows NT installed. It opted to use the version from San Francisco's TURBOLINUX, INC. The Japanese-language edition of TurboLinux 4.0 costs $65, while the localized version of TurboLinux Pro 4.2 goes for $220.
The SGI 1000 server family that SILICON GRAPHICS, INC. recently announced has the distinction of being the first Intel Architecture-based enterprise server introduced by the big Unix vendor, which earlier had released Windows NT workstations (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 353, February 1999, p. 13). The initial product in the new line, the four-way SGI 1400L workgroup and application server, also is the company's first enterprise-class Linux server. The SGI 1400L, which employs 500-MHz or 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon processors, comes preloaded with the SGI Linux Environment with Red Hat Linux 6.0.
COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP.'s subsidiary has brought the latest in Pentium processor technology to its ProLiant enterprise-class and workgroup servers. The ProLiant 5500 server for large business and enterprise customers now can be equipped with one to four 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon chips for a minimum of $12,700. At the same time, the performance-boosting power of the 600-MHz Pentium III is available in a number of dual processor-capable ProLiant servers. These include the ProLiant 3000 tower, which starts at $8,500, as well as the rack-mountable ProLiant 1850R for ISPs, corporate data centers and remote sites and its workgroup mate, the $7,800-and-up ProLiant 1600R. Compaq also introduced the next-generation Pentium III technology in its ProLiant 800 tower, which, at a starting price of $4,300, is the firm's most affordable workgroup server, and in the ProLiant 1600 tower for more demanding workgroups and remote/branch sites. Compaq used the switchover to the 600-MHz Pentium III to tweak certain features of some ProLiant servers.
The 600-MHz Pentium III processor also is an option on the mainstream Windows NT-based HP Kayak XU workstation line for as little as $5,000. This family, which offers a choice of 2D and OpenGL 3D graphics, is aimed at such markets as digital content creation and mechanical design. HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. used the launch to slash prices on the HP Kayak workstation series that it offers by as much as 27 percent. Now, all models cost less than $9,300. It paired this change with cuts in the prices of the HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations that were introduced in April (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 356, May 1999, p. 15). Sales of these Windows NT machines for technical computing, which share the HP VISUALIZE fx graphics architecture of the Unix version of the line, have fallen far short of expectations. In order to raise shipments closer to the forecast rate of 7,000 units a year from the current level of 4,800 or so annually, HP Japan trimmed the price of the X-Class model with a 550-MHz Pentium III Xeon processor and 256 MB of internal memory by 10.2 percent to $13,800 and lowered the cost of a P-Class model with a 600-MHz Pentium III chip and 128 MB of system memory to $8,500, a 15.2 percent reduction.
COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP.'s marketing unit adopted a similar strategy for its Deskpro EN Series, which is designed for enterprise customers that are interested in a combination of value, manageability, serviceability and performance for their client systems. It made the 600-MHz Pentium III processor available in this line at prices, including a monitor, that begin at $3,000. At the same time, it cut the cost of the 27 existing Deskpro EN desktop, minitower and small form-factor configurations by as much as 18 percent.
Increasingly, the competition in the desktop segment of the PC market is between firms trying to outdo each other in terms of offering the most performance at the lowest price. COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. has two entries in this sweepstakes. For corporate buyers, it is offering a Deskpro EC Series model for as little as $925. That gets a machine with a 433-MHz Celeron processor, a 4.3-GB Ultra ATA hard drive and a 15-inch monitor. The same money also buys the Prosignia Desktop 320 through Compaq's direct sales, build-to-order channel. In fact, people who do not need to buy a monitor can obtain this system, which also features the 433-MHz Celeron processor, for as little as $740.
IBM JAPAN LTD.'s latest candidate is a new member of the low-cost, Japan-only Aptiva E line of desktop PCs introduced in June. Included in the $925 price of the Aptiva 20J, which runs off a 400-MHz AMD-K6-2 processor and features 64 MB of internal memory, are a monitor, a modem, LAN capabilities, and word-processing, spreadsheet and voice-recognition software. The Aptiva 20J has proved to be a heavyweight contender in the ¥100,000 and under desktop category. In fact, initial demand for the machine was so strong that IBM Japan had to boost weekly production to 10,000 units from the planned 6,000 units.
