Japan’s Posts & Telecommunications Ministry will propose the abolition of foreign investment rules in much of the country’s telecommunications sector at World Trade Organization talks, but the offer is conditional and will depend on the response of its major negotiating partners to its requests. Foreign in? vestment is at present limited to no more than one-third of any Japa?nese telecommunications carrier or company providing telephone or cable television services; foreign investment in Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd, both of which were formerly public concerns, is limit?ed to no more than one-fifth of their capital. The ministry said it will not revise restrictions on investment in the two firms because of the government’s postponement of the decision on whether it should break up Nippon Telegraph or not.
