The two telecommunications carriers affiliated with Japan Railways are to merge to create a company with an expanded nationwide long-distance telecom network: the wholly-owned Railway Telecommunications formed in December 1986 when it took over the telecommunications business of the former Japan National Railways, and has since provided service to the privatised Japan Railways group companies, will merge with Telecom Japan, one of the new carriers, which competes with Teleway Japan and Daini denden, and began discount intercity telephone services between Tokyo and Osaka in September 1987, and has since extended service Fukuoka in Kyushu; the new company is budgeting for turnover of $450m this year, and sees it growing to $780m by 1991, and will extend its network to the parts of Japan not yet covered, to the southern-most tips of the islands and to Hokkaido.
