Japan Puts Off NTT Breakup Decision: Ruling...

Japan Puts Off NTT Breakup Decision: Ruling coalition parties announced that it would be difficult to make a decision by the end of March, as originally planned, on whether to break up Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. The next ordinary session of Parliament is scheduled to start in the middle of January. NTT said the postponement won’t hurt its business. In February, a government advisory body recommended that NTT be broken into three parts starting in 1998. The politically powerful NTT has opposed the plan. Japan’s debate over whether to break up NTT began in 1985, when its telecommunications market was liberalized and NTT’s privatization began. Analysts said a final agreement hinges on the outcome of Japan’s next general election, which must be called by July 1997. Japan’s ruling coalition consists of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Socialists and tiny Sakigake Party.