FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1996                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

  JAPANESE FAX PAPER CO. AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY AND PAY $225,000
  CRIMINAL FINE FOR ITS INVOLVEMENT IN A PRICE FIXING CONSPIRACY

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Japanese thermal fax paper producer
has agreed to plead guilty today and pay a $225,000 criminal fine
for its involvement in a fax paper price fixing conspiracy, said
the Department of Justice.
     The charges are part of the Department's ongoing antitrust
investigation into the $120 million a year thermal fax paper
industry.  Thus far, the investigation has resulted in several
individual and corporate guilty pleas, with fines totaling more
than $10 million.  
     Thermal fax paper is used primarily by small businesses and
home fax machine owners who depend on low prices for their office
products.  
     Honshu Paper Co., of Tokyo, Japan, was charged in U.S.
District Court in Boston with participating in a 1991 conspiracy
to increase the price of fax paper sold in the U.S.  During the
conspiracy, Honshu sold about $550,000 of fax paper to U.S.
customers.  
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said, "The Department will continue to
break up international conspiracies that increase the prices for
small U.S. businesses."  Bingaman stated that the charges arose
from a grand jury investigation being conducted by the Antitrust
Division's Litigation I Section in Washington, D.C.  The
investigation is continuing and has been conducted jointly with
Canadian Antitrust authorities. 
     The plea agreement must be approved by the court.  The
government said that Honshu will cooperate with federal
authorities in connection with its ongoing investigation into the
thermal fax paper industry.
     Earlier this week, a Boston grand jury returned two separate
indictments charging three Japanese fax paper executives with
price fixing in connection with a related conspiracy.  Yoshihiro
Kurachi, an executive with Mitsubishi Paper Mills and Noburu
Kurushima, an executive with Kanzaki Paper Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
conspired to fix the price of thermal fax paper sold to
Rittenhouse Inc. of Park Ridge, Illinois.  In a separate
indictment, Koichi Tano, an executive with Kanzaki Paper
Manufacturing Co. Ltd., was charged with meeting with co-
conspirators at the offices of Kanzaki Specialty Papers Inc. of
Tarrytown, New York, and agreeing to increase the prices of fax
paper sold in North America.  These cases are awaiting a trial
date.
     In September 1995, Mitsubishi Paper Mills and New Oji Paper
Co. agreed to plead guilty and settle price fixing charges. 
Mitsubishi Paper Mills agreed to pay $1.8 million and New Oji
Paper agreed to pay $1.75 million in criminal fines.
     Kanzaki Specialty Papers, of Ware, Massachusetts; its former
president, Kazuhiko Watanabe; Mitsubishi International
Corporation, of New York; Mitsubishi Corporation, of Tokyo,
Japan; and Elof Hansson Paper & Board Inc. previously pleaded
guilty to similar price fixing charges.  Kanzaki Specialty Papers
was fined $4.5 million and Watanabe was fined $165,000. 
Mitsubishi Corporation was fined $1.26 million and Mitsubishi
International was fined $450,000.  Elof Hansson was fined
$200,000.
     In December 1995, a Boston grand jury indicted U.S. and
Japanese corporations and individuals for participating in price-
fixing conspiracies.  Jujo Paper Co. Ltd. and Nippon Paper
Industries Co. Ltd., both of Tokyo, Japan, were charged with
participating in a 1990 conspiracy to fix the price of fax paper
sold in North America.  Appleton Papers Inc. of Appleton,
Wisconsin, its vice president of research and development, Jerry
Wallace, and Hirinori Ichida, an executive of Mitsubishi Paper
Mills Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan, were charged with participating in a
1991 conspiracy to fix the price of fax paper sold to customers
in North America.  These charges are pending trial. 
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted under the
Sherman Act is the greatest of a fine of $10 million, twice the
pecuniary gain the corporation derived from the crime, or twice
the pecuniary loss suffered by the victims of the crime.
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