IBM JAPAN LTD. also is trying to ride the wave of interest in the corporate world in space- saving designs. It added the four-model PC 300PL Slim line to the Japan-only PC 300 family. The new systems, which are powered by a 433-MHz Celeron processor, start at $1,600. Simultaneously, the company put on the market four more models in the volume PC 300GL series of desktops and minitowers. Pricing of these Pentium III/Windows 98 machines begins at $3,000.
A number of American PC vendors recently have buttressed their lineup of low-cost notebooks or at least their entry-level models in an effort to broaden their market reach. COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP., for instance, is marketing through its direct sales channel the value- oriented Prosignia Notebook 150 for small businesses. The base configuration is priced at less than $1,600. That covers a 380-MHz AMD-K6-2 processor, 32 MB of internal memory, a 4- GB hard drive, a 24X CD-ROM drive, ATI Rage Pro 3D graphics, a one-touch Internet access button, a 12.1-inch active-matrix TFT display and Office 2000. .....For budget-conscious corporate notebook users who want an all-in-one design, COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. is offering the Armada 1500C Basic for under $1,900. Running off a 400-MHz Celeron processor and equipped with a minimum of 32 MB of system memory, this unit features simultaneous access to the diskette drive, the 4-GB SMART hard drive, the 24X CD-ROM drive, the 56K V.90 modem and the AC adapter. It also has a dual-function bay for either a diskette drive or a second battery.
Other American PC makers are trying to exploit the strong demand in Japan for slim, lightweight notebooks. DELL COMPUTER CORP.'s latest product targeted at the business end of this market is the Latitude CS R400XT. This 4.3-pound machine comes standard with the fast 400-MHz mobile Pentium II chip, a 13.3-inch active-matrix TFT screen with XGA resolution, 64 MB of RAM and a 4.8-GB hard drive for $2,500. HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. countered by releasing the OmniBook 4150, which weighs less than six pounds and measures just 1.4 inches thick. This performance-oriented notebook, which uses a 366-MHz mobile Pentium II processor, offers the choice of a 13.3-inch XGA active-matrix TFT display for $4,200 or a 14.1-inch screen for $4,800.
"Mobile Desktop" is how DELL COMPUTER CORP. describes its new Inspiron 7500 Series. Much of the desktop technology for the two models available in Japan is fairly standard: a 433-MHz Celeron or a 400-MHz Pentium II processor, 32 MB of SDRAM memory or twice that amount and a 4.8-GB or a 10-GB Ultra ATA hard drive. However, the Inspiron 7500 comes with a 15- inch active-matrix TFT screen with either XGA resolution or super XGA+ resolution (1400 x 1050 pixels). These notebooks also have Dell's new MegaBay, which gives users as much as 75 GB of total hard-drive capacity when using optional second and third hard-drive modules. The two units are priced at $2,200 and $3,000, respectively. .....Of course, GATEWAY 2000, INC. might argue that its rival has no monopoly on this description since it also fits the latest Solo 9300 models. These thin, lightweight products offer a choice of processors (360-MHz and 400-MHz Celeron chips or a 400-MHz Pentium II engine), 64 MB of system memory, a 4-GB or a 6.4-GB hard drive, a modular 24X CD-ROM drive or a modular 4X DVD-ROM drive, and a 14.1-inch or a 15-inch XGA active-matrix TFT display. Moreover, the Solo 9300 line is IEEE 1394-compatible. Pricing runs from $2,800 to $3,700.
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. has staged a major comeback in Japan as well as in the United States. It now is banking on an updated desktop line and a new, distinctive-looking notebook computer to keep momentum on the upswing. The sleek Power Mac G4 desktop series delivers processing improvements on its G3 predecessor since the line's new 400-MHz, 450-MHz and 500-MHz PowerPC G4 chips contain a so-called Velocity Engine execution unit that gives speeds a boost. As usual, desktop publishers are expected to be major buyers of the new machines, but the aggressive pricing of the Power Mac G4 series could win Apple some first-time customers. Pricing is open, but purchased directly from the company, the G4s range from $1,800 for the 400-MHz model to $4,000 for the 500-MHz machine.
