United States Foreign Investments Japan

High turnover among Americans working for Japanese-owned companies in the Southland and growing demands by those employees for a bigger voice in management is increasingly prompting Japanese employers to adopt U.S. management practices, according to a recent study. Japanese companies "are swinging to the other side of the pendulum by Americanizing their management style," said Dennis Laurie, a former Arco Corp.

In a precedent-setting agreement, Fluor Corp. said Wednesday that it will join forces with a Japanese company to enter bids on major construction projects in both the United States and Japan. The "cooperation agreement," believed by industry experts to be the first of its kind, will allow the Irvine-based company's Fluor Daniel construction unit to participate in projects with Ohbayashi Corp., one of Japan's "Big Six" construction firms.

Although the Senate-approved ban on imports of Toshiba Corp.'s products could deal an embarrassing setback to the Japanese electronics giant, officials said Wednesday that Toshiba's U.S. assembly lines should keep running at full speed. In fact, several observers said congressional efforts to punish the Japanese company for selling sensitive technology to the Soviet Union could have the unintended effect of increasing Toshiba's manufacturing presence in America. The future of Toshiba's U.S.

Nomura Securities Co., the world's largest securities firm, said Wednesday that it agreed to pay $100 million to acquire a 20% stake in Wasserstein, Perella & Co., an aggressive investment banking firm that was formed just six months ago. The new link would give Nomura, Japan's leading securities house, an entree into the highly profitable U.S. mergers and acquisitions business.

Every day, Yoshiaki Nishiba bounces among three disparate cultures. Raised north of Tokyo, he now lives south of San Diego and spends a good part of every business day at his family-owned manufacturing plant in eastern Tijuana. He navigates his German-made car knowingly through Tijuana's pothole-pocked streets, and he talks easily about why he is more comfortable investing his own money in Southern California than back home. "It's out of hand in Japan," he said, his English impeccable.

They're not scrambling to sell yet, but Japanese ardor for U.S. real estate has definitely cooled amid fears of an economic recession, Mideast war and the plunge in the Tokyo stock market, a new report concludes. In an interim report to be released today, Kenneth Leventhal & Co. has reduced its estimate of 1990 Japanese investment in the United States to a range of $10 billion to $13 billion, from a previous forecast of $13 billion to $16 billion.

Although his mother was German and his father Sicilian, Joseph Portaro is clearly partial to East Asia when it comes to foreign travel. He has been to Hong Kong on vacation 19 times. These days, though, Japan is very much on Portaro's mind, and it is strictly business. He is trying to sell his castle-like home in the remote Hidden Valley section of Thousand Oaks, and he feels that someone Japanese might best be able to foot the $7.5-million price tag for the 14-room estate.

A sudden surge in the value of the dollar has thrown a wrench in the works of the mammoth money-making machine known as the Tokyo stock market. The dollar's strength has stoked fears of inflation, higher interest rates and of a flow of Japanese funds to dollar-denominated investments. The dollar last week burst through the 130-yen level and is approaching the psychological point of 132 yen. It closed at 131.70 here Monday, matching its previous traded high for 1988 posted on Jan. 18.

In a move to further diversify into health-care services, Secomerica Inc., the Newport Beach parent of Westec Security Inc., said Sunday it reached an agreement to acquire H.M.S.S. Inc., a Houston home therapy firm, for about $255 million. Under an agreement signed this weekend, Japanese-owned Secomerica will begin a tender offer later this week to acquire all 5.1 million outstanding shares of H.M.S.S. for $50 per share.

Federal Express Corp. said Friday that it has bought a majority interest in three Japanese cargo distribution companies and a minority stake in their parent company in order to expand its presence in Japan and to improve its current system of picking up and delivering packages in that important Asian market. The companies are Daisei Shokuhinrytsu Co. and Daisei Co. of Tokyo, and Nagoya Daisei Cargo of Nagoya, the Memphis, Tenn.-based air express package delivery concern said.