Japan and the United States agreed to...

Japan and the United States agreed to restart talks on the opening of the Japanese construction market to U.S. companies, Kyodo News Service said. Kyodo said Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Ryohei Murata and U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo Mike Mansfield reached the accord without fixing a date or venue. Foreign Ministry officials were unavailable to confirm the report. The United States and Japan failed to reach agreement on the issue in Washington on Tuesday. Kyodo said Mansfield conveyed a message from Secretary of State George P. Shultz saying that he hoped both countries would adopt flexible attitudes toward an early solution to the dispute.