Japan in for more foreign direct investment

Tokyo

NEGOTIATIONS seen as critical to the future of Japan's Sharp Corporation and of the country's ailing electronics industry paused with the outcome still uncertain last Friday. But the entry of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industries into the bidding for control of Sharp points to major changes in the key sector, analysts say.

Terry Gou, chairman of Hon Hai (also known as the Foxconn Technology Group), claimed after flying to Japan for eight hours of talks with Sharp's top management that "we are 90 per cent there", in gaining control of the Osaka-based electronics giant, and that he hoped to see the deal completed by the end of this month.

Sharp's president Kozo Takahashi said meanwhile that his company is focusing more on talks with Hon Hai than with the state-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Jap…