TAIZO NISHIMURO, Vice Chairman, Toshiba America Inc.

Perhaps a dozen of the 160,000 employees at Toshiba Corp. have as much international business experience as Taizo Nishimuro, who has worked overseas for the electronics firm since 1965. Since July 1, the 56-year-old Nishimuro has worked in Irvine to coordinate communications between Tokyo and Toshiba’s three Orange County divisions: Toshiba America Information Systems, Toshiba America Medical Systems, and Toshiba America Electronic Components. He spoke recently with Times staff writer Dean Takahashi.What are your main duties here?

My main duties are a kind of general management consultation. I consult with Japanese management, mostly the presidents of our five (subsidiary) companies here in the United States. I’m also a consultant to the American management, advising on how to deal with Japanese management, how to get more resources allocated to the operations here.

Is one of your purposes also to improve the cooperation between the management in the United States and the management in Japan? Have you had problems with it before?

Always, if you have two or three teams of people in different locations, there are communication difficulties. We always need to enhance it. One of the purposes I am here for is to enhance the communication with Tokyo, and with our U.S. parent company in New York.

Is there a need to enhance the manufacturing operation in the United States?

We are trying to do that, although at this moment it is true that we have streamlined our manufacturing in Irvine and were forced to reduce our manpower. I think that despite this economic situation that we are saddled with, we are ready to come back. We are always trying hard to increase the percentage of U.S.-made components. It makes the turnaround time shorter if we can secure good U.S. sources.

What are the product lines that will be most crucial in the comeback?

What we have to do is strengthen where our strengths are. In personal computers, we had a large market share, and people still remember that. We have credibility among customers. That is an area where we will strengthen. Another strong area is in copying machines. We are gradually increasing our market share in other areas. In the United States, the semiconductor industry has been amazingly stable since the beginning of the year, in contrast with the unfavorable market in Japan. It has shown evidence of a comeback already.

You have helped Toshiba Corp. form a lot of alliances, such as with Apple Computer Inc. to produce new hand-held computers, and IBM-Siemens to produce advanced memory chips. And Toshiba has invested in Time Warner to develop new cable technologies. Why so many ventures?

We are advocating that it is necessary for us to be competitive, cooperative and complementary. We are proud of our technology and capabilities. But we are at the same time able to refrain from having too much self-confidence that we can do anything by ourselves. We would rather feel humble sometimes.

These alliances seem so ambitious. How did you come to decide that they should be undertaken now, especially in light of previous alliances in the industry that have failed?

The projects would require too large a commitment of resources for any individual company to complete them. Each could do it on its own, but we have to spend a tremendous amount of money. For the memory chip project, we would have to spend $1 billion. Fortunately, we’ve had relationships with the companies before.

These alliances seem to suggest that big technology is going to dominate in the future at the expense of garage-style entrepreneurial technology. Is that going to be the trend?

I have mixed feelings about that. It is true that there are huge amounts of resources that are necessary. That is one part of technology that has to be funded. But always, where there are geniuses, (they) can find the way to create. The United States has very good potential in the future because of this tradition of pioneering spirit.

When Sony Corp. went into the entertainment business with its purchase of Columbia Pictures, the company said it wanted to find synergies between its “hardware,” or electronics business, and the “software” entertainment business. Do you have the same strategy in teaming with Time Warner?

We have a different strategy. With Time Warner, there are various differences from the Sony deal. First, they bought the whole company. We are not buying it out. We are only participating in their business with an investment because we are not trying to spoil its creativity. And Sony’s investment was film-oriented software. With Time Warner, it was the cable-TV operation that drew us. It provides an opportunity for Toshiba as an electronics company to go into multimedia computing.

Will manufacturing operations remain in California, or will the North American Free Trade Agreement lure you south?

One thing (that is) very clear is we have determined to stay here. On NAFTA, we do have our maquiladora operations for consumer products in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. We could use that operation more. But we believe in quality of labor and access to technology, Southern California is one of the best areas.

Japan-bashing was at a fever pitch in the spring and it seems to have died down a little.

I cannot be optimistic about this. Fortunately, both candidates in the presidential election are not making an issue about it. Dialogue is essential, but during this year the government dialogue has disappeared in the election year. There is a kind of a leadership vacuum, and in the vacuum, anything can happen. It looks like it died down, but I’m not that optimistic because sometimes somebody can come into the vacuum and start a fire.

On Toshiba’s research and development in Irvine. . .

“Unfortunately, it has been curtailed a little, but we try to maintain our research and development out here. Under these general circumstances, we unfortunately cannot say we are pouring a lavish amount of money into it.”

On moving to the Los Angeles region after the 1965

riots . . .

“My first assignment was in 1965, right after Watts and other riots. I’m not so much concerned about the ability of Americans to harmonize whatever has happened, even though you really cannot go back to old ways.”

On Toshiba’s strategy of manufacturing in local markets . . .

“We are determined to stay here, and we are determined to expand as a U.S. company in the United States.”