Despite the fact that they assumed their positions of chairman and president respectively only in 1986 – long after Toshiba Machine’s illegal sale of eight milling machines to the Soviet Union, Shoichi Saba and Sugiichiro Watari have resigned their posts atop Toshiba Corp. The sacrifice is intended as a sop to the Americans, where the Senate Tuesday voted 92 to five to bar all Toshiba Corp imports for at least two years (CI No 715). Although it would be some time before any ban could take effect, assessments suggest that it would cost Toshiba between $1,000m and $2,000m a year in US sales, call into question a major agreement under which Motorola gets its own brand memory chips from Toshiba, and also the Grid Systems agreement on the T3100 lap-top. Toshiba suggests it would also threaten its 4,000 US employees.
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