	cable unimpressed by new japanese telecoms offer cable and wireless plc cawl l said new proposals unveiled by japan for it to become a core member of a merged telecommunications firm to compete for telecommunications contracts did not remove the group s objections the suggestions by federation of economic organisations official fumio watanabe was a formal announcement of proposals made earlier this week and reported in the japanese press cable has a pct stake in one of the two groups trying to compete against japan s kokusai denshin denwa co ltd which monopolises japan s overseas telephone business but a cable spokesman said it still believed a merger of the two consortia would be impracticable they are like oil and water he said the japanese authorities want only one competitor and have proposed that the two consortia band together the issue has been taken up by the british government as a test case on the openness of japanese markets watanabe s latest proposals said that the eight core companies of the new group should have equal share holdings but added that they could work out the precise percentages amongst themselves the reports earlier this week said that cable would be offered a five pct stake up from an originally proposed three pct despite the apparent differences in stakes offered the cable spokesman said the two offers appeared to be essentially the same cable shares at gmt were quoted nine pence firmer at p reuter 
