NTT takes unfair advantage

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has criticized NTT for abusing privileged subscriber information in its sales activities. In an unusual move, the ministry has written to NTT regarding calls by salespeople at some of the corporation's branches to subscribers who had chosen not to list their numbers in the telephone directory. The salespeople were pushing NTT's discount rate services, which the ministry notes places the new common carriers (NCCs) at a disadvantage because they do not h ave access to the numbers. NTT has agreed to end the practice.

MPT to approve NCC petitions

MPT is planning to approve new common carrier (NCC) petitions to have the ministry allow connections between their frame relay networks and NTT's local leased lines. NTT has insisted in negotiations with the NCCs that it will only allow connections bet ween NTT and NCC frame relay networks, producing a standoff that today remains unresolved. NTT and the NCCs are supposed to determine the specifics of the interconnection arrangement through negotiation, but MPT could intervene if the talks break down.

Japan discussing global infrastructure policy

MPT has decided to submit to the Telecommunications Council for deliberation at its mid-October meeting the issue of preparing for and contributing to the creation of a global information infrastructure (GII). The ministry intends to take leadership of the issue by having one of its own organizations study Japanese policies and responses to the GII initiative. The council's report, which is expected to focus on methods for putting international infrastructure into place, forming international alliances , achieving interconnections, and protecting intellectual property rights, is slated to be released in about a year.

MPT has established an organization to promote government-industry collaboration in creating the next generation communications infrastructure. The new body links 230 communications service providers, broadcasters, hardware and software firms, and trad ing companies with the ministry and its affiliates. It will act as a conduit for technical and strategy information, and focus on approaches to infrastructure creation, development of applications, and cooperation with the Global Information Infrastructur e (GII) project. MITI to support domestic companies in drive for multimedia MITI intends to offer private companies, including venture firms, consignment contracts for researching and developing multimedia software as a means toward spurring the use of mu ltimedia technology. Plans call for the development of about 10 software packages annually with development costs expected to run 150-200 million yen ($1.5-2.0 mil) per package. The ministry hopes to begin implementing the plan next fiscal year. While the basic technology for multimedia hardware is moving forward at a rapid pace, software is lagging because developers do not want to take risks in what they view as an immature market.

MPT goes for control

In another move to get as much control as possible over the disposition of government funding for multimedia, the MPT has decided to launch a new organization to promote multimedia. The new group, tentatively titled the

Government Databases

From late September, the MPT has been supplying reports on administrative matters relating to the ministry in English on the Internet. The information is contained in a database and includes data on the ministry's organization, the English language bul letin IMPT News, Telecommunications Council reports, communications-related white papers, and the bulletin of the full committee meeting of the ITU.

Meanwhile, MITI plans to open government and government advisory body databases to the public over a to-be-constructed network. The system may be completed as early as fiscal 1995, after which the ministry hopes to start providing data as soon as possi ble from organizations such as JETRO, the Electronic Industries Association of Japan, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, and the Japan Iron and Steel Federation. Most government databases in the U.S. are open to the public, but this is not ye t the case in Japan. Council for the Coordination and Promotion of Data Communications Infrastructure, will be formed around several industry associations, including the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan and the Japan CATV Alliance. MPT called on these and other industry organizations for their cooperation when it held the group's first meeting on September 14. Backlash is inevitable from critics who charge that MPT is trying to dominate multi media issues in Japan. Meanwhile, the move is likely t o rekindle the min istry's feuds with MITI (the Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and other government organizations also struggling to become leaders in setting the direction of Japan's multi media industry.

What will they think of next?

An interesting aside to the multimedia craze is the MPT's aim to employ video-on-demand (VOD) to allow users of the postal savings system to check balances, authorize fund transfers, and call up information on interest rates and services from home. Com mercial banks have already announced plans to offer home banking services via optical fiber networks, and the MPT plan is intended to be the post office's response to the multimedia challenge. As a first step, it will conduct trials using a pilot model in the Kansai Science City through which users can check balances and make electronic transfers. The ministry is also studying links to conventional TV and cable TV networks.

Propping up Japan's CATV infrastructure

MPT has announced new policies designed to promote "full service" use of cable television networks, which would include large-volume data transmission and various interactive services in addition to conventional telephone service. MPT's new policies ca ll for support of "full service" network experiments at the Advanced Cable Technology Center, and increased conversion to digital circuitry and fiberoptic cable, among other measures.

