Following establishment of its Los Angeles office (CI No 990), Toyo Information Systems plans within two to three years to have subsidiaries in Hong Kong and London, London being the next to be established, ahead of the European Community Single Market in 1992: one reason for this rush overseas by software companies and other service companies such as consultants is the desire to serve their manufacturing customers who are branching out from Japan in droves to set up plants abroad, and have been expressing dissatisfaction with the standard of service they find that they get from the local companies in their new homes – Japan’s is a hard act to follow, notes our Tokyo correspondent Anita Byrnes.