Panel Calls for Maintaining NTT Law's Foreign Capital Rule

Tokyo, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)--A special committee of a Japanese government panel said Friday that it is appropriate to maintain the limit on foreign investment in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. under the NTT law.

The view was announced in a report on economic security related to the law approved at a working group meeting of the special committee of the Information and Communications Council, which advises the communications minister.

NTT calls for revising the rule that limits foreign ownership of the telecommunications giant to one-third in terms of voting rights.

But the report said that NTT's fiber-optic networks and utility poles across Japan play a public role in supporting domestic communications infrastructure.

It underlined the importance of eliminating foreign influence from NTT's management and called for introducing a system to regularly check compliance with the foreign investment rule.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]