The ministry also reported that Japan's CATV operators continued to lose money in fiscal 1993, in spite of a more than 50% rise in metropolitan CATV subscribers and a 10.6% increase in overall CATV subscribers. Japan had 9.22 million CATV subscribers a s of April 1994, according to the ministry.

Nearly 80% of urban cable TV operators in Japan suffered pretax losses for fiscal 1993, according to figures released by MPT. Some 109 companies out of 140 also reported cumulative losses. The percentage of companies recording pretax profits increased from 19.5% in fiscal 1992 to 22.1% The ministry explained that cable TV operators usually become profitable after five to seven years, and most of those reporting losses have been operating for less than five years. Fiscal 1993 pretax losses for all of th e companies came to 20.9 billion yen ($209 million).

Chalk one up for IBM

IBM Japan has won a bid for MPT's video-on-demand (VOD) proiect, giving it a lead among Japanese companies in the multimedia business competition. The project, aimed at competing against the US's fiber-optic information superhighway project, will lead to Japan's first digital VOD system. The first stage of testing, which will provide educational videos to 30 elementary and middle schools, will begin in November in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture. The order is worth an estimated 1.2-2.3 billion yen ($12- 13 million).

MPT and MITI feud carries over to multimedia

Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) are disagreeing publicly about whether the government should financially support construction of a fiber-optic network. MPT has proposed that proceeds from the sale of the government's remaining holding of NTT stock be used to provide up to 10O billion ($1 billion) a year in interest-free loans to private companies laying optical fiber. MOF has opposed the idea, claiming that fiber-optic network construction is entirely a matter for the private sector.

MPT has decided to build infrastructure within its bureaucratic purview by establishing a new joint government-private R&D firm in fiscal 1995 in order to promote digital broadcasting using communications satellites. MPT advisory organizations and priv ate firms will invest a total of 1.2 billion ($12 million) to launch the new firm, tentatively named Intelligent Broadcast Research and Development. Plans are for the new firm to install a digital transmission system and use private sector satellites to c onduct application experiments. The ministry will establish the new firm when it has finished drafting the set of digital broadcast standards that are currently under deliberation.

MITI strains to maintain patent and copyright data

The MITI-affiliated Intellectual Property Research Center will establish a digital information center for the purpose of managing data on the rights to copyrighted works and broadening the scope of its actions relating to so-called "moral rights" (the right of authors to have their works reproduced or displayed in unaltered form). The ministry's Multimedia Committee will shortly begin a full-fledged study concerning the new entity. The committee's report is expected by March 1995. The ways in which cop yright laws will change with proliferating multimedia technology is becoming a critical issue and one with which the new Center will be closely involved.

CATV companies look at prospects

Keihan Electric Railway and Hankyo Corp. have become members of the Optical Information Network Service Development Group, which is based in Osaka, to survey and research the development of information services and applications for cable TV networks. T he group began operations on July 20 with six founding members, mainly (:ATV companies in the Kinki region. E:ach of the eight companies has been allocated a development topic, including telephone services, home security, regional infermation services, vi deo-on-demand, home shopping, and a home reservation service.

Meanwhile, the Japan CATV Federation has established a study group to examine the potential for developing wireless CATV networks in this country. The federation, which represents Japan's 275 CATV operators, is looking to wireless CATV as a low-investm ent way to boost the number of current subscribers. Attention is now focusing on the possibilities of microwave-based wireless CATV as the difficulty and expense of laying further fiber-optic cable becomes clear.

Mail-order making waves

Hitachi will enter the individual user PC market from late 1994. The company will begin test marketing a mail order service and has started developing new sales routes via large-volume retailers. Hitachi began selling PCs in the early 1980s using its o wn consumer electronics channels, but subsequently withdrew completely from the individual user arena. In late September, it began shipping virtually 100% of its Flora Series PCs to corporate customers either directly or via authorized dealerships. The co mpany now sees a growing personal-use computer market ahead amid the widelyanticipated diffusion of multimedia technology.

