81.   Thomas said he had reduced his exposure to Hong Kong property companies and raised his stake in Japanese firms, especially consumer loan companies.

82.   This is grim news for a number of Japanese firms that have bet heavily on DVD.

83.   Traders said two or three other Japanese trading firms also could be near failure.

84.   Vice-president Peng said big orders from a Japanese firm are also on the way.

85.   When it comes to making high-quality, mass-produced cars Japanese firms no longer lead the world.

86.   Yet without that, the purchases were even harder to justify, unless the Japanese firms believed that they could run the businesses better than their previous owners did.

87.   Past Japanese development programs have often been criticized for their stringent conditions, especially for requirements that Japanese firms be hired for big parts of any project.

88.   Prosecutors on Wednesday began a criminal investigation into whether a major Japanese pharmaceutical firm was guilty of negligence for selling blood products tainted with AIDS.

89.   A few Japanese firms, such as NEC, have purchased notebooks from Taiwan because of lower prices.

90.   A Japanese firm, Shimizu Corp., already has drawn up blueprints for the first space hotel, complete with artificial gravity in the upper observation deck.