	tokyo bids to stop chip row turning into  war japan is seeking to prevent its computer chips dispute with the u s from erupting into a full scale  war government officials said we hope that the dispute on this specific issue won t have an adverse effect on our overall relationship with the united states a ministry of international  and industry miti official said on friday washington announced plans for as much as mln dlrs in tariffs on japanese electronic goods for tokyo s alleged failure to live up to a bilateral computer chip pact that agreement reached last year after heated negotiations called on japan to stop selling cut price chips in world markets and to buy more american made semiconductors foreign ministry officials immediately tried to isolate the fall out from the dispute by seeking to separate it from prime minister yasuhiro nakasone s planned trip to washington at the end of april while japan has already done about all it can to make sure the chip pact is working the government is studying measures it can take in other fields to defuse american anger and ensure the trip s success they said the perception of japan in the u s congress is very bad one official told reuters we would very much like to do something to respond to that in an apparent effort to prevent the chip dispute from spreading to other areas miti officials sought to depict the u s action as a severe warning to japanese semiconductor makers not to the government faced with a belligerent domestic chip industry and an angry american congress the japanese government has been forced to walk an increasingly fine line in the semiconductor dispute  analysts said they said that it was an open secret that japan s largest chip maker nec corp was not happy with what it viewed as the draconian measures miti was taking to implement the pact included enforced production cuts the angry response of japanese chip makers yesterday to the announcement of the u s tariffs highlighted the difficulties the government faces in taking further action japanese semiconductor manufacturers have complied with the u s japan agreement said shoichi saba chairman of the electronic industries association of japan he accused the u s of being irrational he said the u s action had made the bilateral chip pact meaningless saba s comments contrasted with those of prime minister yasuhiro nakasone who said tokyo wanted to solve the dispute through consultations japan is expected to send a high level official to washington early next month to try to convince the u s not to go ahead with the tariffs on april  analysts say tokyo is likely to outline industry plans to step up purchases of u s chips and to propose a joint investigation into washington s allegations of chip dumping reuter 