PowerUser, a Nagano-based mail order seller of US-made PCs, started this month a new U.S. market-driven sales system whereby it promises to reflect U.S. price and specifications changes in its Japan catalog within one week. The new service, dubbed Real Time CP (cost performance), uses a catalog which is constantly updated to provide users with the latest prices and products available on the rapidly changing U.S. computer market. PowerUser accepts telephone or facsimile orders 24 hours a day. Person han dy phone (PHP) market gets more players Twelve companies will establish a personal handy phone system (PHS) planning company in Osaka in early October. They will include Kansai Electric Power, Osaka Gas, Japan Telecom, Matsushita Eectric, and NEC. The new company will apply for an operating license as soon as MPT issues a final policy on commercialization in late October, and aims to start service next fall. The group behind the project is competing with NTT and DDI, which are planning nationwide systems.

Another alliance of ten telecommunications service providers and related firms have established Telewalker Tokyo Planning in September to promote the commercialization of PHS services. The ten, which include Tokyo Telecommunications Network (TTNet) and Japan Telecom, aim to start a PHS service in the Kanto area from the fall of 1995. Telewalker is capitalized at 250 million yen ($2.5 million), has an initial staff of 60, and may apply for an MPT service license as early as this fall. Other investors include Tokyo Telemessage, Sumitomo Corp., Mitsui & Co., and KDD.

Meanwhile, NTT has finally gotten around to deciding on the details of how it will organize its PHS initiative. Nine companies will be set up in late October in preparation for its personal handy phone system (PHS) service launch. Each will be capitali zed at 300 million ($3 million), of which 70%will be provided by NTT and 30% by its NTT DoCoMo subsidiary, and each company will be staffed by an average of five researchers and managers who will be responsible for prelaunch preparations. Once MPT license s have been received, the companies will be transformed into operating entities for the new service.

Multimedia mating

The Communication Industries Association of Japan (CIAJ), the Electronic Industries Association of Japan, the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association, and the Japan Electrical Manufacturers Association have agreed to cooperatively establish t he Japan Multimedia Forum, a new group which will promote inter-industry information exchanges, lobby the government, and otherwise work to develop the multimedia industry. The first meeting of the new group, which will be headquartered at CIAJ, took plac e on September 20 in Tokyo. The Forum will eventually include over 100 firms including Oki Electric, NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Matsushita Electric, and Matsushita Communication Industrial.

Fujitsu takes supercomputer tender

Fujitsu has won an order from the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute at Tokai for a VPPSOO parallel processing supercomputer. Only Hitachi competed for the supercomputer bid, ordered by the Japan Atomic Power Research Laboratory at its Tokai lab in Ibaraki Prefecture under its fiscal 1994 government procurements budget. Fujitsu proposed that the lab buy its VPPSOO machine, while Hitachi promoted its S3000 Series supercomputer. The bidding was held on September 16; the amount of the winning bid was not disclosed. Fujitsu's success means that bids for nine of ten supercomputers to be procured by eight Japanese government institutions in fiscal 1994 have now been awarded -- seven to Japanese companies. Fujitsu, Gray Research, Hitachi, and NCube have w on five, two, one, and one orders, respectively.

Deregulation spurs growth

Between April and the end of August, over 600,000 new mobile telephone subscribers were registered. The total number of subscribers now stands at 2.75 million, up from 2.13 million on April 1, the eve of deregulation. Analysts expect the number to pass 3 million by the end of this year as mobile phone prices and service charges continue to fall. NTT DoCoMo is now expected to raise its forecast for new subscribers over the course of the year from 400,000 to 600,000 subscribers, while DDI and its group f irms now expect 160,000 subscribers and IDO 120,000. The heavy influx of subscibers has caused NTT's new mobile telephone subscriptions to surpass new fixed-telephone subscriptions for the first time ever in June and July, industry sources said. Through M ay, new fixed-telephone subscriptions had outstripped new portable phone subscriptions on a monthly basis. With personal handy phone system (I)HS) services slated to start up next year, the diffusion of mobile telephones could have serious impact on NTT's business strategy, analysts said. Japan could possibly become a mainly mobile-phone market as an effect of NTT's domestic monopoly. New mobile telephone subscriptions totaled 134,000 in August, and reached a record 622,400 units since the April liberaliz ation of handset sales, substantially exceeding the previous annual record of 501,000 new subscriptions recorded in fiscal 1991.

