Billion Yen

TOKYO -- Some major Japanese private universities are taking in more than 4 billion yen ($31.3 million) a year from the fees they charge prospective students for entrance examinations.It is not unusual for a student to take entrance examinations at more than 10 universities at a cost of 30,000 yen ($234) each. Most universities hold their entrance examinations in February for the school year that begins in April.According to the Ministry of Education, the average entrance examination fee charged by private universities last year was 28,166 yen ($220)

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world's third-biggest automaker, said the yen's weakness earlier this year will give its earnings an unexpected boost in the six months through September, though full-year results should be as earlier forecast. The company raised its first-half profit forecast by 41.7 percent to 170 billion yen ($1.5 billion), from 120 billion yen. Toyota now projects sales at 3.55 trillion yen in the first half, up 4.4 percent from its original forecast of 3.4 trillion yen. The yen's earlier weakness will add 30 billion yen to first-half earnings, said Toyota Director Hideto Ozaki.

MILWAUKEE - Johnson Controls Inc., the second-largest maker of vehicle seats, agreed yesterday to buy No. 1 Japanese auto-seat maker Ikeda Bussan Co. for 19.8 billion yen ($185 million) in cash and assumed debt to boost sales in Asia. Johnson Controls will pay 120 yen a share for all of Ikeda Bussan, a unit of Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third-biggest carmaker, for 1.7 percent more than Ikeda's close Friday. The Milwaukee company will assume 9.1 billion yen in debt in a purchase it said will add "slightly" to fiscal 2001 profit.

TOKYO - Two of the world's entertainment giants, Sony Corp. of Japan and Bertelsmann AG of Germany, have made tentative plans to merge their music businesses into a joint venture to bolster their flagging operations. The companies signed a nonbinding letter of intent, an executive familiar with the deal said yesterday, indicating that the merger is not final. The two companies have been negotiating for several weeks, others said. Record companies worldwide are trying to find ways to offset the explosion in music available legally and illegally on the Internet.

TOKYO - NKK Corp. and Kawasaki Steel Corp., Japan's No. 2 and No. 3 steelmakers, said yesterday that they have agreed to merge under a holding company to cut costs and meet tougher standards imposed by auto companies. The two will set up the holding company in October 2002 and reorganize in April the following year. The new company will have annual domestic steel production of 25 million tons, 10 percent behind No. 1 Nippon Steel Corp., the companies said. They haven't decided on a merger ratio.

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. said yesterday that it will spend $800 million to expand its Indiana light-truck plant and add 2,000 jobs as it boosts annual production capacity in North America 16 percent to meet soaring U.S. demand. The No. 4 automaker in the United States said it will make 1.45 million vehicles a year in North America, a 200,000-unit increase from current levels, by about 2004. Toyota said the largest output growth will be at its plant in Princeton, Ind., where it will double production to 300,000 units.

In the Region Flight attendants ratify give-back at US Airways US Airways flight attendants ratified a contract with the ailing airline yesterday, giving up $75.8 million in annual wage and benefits concessions in exchange for job guarantees. The Association of Flight Attendants AFL-CIO said 80 percent of eligible flight attendants voted and 73 percent voted in favor of the new contract. In exchange for the concessions, the flight attendants have guarantees that they will be protected should the airline file for bankruptcy.

TOKYO -- Japanese software maker Softbank Corp. said it is discussing a joint venture with Microsoft Corp., confirming part of a report that sent shares in Nintendo Corp. and Sega Enterprises Ltd. plunging to their lowest levels in years.Softbank issued a statement after a report in the Nihon Keizai newspaper that it will join the world's largest software maker in a $12 million venture to develop video games for home computers.The report sent shares in Japanese video-game makers Nintendo and Sega plunging on concerns that a shift to computer games would cut away the companies' markets for custom video-game players.

TOKYO -- General Motors Corp. agreed yesterday to buy 20 percent of Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru vehicles, for $1.4 billion to accelerate GM's push into Asia.The investment, which was expected, gives the world's largest automaker an interest in an automaker known for four-wheel-drive vehicles.With its existing Japanese holdings, GM now has a position in every segment of Japan's auto market, including mini-vehicles, small and midsize cars and trucks.GM already owns 10 percent of Suzuki Motor Corp.

O'Conor buying Vantage firmO'Conor, Piper & Flynn has agreed to buy Vantage Real Estate, an Anne Arundel County real estate brokerage firm. Timonium-based O'Conor is the largest real estate broker in the local Baltimore housing market, with 1,400 brokers in Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Its acquisition of Vantage follows two deals last month to buy other small brokerage firms.Vantage has had about 45 brokers working out of offices in Severn and Glen Burnie.Japan's banks to unload loansJapan's 21 major commercial, long-term credit and trust banks will write off or sell a total of $12 billion, or 1.4 trillion yen, in nonperforming loans, mostly backed by devalued real estate assets, for the year through March 1993, the Nihon Keizai newspaper has reported.