FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	AT

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1998                                                                                        (202) 616-2771

                                                                                                                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888




JAPANESE CHEMICAL GIANT TO PAY $20 MILLION FINE


Penalties from International Conspiracy Cases


Top $250 Million Mark in One Year





	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a
Japanese corporation,has agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine of
$20 million for participating in an international conspiracy to
fix prices and allocate markets worldwide for an industrial
cleaner called sodium gluconate.  One of the company's
executives, a Japanese citizen, has also agreed to plead guilty
in the deal.

	Today's case, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco,
is the fifth filed in the sodium gluconate industry, and is the
latest in a string of international conspiracy cases filed by the
Department's Antitrust Division over the past year.  These suits
have resulted in fines of over $250 million.

	"Today's case demonstrates the Division's resolve to protect
American consumers from foreign cartels," said Joel I. Klein,
Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's
Antitrust Division.




	Sodium gluconate is used to clean metal and glass, with
applications such as bottle washing, food service and utensil
cleaning, food process equipment cleaning, and paint removal.  It
is a $50 million a year industry worldwide.

	The felony case charges that Fujisawa executives agreed with
the world's other major sodium gluconate-producing firms to
suppress and eliminate competition in the sodium gluconate market
from August of 1993 until June of 1995.

	 Akira Nakao, the Associate Executive Director of Fujisawa's
Chemicals Division, has also agreed to plead guilty and pay a
$200,000 criminal fine for his role in the international sodium
gluconate conspiracy.  Mr. Nakao is a Japanese citizen.

	The Department charged that Nakao met with his co-conspirators to set the prices of sodium gluconate and allocate
the share of the sodium gluconate market that each participating
firm could have.

	"Today's fines demonstrate that the Division places a high 
priority on prosecuting international antitrust crimes that harm
U.S. markets," said Gary R. Spratling, the Antitrust Division's
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement. 	The single-count felony information charges that Fujisawa
and Nakao:

	

  
Agreed to set sodium gluconate prices at certain levels
and to increase prices to the agreed-upon levels.




	  
Agreed to allocate among the corporate conspirators the
market shares of sodium gluconate that each
participating firm could sell.




	  
Issued price announcements and price quotations in
accordance with the agreements.




	  
Participated in meetings and conversations for the
purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the
agreed-upon prices and market shares.




	 As part of their plea agreements, which must be accepted by
the court, Fujisawa and Mr. Nakao have agreed to cooperate in the
ongoing investigation.  The pleading parties have authorized the
government to disclose the basic terms of the plea agreements.

	The case against Fujisawa is the fifth filed by the Justice
Department in its ongoing investigation in the sodium gluconate
industry.  In September, 1997, the Antitrust Division filed cases
against two Dutch companies jointly, Azko Nobel Chemicals BV and
Glucona BV, and two executives of those companies, Cornelis R.
Nederveen and Marcel L. van Eekhout, charging them with
conspiring to fix prices on sodium gluconate.  The companies were
fined a total of $10 million, and the executives each received a
fine of $100,000.  Three months later, similar charges were
jointly filed against a French chemical company, Roquette Freres,
and one of its executives, Bertrand Dufour.  That case resulted
in a $2.5 million fine against the company and a $50,000 fine
against the executive.

	Today's cases are the result of an investigation conducted
by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Francisco and
the San Francisco Field Office of the Antitrust Division.




	Both of the defendants are charged with violating Section 1
of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which carries a maximum fine of $10
million for corporations and a maximum penalty of three years
imprisonment and a $350,000 fine for individuals.  The maximum
fine for both corporations and individuals may be increased to
twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered
by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is
greater than the statutory maximum fine. 

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