New software distribution methods

Many Japanese companies have started distributing software encoded on CD-ROM disks. From November 7, leading PC software distributor Software Japan will start selling CDROM software using proprietary encryption technology licensed from California-based CD Direct. Unlike encryption-based sales being undertaken by Softbank and IBM Japan, Software Japan's new Order Express system will provide full versions of the software which can be tried by users, then purchased directly via the retailer. The company p lans to sell the CDROMs for 2,000 ($20) or less per unit through more than 9,000 outlets nationwide, aiming for first-year revenues of 2 billion ($20 million) from sales of 100,000 units

IBM Japan has instead started distributing its premier issue of CD Showcase, a CD-ROM loaded with various kinds of software that can be unlocked with codes after they are paid for. The product comes in two versions, one aimed at companies and one at in dividuals. The corporate version will be provided by IBM Japan Information Systems and IBM dealers' on sales agents. The 1,500 yen ($15) individual version will be available to those belonging to a CD Showcase Members Club and can also be ordered from IBM Direct.

SoftBank has postponed the launch of a new CD-ROM-based software sales channel until next year. The move was originally scheduled for November, but the company, Japan's largest PC software distributor, has run into fierce opposition from retailers who fear loss of business. SoftBank plans to package dozens of software titles on a CD-ROM, providing the access code on receipt of payment directly from the customer. Retailers have already seen the price of software from Microsoft and other major suppliers fall by some 50% over the past year, and now face the prospect of being almost completely bypassed.

DoCoMo to go for nationwide coverage

NTT DoCoMo will start a satellitebased nationwide mobile telephone service from the fall of 1995. The move will instantly expand mobile telephone coverage of the Japan archipelago from the current level of only 35'%,. NTT will launch two US-made N-STAR satellites from French rockets next February and August to support the new system. The enormous investment in base stations and other infrastructure required for conventional cellular systems and personal handy phone systems (PHS) is prompting worldwide interest in satellite-based mobile communications.

Patent protection

The entry of Japanese manufacturers into Europe's digital mobile telephone market is being delayed due to lack of clarity over local standards. The situation in Europe is confused because companies such as Motorola and Philips, which hold parts of the GSM patent, are opposed to the policy of the local standardization organization, leaving producers such as Mitsubishi Electric and Matsushita Communication Industrial to deal with individual patent holders over separate parts of the GSM patent. Delays in the negotiations with Motorola have forced Mitsubishi to postpone the launch of a model which was to have been introduced last year, and MCI, which has brought out a terminal, has seen sales restricted to just a few units.

Undersea overseas multimedia communication

KDD has succeeded in transmitting multiplexed optical signals at 100Gbits per second over a 1,000-km undersea fiber-optic cable. In the experiment, KDD used an undersea cable system and simultaneously sent five multiplexed 10Gbit-per-second signals wit h different wavelengths over an optical fiber. As the cable uses two pairs of optical fibers, the total transmission rate is 100Gbits per seond, the equivalent of 2,000 TV transmission lines. The experimental system provided an extremely low code error ra te sufficient for video transmission, according to KDD. The company hopes to deploy the new system several years from now with an eye on future multimedia communications.

Producers become Asiaphiles

Matsushita Electric Works will invest as much as 35 billion ($350 million) over the next four years to build 10 more production plants in China and Southeast Asia. The move is part of the company's globalization objective outlined in its mid-term busin ess plan ending 1998, its 80th anniversary. As a result of this shift to Asia, its ratio of overseas sales is expected to double by 1998 to over 200 billion ($2 billion). Overseas production in all seven of its business areas will be drastically increased .

Low priced video conferencing

Intel will market in Japan a videoconferencing system that uses PCs. The system uses regular PCs equipped with small video cameras and special video-conferencing software. It is expected to sell for about 200,000 ($2,000). The U.S. chip maker introduce d the product in the U.S. in January and formed an organization including AT&T and Compaq to help promote the system's standards. NTT, NEC, Fujitsu and others have adopted Intel's standards for the system and are expected to come out with their own produc ts this year.

Not all US trade is exports

Imports of microprocessors from the US continue to increase. Japanese manufacturers are importing from the US nearly all of the PC MPUs they use. Continuing favorable demand for PCs in Japan is fueling the increase in MPU imports from the US. According to economic statistics released by the Ministry of Finance, a total of 6.8 million MPUs, microcontrollers, and peripheral integrated circuits were imported from the U.S. in July. MPUs accounted for the greatest portion of the imports and showed a 34.3% r ise over the same period last year. For the period January to July, imports in all three categories totaled 54 million units, an increase of 40% over the same period in 1993.

