Hitachi Cancels Microchips Ad to Avoid Fanning U.S. Friction

TOKYO — Japanese computer giant Hitachi has abandoned plans for an advertising blitz promoting itself as a future leader in microchips, partly due to fears of fanning trade friction with the United States, the company said today.

Hitachi ran an advertisement for four-megabit dynamic random access memory chips in a July issue of industry magazine Nikkei Electronics but canceled plans to run it in daily newspapers and other journals.

“We decided it was too sensational,” the spokesman said.

He declined to comment on a report in the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun that the Ministry of International Trade and Industry had advised Hitachi to give up the campaign. Ministry officials were not available for comment.

“In discussions (of whether to run the advertisement), some suggested it would irritate the U.S., where people already fear Japan is leading in technology,” the Hitachi spokesman said.

“But we also considered the domestic reaction. All makers are trying hard to move to mass production, and it was odd to have a sensational ad which didn’t have specific content.”