Mitsubishi Monitor 0204 NEWS& PRODUCTS

	Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group to gain world-class securities firm
	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Sonic Cruiser
	Kirin Brewery expands presence in food products
	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries engines power H-IIA on second consecutive successful launch
	Dai Nippon Toryo is all over Tokyo landmark
	Mitsubishi Electric upgrades elevator operations in China
	Mitsubishi Corporation chairman leads Japanese delegation to U.S.-Japan Business Council
	Mitsubishi Chemical establishes subsidiary to translate genetic expertise into new drugs
	Mitsubishi Corporation furnishes three-dimensional imaging for car navigation systems
	Meiji Life ponders life with partner
	Convertible concept model from Mitsubishi Motors captures attention at motor show in Detroit
	Mitsubishi Motors to make engines in Germany

The Mitsubishi companies soon will include a leading brokerage and investment banking firm. In autumn 2001, the managements of four Japanese securities firms agreed to consolidate their businesses under Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group. The four are Kokusai Securities; Tokyo-Mitsubishi Securities, the wholesale securities arm of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTM); Tokyo-Mitsubishi Personal Securities, BTM's retail securities arm; and Issei Securities, an arm of Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation.
This Merger will create a world-class securities firm that will be globally
competitive across a full spectrum of brokerage and investment banking business. The participants will call their postmerger firm Mitsubishi Securities Co., Ltd., and they plan to complete the merger in September. In additionto inheriting the operations of the four firms, Mitsubishi Securities will absorb some of the investment banking business of BTM.
Mitsubishi Securities will strengthen Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group's capabilities greatly in the world's capital markets. It will reinforce the group's position as a global leader in financial services.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and three Japanese partners have begun joint research with The Boeing Company in preparation for developing a new passenger airliner (right). The aircraft will travel at transonic speeds--nearly the speed of sound. Working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the collaboration with Boeing are Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and the nonprofit Japan Aircraft Development Corporation.
The four Japanese partners have worked with Boeing for some 30 years, including close cooperation in developing and manufacturing the 777 and 767 passenger airliners. Allocations of manufacturing work are undecided. But the Japanese participants expect to handle a larger portion of the development work than in previous projects with Boeing. They call the new airliner
Sonic Cruiser.

Kirin Brewery, Japan's premier producer of beer, is expanding its business in food products. It has established a joint venture with Japan’s largest pharmaceuticals company, Takeda Chemical Industries, to absorb both partners' food products operations. Kirin owns a 51% interest in the venture and will increase that stake to 100%.
Diversification has taken Kirin into pharmaceuticals and—through sibling Kirin Beverage—into nonalcoholic drinks. In food products, Kirin applies yeast-related technologies in seasonings, dietary supplements and aquaculture feed.
The new venture, Takeda Kirin Foods, began operation this April. It will concentrate initially on seasonings and ingredients for food processors. But management plans to develop business in seasoning products for the consumer market.

Japan's H-IIA rocket, powered largely by engines from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, climbed into space again on February 4. The second successful launch establishes the newly developed rocket as a reliable launch vehicle for large satellites.

That ought to keep the rust off.

Dai Nippon Toryo, a Mitsubishi company that specializes in developing and manufacturing paint, is all over a new Tokyo landmark. The company has supplied exterior coatings for the newly reborn Marunouchi Building (right). That building stood for decades as a symbol of Tokyo's Marunouchi business district--home to numerous Mitsubishi companies. It has given way to a gleaming office building that towers 37 stories high and commands a view of Tokyo Station on one side and the Imperial Palace on the other.
Dai Nippon Toryo supplied an ultradurable coating for the aluminum window frames and weatherproofing for the curtain walls. It also supplied rustproofing for the building's steel framework and enamel for the steel doors.

Shanghai's Jin Mao Tower is one of numerous buildings in China equipped with Mitsubishi Electric elevators.

Japan's largest manufacturer of
elevators and escalators, Mitsubishi Electric, is upgrading its techno-logical and engineering capabilities for elevators in China. This spring, the company will establish a joint venture in Shanghai with a Chinese partner to conduct elevator-related research and development, to manufacture technologically sophisticated components for elevators, and to engineer elevator systems.
   The new company, Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator Engineering & Technology, will reflect Mitsubishi Electric's powerful commitment to the Chinese market. A solid footing there is a pillar of Mitsubishi Electric’s strategy for asserting a position of global leadership in elevators and escalators. Chinese demand for elevators and escalators continues to grow steadily. And the convening of the 2008 Olympic Games in the Middle Kingdom is certain to occasion a building boom there.
   Mitsubishi Electric manufactures elevators and escalators in China through a joint venture with Shanghai Electric (Group) Company. Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator Engineering & Technology is another collaboration with the same partner. Mitsubishi Electric will own 60% of the new venture--including 20% through its subsidiary Mitsubishi Electric Building Techno-Service--and Shanghai Electric (Group) will hold a 40% stake.
   Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator Engineering & Technology will start out with a workforce of about 50 people. Its business plan calls for that number to increase to 170 in 2006. Management plans for the company’s annual sales volume to reach about $20 million by that year.

Makihara (right) addresses the conference.

Mitsubishi Corporation chairman Minoru Makihara led the Japanese delegation to the 38th Japan-U.S. Business Conference. Fifty-four senior executives of U.S. and Japanese corporations attended the conference in Washington, D. C., on February 17 and 18. The theme for the conference was Recovery and Reform in Japan and the United States. Makihara co-chaired the Conference with AT&T CEO Mike Armstrong, who headed the U.S. delegation. A joint statement issued at the end of the conference called on the U.S. and Japanese governments to tackle issues associated with economic reform, corporate governance and the World Trade Organization.