Reselling long distance lines

Tokyo-based communications equipment seller Telecom International recently signed a large user discount contract with AT&T and started reselling international telephone lines to Japanese corporations. Use of the comparatively inexpensive US lines allow s the company to offer Japanese customers rates which are on average 20% cheaper than KDD. Currently dealers representing US-line resellers offer about ten international telephone services in Japan, but this is the first time a Japanese corporation has la unched a business reselling U.S. lines.

Photos for the future

Kodak, Fuji Film, Canon, Minolta, and Nikon have formally announced the next-generation photography system, which the five partners have been cooperatively developing since 1992. Under the new system, camera data will be magnetically recorded on film t o enhance both production of the image and use of the image in multimedia equipment. The film itself will be smaller than conventional 3S-mm film, making possible more compact, high - performance cameras. The system will not be compatible with today's cam eras and film, though today's film processing method will be usable as-is.

Patent resolution

In an unsurprising ruling, in August the Tokyo District Court found in favor of Fujitsu in the patent infringement suit brought by Texas Instrument. Concluding a case that has been running since 1991, the court ruled that Fujitsu did not contravene the Kilby 275 patent in its p'"duction of 1- and 4Mbit DRAMs and threw out TI's application for a ban on sales. TI expressed itself dissatisfied with the result, and announced its attention to appeal to the Tokyo High Court.

Talent search

Japan is looking to America to provide the new products needed to drive its tepid multimedia market. A venture capital fund backed by Japanese high-tech companies that will invest in privately held US multimedia companies started up in September. JCC T echnologies of New Jersey will market the fund at Kyocera and other Japanese high-tech companies and try to raise 10 to 20 billion ($100 re, 200 million) in capital. Investors can expect to profit from the rise in share prices after the companies go publi c, and can also gain priority access to the technology developed by the funded companies.

Japanized multimedia magazine

Tokyo-based software developer and seller GML will launch an electronic publishing business. The company has formed an alliance with Florida-based Redgate, publisher of the Macintosh Product Registry magazine-catalog ("magalog"), and will create a Japa nese-language CD-ROM version of the publication for sale in Japan. In addition to translating the publication's articles, GMI, will add its own interview-based articles, introductions of software and hardware sold in Japan, and demonstrati(,n software. Ry including product advertisements which feature graphic and video images, GML will position the publication as a "multimedia magalog."

Toshiba picks up PictureTel's PS100

In its teleconferences system business, Toshiba plans to specialize in PC based systems. It had been focusing on its own System 500, but due to a sharp shift toward smaller and cheaper teleconierence systems, the company has formed a sales agency agree ment with PictureTel Japan and has been marketing the PCS100 from PictureTel of the US. In the five months since its launch, Toshiba has installed over 100 PCS100s, and sales are expected to top 700 units per year. The company will also install 60 units i n-house this fiscal year to improve efficiency and gain networking expertise.

NEC Researches in Europe

NEC has begun work at its first European research center in Bonn, Germany. The facility was established in July by London-based NEC EUROPE to conduct research into parallel numerical processing algorithms and multimedia communications, and the company will invest 100 million yen ($1 million) in its first year. It has an initial staff of six, which is expected to grow to 20 in three years. NEC has collaborated with a number of European research institutes to date, and hopes that the establishment of its own facility will enable it to strengthen those ties.

A competitor for CCDs

Mitsubishi Electric and NHK Japan Broadcasting Corp. have jointly developed an imaging device with a new structure, in which photodiodes are used to capture an image and convert it to electrical signals which are in turn sent to an image processing cir cuit consisting of CMOS transistors. Image data can be obtained from any particular pixels, which is not possible with conventional CCDs (charge-coupled devices). Each pixel has an aperture ratio of up to 28%, higher than the 20% with a CCD, making it pos sible to capture weak light more effectively and reduce the size of devices easily. The two organizations intend to apply the new technology to industrial monitoring cameras.