The iBook also is coming to Japan. If the success of the home-oriented iMac desktop is any indication, the new portable should be another big hit for APPLE COMPUTER, INC. Housed in a semitransparent, clamshell-like case available in tangerine or blueberry, the iBook is powered by a 300-MHz PowerPC G3 processor. It has 32 MB of system memory, 3.2 GB of hard-disk storage, a 24X CD-ROM drive, a 12.1-inch active-matrix TFT display and a six-hour lithium- ion battery. The iBook, which has a suggested retail price of $1,800, also is the first computer designed specifically to handle wireless networking. Targeted at the consumer and educational markets, the iBook will be sold on launch by 31 companies, including PC volume retailers.
In what certainly is good news for e-business companies and ISPs, Internet caching servers have arrived in Japan. The first major vendor to deliver this help is COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. Its Compaq TaskSmart C-Series servers are the initial products in a planned line of single- purpose servers or what the company calls appliance servers. Using the Internet Caching System architecture developed by NOVELL, INC., the easy-to-deploy, easy-to-manage TaskSmart machines accelerate the performance of e-business Web servers, speed information access across networks and lower network communications costs. In fact, Compaq says, its package, which starts at $15,300, can increase Web response times by as much as 10-fold. The company will have competition in the Internet caching appliance server field before yearend, however, since Novell has licensed its technology to NEC CORP. The first Japanese hardware vendor to become a Novell Internet Caching System partner, NEC will develop an Internet caching server product based on its Express5800 Series of Windows NT servers.
Months behind schedule, IBM JAPAN LTD., many of the country's nationwide commercial banks, including the biggest, BANK OF TOKYO-MITSUBISHI, LTD., and other businesses were set to launch in early October a company to install and run automatic teller machines at the outlets of FAMILYMART CO., LTD. and four additional convenience store chains. E.NET CO., LTD., in which IBM Japan is the top shareholder with an 8 percent stake, was to be operational last spring. However, government red tape held up the start of business, as reportedly did hesitancy on the part of IBM Japan's parent, which had to be convinced that e.Net met its guidelines for new businesses, particularly its growth and profit potential requirements.
The exponential growth in data volumes has created enormous sales opportunities for suppliers of storage products. HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. has been especially quick in trying to exploit these openings. Among its latest products is an expandable line of tape library backup solutions designed to ease the burden placed on this equipment by e-services applications. The new family consists of the HP SureStore and the HP SureStore E tape libraries, which support both the HP-UX and the Windows NT operating systems as well as SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. These remotely manageable libraries feature the just-released DLT (digital linear tape) 8000 drives for extremely fast data transfers. Based on a common architecture, they offer a choice of a one- or two-drive 20-slot configuration, a two- or four-drive 40-slot combination and a two-, four- or six-drive 60-slot setup. Backup capacity ranges from 800 GB to 2.4 terabytes, with pricing scaling from $29,600 to $140,700.
To meet the data-protection requirements of midsize corporations, HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. introduced the DLT 8000-compliant HP SureStore DLT 80 tape backup drive. With 2:1 data compression, it can hold as much as 80 GB of data on a single tape and transfer this information at a maximum rate of 43 GB per hour. The system is compatible with a broad range of server brands and supports the Windows NT, Novell NetWare, Linux, SCO Unix and Sun Solaris operating systems. HP Japan, which expects to sell 1,000 HP SureStore DLT 80 systems a year, priced the internal and the external models at $10,600 each and the rack- mountable version at $11,000.
PC users in Japan will have access to the latest 250-MB Zip drives from IOMEGA CORP. before American customers do as the company attempts to defend its turf against the encroachment of other storage formats. The subsidiary of the Roy, Utah supplier first will release English- language versions of a USB-compatible Zip drive and one that offers both USB and PCMCIA (personal computer memory card interface) connections. Japanese-language products will be available in late November. Both packages are almost half the size of earlier Zip drives. The USB Zip drive will cost $240, while the combination drive will list for $270.
The second of LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC.'s aggressively priced, watch-out-competition ink-jet printers (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 359, August 1999, p. 17) will be on store shelves at the end of October. The Z31 Color Jetprinter outputs up to eight pages per minute in black and white and as many as 3.5 ppm in color, both with a resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. It will list for $275. .....In another move to lift sales in Japan, LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC.'s subsidiary signed PILOT CORP. to market cartridges for its ink-jet printers. By tapping into the big writing instruments manufacturer's nationwide distribution channels, Lexmark expects to broaden its customer base beyond people who live in metropolitan areas.
HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. hopes to fortify sales in the high end of the ink-jet printer market with the HP DeskJet 970Cxi Professional Series printer. The company says that this $535 machine provides its best photo-like reproduction, thanks to its parent's enhanced color layering technology. However, with a print speed of up to 12 ppm in black and 10 ppm in color, the DeskJet 970Cxi is targeted at mainstream business applications. .....With demand for large- format printers expanding in the graphics market, HEWLETT-PACKARD JAPAN LTD. is optimistic about the sales prospects for the HP DesignJet 2800CP and the HP DesignJet 3800CP. They are the fastest HP DesignJet CP Series printers ever offered, enabling mechanical printing speeds that are up to 60 percent faster than those obtained with the line's existing products while still maintaining photo-quality output. The improved speed and performance are attributable in large part to technology from ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING, INC. HP Japan priced the HP DesignJet 2800CP at $15,600 and the HP DesignJet 3800CP around $24,900.
Supplies of active-matrix TFT displays are increasingly tight not only because of increasing sales of notebook computers but also due to growing demand for high-resolution flat-panel displays used as desktop monitors. To ensure that this problem does not affect their shipments of computer products, IBM JAPAN LTD. and TOSHIBA CORP. have decided to expand capacity at equally owned DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES INC. at a cost of more than $92.6 million. Capacity at DTI's plant in Nosu, Shiga prefecture will be boosted by 50 percent a month to the equivalent of 450,000 12.1-inch displays, while output at the joint venture's original factory in Himeji, Hyogo prefecture, now running at the counterpart of 200,000 10.4-inch screens a month, will be raised by roughly 20 percent. The additional output should be available next spring.
Part of the additional capacity coming onstream at DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES INC.'s Shiga prefecture facility will be devoted to the output of an extremely high-resolution 15-inch panel developed by IBM JAPAN LTD. With its resolution of 1400 x 1050 pixels, this display is one of the first to meet the new specifications for SXGA+ graphics. Volume production actually will start even before the extra capacity is available at an expected rate of 20,000 to 30,000 units a month. IBM Japan says that the higher resolution of the new display will aid the growth of on- line shopping since customers will get a more accurate view of merchandise.
RARITAN COMPUTER, INC., a Somerset, New Jersey maker of switches that enable multiple computers to be controlled through a single keyboard, monitor and mouse, has formed a subsidiary in Tokyo. Its products have been available through a distributor (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 360, September 1999, p. 16). However, demand for its switches is climbing as corporations install more servers, leading to overcrowding in their data centers and a shortage of IT people to manage all the hardware. To support this growth, which is projected to lead to annual sales of $9.3 million in three years, Raritan decided that it needed its own sales and technical services base.
An up-and-coming maker of host adapters and other connectivity products, San Jose, California-based ADVANCED SYSTEM PRODUCTS, INC., also is in the process of establishing a subsidiary. ADVANSYS JAPAN K.K. will backstop current distributors MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. and SHINSHO CORP. as well as attempt to sign up other marketers to ensure that sales climb to a projected $15 million in 2000 from an estimated $5 million this year. AdvanSys currently has on the market Fast SCSI, Ultra SCSI, Ultra Wide SCSI and Ultra 2 Wide SCSI host adapters that feature SCSI data transfer rates between system memory and internal and external devices of up to 10, 20, 40 and 80 megabytes per second, respectively. Before yearend, the company plans to release an IEEE 1394-compliant host adapter for linking various digital consumer electronics products to a PC. At the heart of AdvanSys' connectivity products are the company's own RISC processors.
Behind the boost in performance of RICOH CO., LTD.'s latest CD-Recordable/CD-Rewritable drive is its host I/O card, which was supplied by ADAPTEC, INC. of Milpitas, California in the form of the AVA-2903B SCSI card. Ricoh's MediaMaster MP7060 combines a 6X CD-R recording speed capability and a 4X CD-RW rewriting speed with a 24X CD-reader.
