Factories Japan

Toyota Motor Corp. expects to halt some production in the United States because of a parts shortage caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. "We continue to assess our supply base in Japan," the automaker said Wednesday. "Some production interruptions in North America are likely. It's too early to predict location or duration. " Toyota has factories in Georgetown, Ky.; San Antonio, Texas; and Princeton, Ind. Toyota said that it was working with its suppliers to minimize any disruptions and that for now, its dealers had an "ample" supply of vehicles.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to cut 1,000 jobs in its U.S. sales and manufacturing operations, including about 230 in Cypress, over the next two years in an effort to restore profitability. The Japanese auto maker said it will eliminate about 700 jobs at its 4,200-employee manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill. The sales operation in Cypress employs about 1,100. Together, the job cuts amount to 19% of Mitsubishi's U.S. work force.

Nearly 60 years after they were forcibly taken to Japan to work, they say, as slave laborers, eight elderly Korean men in the United States and South Korea have teamed up to file lawsuits in Los Angeles against two giant Japanese companies, Mitsubishi and Mitsui. In their Superior Court complaints Tuesday, the plaintiffs charged that they were abducted from their homes and taken to Japan to do slave labor for the two conglomerates during World War II.

IBM, which has traditionally produced computer chips only for internal use, will soon begin supplying advanced memory chips to Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., a South Korean conglomerate. The move indicates that International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest computer company, may begin playing a more active role in the mass-market chip business, which is dominated by Japanese producers.

Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, architect of a turnaround plan that shattered centuries of Japanese business tradition and brought the country's No. 3 car maker from insolvency to profit in just two years, was crowned heir apparent Friday to Renault Chief Executive Louis Schweitzer. It has long been anticipated that Ghosn, who joined Nissan from Renault, would replace Schweitzer when the 59-year-old executive retired.

General Motors Co.'s profit almost doubled in the second quarter, bolstered by higher prices for cars and a gain in market share. GM said it earned $2.5 billion, or $1.54 a share — an 89% increase over the $1.3 billion, or 85 cents, it earned in the same quarter a year earlier. It was the company's sixth consecutive profitable quarter. Revenue in the three-month period ended June 30 rose almost 19% to $39.4 billion. "GM's investments in fuel economy, design and quality are paying off around the world, as our global market-share growth and financial results bear out," said Dan Akerson, the automaker's chief executive.

Two major Japanese companies said Wednesday that they are teaming up to build the first cotton mill in California, a $45-million plant in Fresno that will process cotton grown in the San Joaquin Valley. Nisshinbo Industries, one of Japan's largest textile makers, and Kanematsu-Gosho, the eighth-largest Japanese trading company, said the mill, scheduled to open in October, 1989, will initially employ 170.

Working with Americans can sure be frustrating. Secretaries go home, leaving letters half-typed. Blue-collar and clerical workers won't do things outside their job descriptions. Unqualified people get jobs in the effort to promote women and minorities. At least that's the thinking of many Japanese executives who have returned home after working on the other side of the Pacific. Understanding and motivating Americans, they say, takes a lot of effort.

"(Wealth) consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants." --Epicurus What do you do if you find yourself with an embarrassment of riches--say $132-billion-a-year's worth? Well, if you're Japan in the 1990s, you first pay off your debts, then sink money into blue-chip investments, and finally, maybe set aside some mad money for a nice vacation abroad. To the rest of the world, Japan's persistent and growing trade surplus may look like predatory economics.

The eleventh-hour trade agreement on autos and auto parts hammered out Wednesday by the United States and Japan will increase global automotive competition while boosting the business prospects of U.S. parts suppliers. Both sides took comfort in the agreement, which averted the imposition of 100% tariffs on 13 luxury models imported from Japan. But it was the U.S. auto makers and their suppliers who were claiming victory the loudest. "The U.S.