Sharp to shrink portable terminals

Sharp is aiming for early adoption of multichip module technology in an attempt to miniaturize handheld infermation devices including its Zaurus personal digital assistant. By March 1995, the company plans to shift from conventional printed boards to M CMs which integrate bare chips on a printed ceramic or silicon substrate. Use of the MCM technology helps reduce the size of an electronic circuit to less than half that of a printed board-based circuit as well as streamline the manufacturing process and improve production efficiency.

Faster in relation to other databases

NEC has developed a network management information database which it claims is highly reliable while offering search speeds 30 times faster than comparable products. Based on OSI (open systems interface) management, the product consists of a network ma I1agement information module incorporated into Percio, NEC's object-oriented database. Experl-mental results with a 50,000-item database running on an asynchronous transfer mode JATM) network system confirmed that search times were 5 to 30 times faster th an conventional relational database systems, according to NEC.

KDD demonstrates multimedia future

In September, KDD conducted a demonstration of a video-on-demand search system and teleconferencing using an asynchronous-transfer-mode (ATM) network linking Japan and the U.S. in cooperation with AT&T. The video-on-demand search system uses a codec co nforming to the international MPEG2 (Motion Picture Experts Group) standard and a transmission rate of 45Mbit/s. The ATM network spans 14,000 km, linking KDD's headquarters in Shinjuku, Tokyo with AT&T's Bell Labs in New Jersey.

Apple attempting to set ISDN multimedia standard

Apple Computer (Japan) will by the end of this pear start ISDN (integrated services digital network)-based interactive multimedia operations. It will propose a standardized multlmedlll format based on a new low-priced, multimedia PC, and at the same ti me will develop a TV conferencing system and c,ther applications which make use of ISDN. It will work with domeslic television manufacturers to create specifications that will encompass an integrated format for animated video data. Apple hopes both to exp ort the system to Apple headquarters in the U.S. and position it as a worldwide standard for multimedia systems.

NTT goes holographic NTT has succeeded in recording and playing holographic video images. The technique records and plays 18 frames of pictures per second, made possible by strengthening the intensity of a laser beam, a light source, and slashing exposure time. The pictures i n the form of an interference fringe are recorded on a 3S-mm film. Using the technique in an experiment, the company demonstrated a monochrome video picture for 75 seconds. NTT hopes that it will use in stead of the film a panel similar to an LCD, which w ill enable pictures to be instantly switched, thus paving the way for the development of a holographic TV.

Tele-English lessons

Business Chance & Culture Creation (BBCC, an organization in Kyoto promoting broadband ISDN (integrated services digital network), has set up multimedia facilities in Osaka to test remote English conversation teaching. Trial lessons will run until Nove mber using an interactive communications system linking teachers and students. The results will determine the viability of offering such a service commercially. The BBCC English Conversation School consists of booths for students at a Canon Sales branch a nd teachers' terminals at English language schools operated by NOVA connected by optic fiber. Users can see each other and access a database of teaching materials.

MITI to reduce LCD power

MITI will develop a next generation of low-power LCD technology from fiscal 1995 to help reduce the power consumption in the consumer sector. The goal is to develop LCDs with 1/10 or less the power consumption of existing products. The ministry will sp end 250 million ($2.5 million) on feasibility studies in fiscal 1995, which is expected to be entrusted to the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association.

Hey! It beats cram school.

NTT and sixteen Japanese universities will begin trials to create shared databases and research data as a move towards implementing the "virtual college" concept here. The universities, which include Waseda, the University of Tokyo, and Osaka Universit y, will from next spring be linked by a 2.4Gbit per second network provided free of charge by NTT, allowing a course at any one of the participating institutions to be received by the others. The trials, which are known as the "Online University" here, ar e expected to lead to use of the Internet for worldwide access to Japanese academic lectures and databases, and to the creation of an Open University.

Taiwan's DRAM producer's tie up to take on Japan

Taiwan's ten leading semiconductor manufacturers and government authorities will form a joint corporation in an attempt to make Taiwann the world's fifth largest DRAM producer. The new company will be capitalized at Taiwan $17.5 billion (US$43.3 millio n), and will have a production capacity of 14,000 8-inch wafers per month by the end of 1995. Taiwan currently runs a deficit with Japan in semiconductor trade, and the new move is an attempt to emulate the success of Korea in fostering Samsung Electronic s and other maior producers.