Japanese Companies

TOKYO -- While Japanese and U.S. negotiators haggle toward a new agreement on computer microchip imports, astronomical investment costs are reshaping the industry in ways that may make it hard to say which chips come from which country.Four of the six Japanese makers that rank in the world's top 10 -- including the ones that occupied first, second and third place in 1990 global market share -- now have working agreements with at least one U.S. competitor to make or develop some chips together.

You know what I like about my friend, Brett Schoolnick?Among other things, he's a pretty fair guy. He's also passionate about his work. His company, Baywood Design-Build Group in Columbia, has won more awardsand recognition in the past few years than most firms will ever see -- if they survive this recession.Lately, Brett has been angry. After painstakingly building a thriving business, he has been forced to deal with the results of a difficult economy. Some of that anger is directed against the Japanese government and Japanese-owned corporations, the result of what he feels are blatantly unfair trade practices.

Tokyo -- What does the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 1992 plunge mean to Americans and others outside Japan?Almost since Tokyo's bear market began 27 months ago, Japanese and foreign analysts have warned that financial markets here would send out shock waves that would rock the rest of the world if the exchange ever fell much below half of its peak value in the booming 1980s "bubble economy."Most said the danger to foreign economies would lie somewhere under 20,000 points on the Nikkei 225, the most-watched Tokyo stock index.

TOKYO -- Without realizing it, the Americans sit on one side of the conference table and the Japanese the other.And when it comes time to discuss management styles, the Americans do most of the talking.In the Tokyo Bay Sheraton Hotel less than a mile from Tokyo Disneyland, managers from two worlds -- East and West -- had come to compare notes. The critical question was who has the best management style."The answer is somewhere in the middle," says James Cramer, executive director of the University of Maryland's International Business and Management Institute (IBMI)

Opportunities for American businesses to trade in Japan still exist, but the companies might have to work harder to meet the right contacts, a deputy consul general from Japan told Carroll County business leaders yesterday."

International Business Machines' announcement yesterday that it will join Japan's Toshiba Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG to develop advanced computer chips demonstrates how nationalist competition is giving way to international alliances fueled by financial and technical necessities.As in another international venture announced yesterday -- a $700 million deal between Fujitsu and Advanced Micro Devices -- sharing costs was a key factor in the IBM-Toshiba-Siemens deal. The three companies together will spend about $1 billion to develop advanced semiconductors and manufacturing processes.

TOKYO -- D. Michael Grose is paid by the State of Maryland to wine, dine and socialize with Japanese businessmen.His spacious office, by Japanese standards, is located in Ginza, Tokyo's hottest shopping district, and is an indication of how serious Maryland is in attracting yen.In the last two years, Grose and his assistant, Dr. Hirotsugu Aso, have been able to attract more than $167 million of new business investment from Japan, according to the state Department...

TOKYO -- After months of optimistic statements, Sony Corp. yesterday became the latest Japanese company to acknowledge serious problems with a landmark U.S. investment, announcing that it was taking $3.2 billion in losses on the value of the Hollywood studios that it acquired only five years ago.In a surprise announcement, Sony said that because of poor box office results, a wave of executive resignations and rising costs, it could never hope to recover its...

TOKYO -- Instead of spending weekends like a typical Japanese salaried worker -- lying around the house, watching whatever is on TV, getting poked around with a vacuum cleaner by his wife -- Haruki Nakamura spends his weekends pursuing a higher calling.He collects empty aluminum cans for recycling.It was not entirely Mr. Nakamura's idea. Last October, his company, Sumitomo Light Metal Industries Ltd., decided it would be a friendly gesture to have its employees pick up a certain number of aluminum cans every month to prove that the company has a sense of environmental responsibility.

Ford and Chrysler have increased the efficiency of their factories and workers so much in recent years that their basic cost of producing a car is now less than that of their Japanese rivals, according to a study published yesterday.Analysts have long recognized productivity improvements at Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. But the assumption in the industry has been that a production-cost gap remains between the second- and third-largest automakers in Detroit and the Japanese companies, especially Toyota Motor Corp.