How does it work? Researchers at ZoeGene are trying to find out.

Mitsubishi Chemical has established a subsidiary to translate progress in genetic science into treatments for diseases. The new company, ZoeGene Corporation, will develop pharmaceuticals based on ongoing advances in elucidating the composition and function of genes and proteins.
   ZoeGene occupies laboratories in a Mitsubishi Chemical research institute in Yokohama. It has begun with about 40 researchers and other employees, and management plans for the workforce to grow to 100 by 2007. At that time, they plan for the company to be posting annual sales of about 13.5 billion yen (about $100 million).
   Activity at ZoeGene will focus on studying the structure and function of proteins and on the discovery of pharmacologically promising chemical substances. The company will earn revenues by licensing its research findings to manufacturers of pharmaceuticals.
   Parsing genes involves processing massive amounts of information. So Mitsubishi Chemical is enlisting prominent information technology companies to work with ZoeGene.

Looks just like the real thing.

Mitsubishi Corporation recently began marketing Japan's first professional-quality three-dimensional digital mapping system priced for the mass market. Dubbed DiaMap, the system employs high-quality digital color satellite images down-linked directly from the IKONOS low-orbit satellite and elevation data gathered from airborne laser sensors.
It brings the imaging data to life with virtual reality effects, databases, and networking technology. DiaMap provides users with a 3D, street-level perspective of buildings, roads and other landmarks, and it reproduces city landscapes accurately, including hues and textures. Consumers use the system in car navigation. Commercial and public-sector applications include simulations for real estate development and for other purposes.

Meiji Life, a Mitsubishi company and a pioneer in Japan's life insurance industry, is moving toward integration with another big Japanese life insurer, The Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Company. The two companies announced recently that they will form a business alliance with an eye to merging in April 2004. Joining hands will enable the insurers to pool their expertise and develop a new business model, of which life insurance will be the core.
Both companies emphasize that a final decision on business integration must await further study and consideration. But they also stress that they have reached agreement on the basic direction for the proposed merger.
The courtship between Meiji Life and Yasuda Mutual Life is part of a larger realignment that is under way in Japan's financial services industry. The two insurers are taking part in the industrywide movement toward raising efficiency and streamlining operations.

You need to wait a little longer. It's not in the showrooms -- yet.

A remarkable convertible from Mitsubishi Motors captured attention at this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The show was the world debut for the open-topped version of the automaker's S.U.P. concept model. Mitsubishi Motors unveiled the hardtop S.U.P. at the Tokyo Motor Show in autumn 2001. In Detroit, the company exhibited 3 concept cars, 2 motorsports vehicles, and 13 production models.
S.U.P. stands for Sports Utility Pack. Distinguishing the vehicle is a whole array of leading-edge technology, along with ultramodern styling. Among the technological highlights is a hybrid gasoline/electric powertrain built around an ultraefficient gasoline direct injection engine.

Mitsubishi Motors and DaimlerChrysler began work recently on a new engine plant in Germany. The plant will make gasoline engines for small cars, and the partners plan for production to begin in early 2004.

Mitsubishi Motors and DaimlerChrysler’s NedCar plant (photo) will be the prime customer for the engine plant that is under construction in Germany. The German plant also will ship some of its engines to Mitsubishi Motors vehicle plants in Japan.

This joint project is a very important step in our alliance with DaimlerChrysler," proclaimed Mitsubishi Motors CEO Takashi Sonobe. The German automaker is Mitsubishi Motors' largest shareholder, with a 34% equity stake, and the two companies are strengthening their alliance through a broadening range of collaboration.
   Juergen E. Schrempp, Sonobe's counterpart at DaimlerChrysler, was equally upbeat: "Coming only 21 months after the announcement of our alliance with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, the decision to build the new engine plant in Koelleda is an important milestone in our cooperative efforts with our Japanese partner."

Smart
A highlight of the collaboration extolled by the CEOs is a plan to produce DaimlerChrysler's smart-brand car alongside a similar, Mitsubishi-branded model at the companies' Dutch plant. That plant, NedCar, presently produces the Mitsubishi Carisma.
   Koelleda, the site of the engine plant that Mitsubishi Motors and DaimlerChrysler are building in Germany, is in the state of Thuringia. The plant will have an annual production capacity of up to 300,000 engines annually. About 500 people will work at the plant when it reaches full-scale production.
   To own and operate the plant, Mitsubishi Motors and DaimlerChrysler have established a German joint venture. Each of the partners holds a 50% interest in that venture, which is called MDC Power GmbH.
   The engines manufactured by MDC Power will be state-of-the-art three- and four-cylinder power plants. They will be compatible with the European Union's toughened emissions regulations, which are the most rigorous in the world.

The world's largest shipping company, NYK Line, continues to expand its presence in overland transport. In January, it added a Czech subsidiary to its New Wave Logistics network of trucking and warehouse operations. NYK Line now has 12 logistics subsidiaries in 11 European nations. That includes central European subsidiaries in Hungary and Poland, as well as the Czech Republic.

A leading Japanese think tank, Mitsubishi Research Institute; Japan's largest paper company, Oji Paper Co., Ltd.; and two other partners have begun developing means of monitoring how much carbon forests absorb. Their goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of forestation in keeping carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere. They will use forests in the Australian state of Victoria as their model.

Thai Paraxylene Company Limited, in which Nippon Mitsubishi Oil holds a 39% stake through a Thai subsidiary, has begun shipping paraxylene. That substance is a crucial raw material in polyester. Mitsubishi Oil (now Nippon Mitsubishi Oil) established Thai Paraxylene in 1996, but the Asian currency crisis of 1997 delayed work on the project. The partners finally completed the plant in 2001, and commercial shipments began in January 2002.