LEXAR MEDIA, a supplier of digital film and connection cables that transfer large image files to desktop computers via the faster USB port rather than the serial cable usually included with digital cameras, has enlisted two powerful partners to work with its Tokyo sales office. The Fremont, California company signed OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO., LTD. to market its 64-MB, USB- enabled CompactFlash digital film card and JumpShot USB cable, which will be cobranded. At the same time, SANYO ELECTRIC CO., LTD. and Lexar will comarket the new 32-MB, 8X CompactFlash digital film card and JumpShot cable; it also will be cobranded.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INC., the big global engineering and construction firm, and KAJIMA CORP., one of Japan's five largest engineering and construction companies, have extended their year-old alliance covering the introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices for pharmaceuticals production and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) for food processing. During year one of their tie-up, Pasadena, California-headquartered Jacobs mainly supplied information on GMP and HACCP to Kajima. Now, it plans to send an engineer to the Japanese company to provide direct support on three drug facility projects. Kajima also reportedly has expressed interest in Jacobs' soil-remediation expertise and building vibration-control technology.
The fourth Sheraton Hotels & Resorts property in Japan is the renamed Sheraton Sapporo Hotel on Hokkaido. The 515-room hotel is owned by TOEI K.K. It is one of only two international hotels in Sapporo. The other Sheraton hotels are the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay, the Kobe Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers and the Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers. Westin Hotels & Resorts, which also is part of STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS WORLDWIDE, INC., has four properties in Japan as well.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
The exclusive distribution agreement that Lightcaster microdisplay provider DISPLAYTECH, INC. signed in August 1998 with NISSHO ELECTRONICS CORP. has been broadened to include microdisplay components that result from an alliance between the Longmont, Colorado firm and HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. The first Displaytech-HP product is a full-color, fully illuminated quarter VGA (video graphics array) microdisplay. Targeted at such applications as viewfinders in digital cameras and the like, the low-power QVGA combines Displaytech's ferroelectric liquid crystal technology and HP's system design expertise. MIYOTA CO., LTD. will make the FLC microdisplays at its dedicated plant in Nagano (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 355, April 1999, p. 17).
The Rockwell Automation unit of ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP. licensed electrical control equipment manufacturer MEIDENSHA CORP. to assemble and market in Japan its high-voltage inverters. The American manufacturer will supply semiconductors, printed circuit boards and other components to the Tokyo-headquartered company for inverters that control 3-kilovolt and 6-kv motors. One likely market for these products is pump controls at water-processing facilities. Meidensha expects to sell 20 of Rockwell Automation's inverters a year under its own brand name. It makes low-voltage inverters but believes that energy-conservation efforts will boost demand for high-voltage inverters.
AERO-ELECTRIC CONNECTOR, INC. named MEIHO ELECTRIC CO., LTD. to distribute five of its connector lines. The Torrance, California manufacturer's products are available in a range of coupling configurations and shell sizes. The families sold in Japan, which are priced from $18.50 to $92.60 each, include circular connectors that provide aerospace performance and reliability for general-purpose power interconnection requirements; threaded connectors for situations with excessive moisture, fluids, shock and/or vibration; connectors for instrumentation applications where space is at a premium; connectors that provide greater vibration protection; and connectors that deliver improved interface protection in the presence of a variety of liquids.
Two new products from K-TRON INTERNATIONAL, INC., a Pitman, New Jersey maker of materials feeders for production equipment, are available through distributor SHINWA CORP. The Smart Control Module, which combines motor drive and control unit functions in a small box that mounts right on the feeder, operates a feeder for both batch and continuous processes. An infrared data link lets users perform configuration work or diagnostics with a notebook computer without attaching connector cables to the SCM. The Smart Commander, the second product, gives operators an easy-to-use Windows NT interface for controlling or monitoring up to 30 feeders on as many as seven process lines.
Three consumer electronics companies, described only as major players, now are evaluating AER ENERGY RESOURCES, INC.'s patented zinc-air battery technology by means of a prototype 6-volt primary battery (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 351, December 1998, p. 15). The Smyrna, Georgia R&D firm's system, which provides a long run time for portable electronic devices, consists of zinc-air cells and a patented air manager that allows air flow to the cells during discharge and blocks it during charge and when the battery is not in use.
