FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1995                        (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

TWO JAPANESE FAX PAPER COMPANIES AGREE TO PAY FINES TOTALING MORE
           THAN $3.5 MILLION FOR THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN A
                     PRICE FIXING CONSPIRACY

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two Japanese paper companies, Mitsubishi
Paper Mills Ltd. and New Oji Paper Co. Ltd., have agreed to plead
guilty today and have agreed to pay fines totalling more than
$3.5 million for their involvement in a fax paper price fixing
conspiracy, said the Department of Justice.
     Today's charges are part of the Department's ongoing
antitrust investigation into international cartel practices in
the $120 million a year thermal fax paper industry, which has
resulted in several guilty pleas.  Today's plea agreements, which
must be approved by the court, will bring total fines in the
investigation to more than $10 million.  
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said, "This prosecution shows that the
Department will not tolerate price fixing by either domestic or
foreign firms.  Conspiracies to raise prices to American
consumers will be vigorously prosecuted wherever it takes place
and whoever is involved." 
     In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, the
Department charged that Mitsubishi Paper Mills located in Tokyo,
Japan, and New Oji Paper Co., also of Tokyo, conspired with
others to fix and raise the prices of thermal fax paper sold in
the United States between July 1991 and early 1992.  
     The Department charged that the defendants and co-conspirators, 
through a series of meetings and telephone
communications, agreed to charge higher prices to thermal fax
paper customers in the United States.  The price fixing
conspiracy raised prices to U.S. consumers by approximately
10 percent.  Thermal fax paper is used primarily by small
businesses and home fax machine owners who depend on low prices
for office products.
     During the conspiracy, Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd. sold
approximately $4.8 million of fax paper to customers in the
United States.  It has agreed to pay a $1.8 million criminal
fine.
     New Oji Paper Co. Ltd. was formed in October 1993 when Oji
Paper Co. Ltd. merged with Kanzaki Paper Manufacturing Co. Ltd. 
During the conspiracy, Kanzaki Paper Manufacturing and Oji Paper
Co. sold approximately $40 million and $8 million, respectively,
of fax paper to customers in the United States.  It has agreed to
pay a $1.75 million fine.     
     In July 1994, Kanzaki Specialty Papers, of Ware,
Massachusetts, its former president, Kazuhiko Watanabe,
Mitsubishi International Corporation, of New York, and Mitsubishi
Corporation, of Tokyo, Japan, pleaded guilty to similar charges
and paid fines totalling approximately $6.5 million.  Elof
Hansson Paper & Board Inc., a New York based importer of thermal
fax paper, pleaded guilty to similar price fixing charges earlier
this year. 
     Bingaman stated that the charges arose from a grand jury
investigation conducted by the Antitrust Division's Litigation II
in Washington, D.C., and was assisted by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's office in Boston.  The investigation is
continuing and has been conducted jointly with Canadian Antitrust
authorities.  
     Both firms also agreed to cooperate in the Department's
ongoing investigation.  
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted under the
Sherman Act is a fine of $10 million, twice the pecuniary gain
the corporation derived from the crime, or twice the pecuniary
loss suffered by the victims of the crime, whichever is greater.
     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted under the
Sherman Act is a period of incarceration of three years and the
greatest of a $350,000 fine, twice the gross pecuniary gain the
individual derived from the crime, or twice the gross pecuniary
loss caused to the victims of the crime.
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95-501