1 TOKYO (AP) - Despite scores of complaints from Japanese companies over trademark and copyright infringements in China, Tokyo officials are content to let Washington wield the stick in trade negotiations there.
2 'Our approach to China is not so attacking. It's more cooperative,' says trade official Toshikazu Masuyama.
3 But that doesn't mean Japan is unwilling to reap the benefits of U.S. trade action.
4 'If the U.S. pressures the Chinese government, protection of intellectual property rights will improve worldwide,' Masuyama says, adding that Japan knows the tactics can be effective because they've worked here.
5 U.S. and Chinese officials on Tuesday were to resume last-ditch talks to try to avert a trade war over more than dlrs 1 billion that Washington says U.S. companies lose from illegal Chinese copies of music CDs, computer software and more.
6 Washington has announced more than dlrs 1 billion in sanctions to take effect next Wednesday, and Beijing has promised to match them.
7 Japanese companies have probably lost less than Americans in China -- the government doesn't have a figure -- but the problem is still significant for some of them.
8 Sony Corp.'s music and movie subsidiaries 'are receiving large losses in China' through pirated CDs and movies, says Sony Corp. president Norio Ohga. His and other Japanese companies also lose hundreds of thousands of dollars from sales from falsely labeled and imitated products.
9 A survey of Japanese companies by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1992 found 108 cases of intellectual property violations in China, and officials expect the 1993 figure to be higher when that year's survey is compiled in March.
10 But no matter what the figures, Japanese companies for now, at least, will have to rely on their own efforts in China -- or hope any success Washington has there will help them as well.
11 'The Japanese government isn't doing anything right now,' says Michihiko Fukishima of Hitachi-Maxell Ltd., which has been plagued by fake computer floppy disks in China. 'But recently Chinese have become more cooperative, so we're hopeful.'
12 Japan has no law like the Super 301 provision under which the United States is retaliating against China and so has no legal means to pressure its Asian trade partner.
13 'We don't like unilateral measures. We prefer more of the GATT and WTO (world trade agreement) philosophies,' says Yutaka Kiyokawa, director of the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Office in the trade ministry.
14 'Unilateral action will accelerate retaliation. Then it becomes retaliation, retaliation, retaliation. It's not such a good thing,' he adds.
15 Some analysts say Japanese may be reluctant to pressure China for fear of losing the huge market there and because it doesn't want to be seen as bullying countries it invaded during World War II.
16 Japan had a dlrs 7.47 billion trade deficit with China in 1993, the last year for which figures are available. It imported over dlrs 23 billion worth of goods from China and exported just under dlrs 15.8 billion worth.
17 Chinese intellectual property laws have gotten stronger in recent years, but whether they are enforced is another matter.
18 Sony has asked prosecutors in the southern province of Guangdong to investigate a Zhongshan city factory where it last year found 80,000 counterfeit Sony floppy disks along with 300,000 fake Sony labels.
19 It has also found fake Sony headphones, portable Walkman stereos and color televisions. 'We also have problems with people putting the Sony name on things we do not make, like gas cookers,' says spokeswoman Mika Ishida.
20 Japanese computer game maker Sega believes that a majority of its game software packages in Hong Kong department stores are fakes, and a large portion of those counterfeits were made in China.
21 The Panasonic brand name has appeared on fake consumer electronics products in China, and zipper company YKK Corp. has seen its logo stolen throughout the country.
22 'I would say that 70 percent of products for sale in China are pirated,' says Hong Kong attorney Loo Shih-yann, who represents Sega and Sony.
23 He's taken action for both companies and gotten Chinese authorities to close down some operations through both legal and bureaucratic measures, but he admits it's an uphill battle.
24 'For every factory we find, there could be another 10 out there,' he says. 'One factory ordered to stop, on the left side was making Sega, on the right was Nintendo. I believe they're still making Nintendo products on both sides now.'

TOKYO ( AP ) - Despite scores of complaints from Japanese companies over trademark and copyright infringements in China , Tokyo officials are content to let Washington wield the stick in trade negotiations there .
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Why are they content?