An exchange rate of ¥108=$1.00 was used in this report.
To the pleasant surprise of many analysts and observers, financial regulatory authorities gave a foreign consortium the right to negotiate the purchase of nationalized LONG-TERM CREDIT BANK OF JAPAN, LTD. The group is led by RIPPLEWOOD HOLDINGS LLC, a New York City specialist in corporate turnarounds. It has lined up a number of name American and European companies as possible participants in the buyout of the investment bank, which the syndicate hopes to finalize before yearend. Ripplewood officials believe that a now slimmed-down and partially cleaned-up LTCB, which sought government protection in October 1998 and subsequently received billions of dollars in public funds, can generate earnings of $463 million a year. They hope to achieve this target by focusing the "new" LTCB's operations on corporate pension plans, private banking and other potentially high-profit areas under a new management team that includes foreign executives as well as Japanese ones. No good estimate exists of how much money the consortium will have to put up in total, but it agreed for starters to add $1.1 billion to the bank's capital. Investors have some protection against their ultimate financial exposure because the government agreed that for three years after the sale went through, it would buy back LTCB's outstanding loans at book value if they fell 20 percent or more in market value. However, to win this open-ended guarantee, Ripplewood and its partners had to agree not to cut off any LTCB borrower for three years even if they are deadbeats. Some experts worry that this provision alone could slow the turnaround of LTCB's business.
October 1 marked the complete deregulation of brokerage commission rates as well as the launch of E*TRADE JAPAN K.K.'s financial services Web site. The joint venture between Menlo Park, California-based E*TRADE GROUP, INC. (42 percent) and SOFTBANK CORP. (58 percent) initially is offering Japanese equities and mutual funds. Until it gets a better feel for conditions in the on-line market, its fees — $23.15 per trade on orders up to $9,300 — will not be as low as some of the competition's. Nonetheless, E*TRADE Japan expects to have 100,000 on-line brokerage accounts by the end of the first year of operations. It believes that it can attract customers by offering such localized content on its Web site as news and stock quotes, mutual fund ratings reports, a proprietary mutual fund search engine and reports on publicly traded Japanese companies. Moreover, E*TRADE Japan already has an established customer base and customer service infrastructure through the late 1998 acquisition of OSAWA SECURITIES CO., LTD. (see Japan-U.S. Business Report No. 350, November 1998, p. 18).
GE CAPITAL CORP. already has its finger in many pieces of Japan's financial pie. In a year or two, another will be added. GE Asset Management, the investment services unit of GE FINANCIAL ASSURANCE CO., plans to offer as many as 30 mutual funds for individual investors, particularly those who take advantage of the 401(k)-type pension plan that Japan will introduce. In the meantime, GEAM launched the GE Japan Equity Focus fund, which has $55.6 million in assets.
Big mutual fund manager DREYFUS CORP. has added a third investment option for retail customers. Its global equity fund joins an international blended fund introduced in April 1998 and a global bond fund available since July 1998. All three are sold through traditional brokerage houses and the distribution channels of TOKYO-MITSUBISHI ASSET MANAGEMENT, LTD., a BANK OF TOKYO-MITSUBISHI, LTD. affiliate that cobrands them. However, Providence, Rhode Island-based Dreyfus says that it is exploring the possibility of marketing its family of funds through discount and on-line brokers.
After two years of discussions, insurance giant AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP, INC. and ORIX CORP., Japan's top leasing company, formed an equally owned business to develop new casualty insurance products tailored to the needs of corporate and individual customers alike. Sales of policies crafted by ORIX INSURANCE PLANNING CO., LTD., which had an October start date, will be handled by AIU INSURANCE CO., the Japanese property and casualty arm of AIG. Orix will participate on the sales side since its corporate client base will be a primary focus of the marketing effort. In time, the joint venture could have its own sales force as well as a broader portfolio of insurance products, including life policies.
The market for long-term disability policies in Japan is extremely underdeveloped, giving UNUM CORP. considerable room to expand its primary business. UNUM JAPAN ACCIDENT INSURANCE CO., LTD., which has sold these products through its own agents and smaller nonlife insurers since 1994, has enlisted a second major ally in this effort. MITSUI SEIMEI GENERAL INSURANCE CO., LTD. will market Unum's disabilit