Japanese Software Foundation member reaction to the Foundation announcement was typically supportive. Dr Makoto Endo, a representative of the only truly Japanese company on the panel, Hitachi Ltd – all the others being Japanese subsidiaries of US companies, plus one user, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp said that the Foundation was defining the essential architecture of the 1990s. He was clear that Hitachi would be implementing DCE on its complete range of systems from the workstation level to its supercomputers as part of the functionality of its HI/UX Unix, and incorporating DCE in its proprietary VOS/3 operating systems. Regarding DME, it would also be positioned within Hitachi’s product plan. Companies such as Digital Equipment Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co blew their own trumpets as suppliers of the key bits of DME technology. Dr Fukuya Ishino, associate vice-president of NTT Network Information Systems Labs was rather untypically outspoken, on two points in particular: while it appeared that Japanese companies had contributed some funding to the latest Foundation Request for Technology, none had submitted technology, which he found disappointing; secondly, the Foundation specification needed more work on a transaction processing specification – Unix still needs revision to its basics to make true multivendor computing a reality. Nippon Telegraph and NTT Data earlier this year announced that the Distributed Computing Environment, Remote Procedure Call and Motif were to be key specifications in their Multi-vendor Integration Architecture, conformance to which is mandated for the phone company’s procurement of general purpose computers. Other Japanese Foundation member companies that issued statements in support of the general release of DCE includ ed ASCII Corp, Sumitomo Electric Co, and Sony Corp. of prospective licencees for its technology. This week in the Japan Times it is advertising for an executive of client services whose main responsibility would be the execution of licensing agreements and handling of legal licensing questions. In preparation for the introduction of a full Pacific Rim support services in 1992, the Foundation is also seeking applications for a manager of software support and education services. Salary is not disclosed. – Anita Byrnes