Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi on Thursday asked visiting U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta to attend an international conference of land ministers in Japan next January, ministry officials said.

Mineta, the transportation secretary-designate in the nascent George W. Bush administration, reportedly did not give Ogi a definite answer.

Japan will invite representatives from more than 10 countries to the conference to discuss three issues: Prevention of maritime pollution, urban transportation and the environment, and the development and proliferation of environment-friendly automobiles. Mineta meanwhile reiterated the U.S. government's request to resume bilateral review meetings regarding Japan's 1994 Action Plan to improve its public works bidding system or to create an official mechanism to replace it, the officials said.

Ogi rejected the proposal, stressing that the Diet has enacted a law to enhance transparency in the public works bidding system. The law will take effect in April.

U.S.-Japanese construction review meetings, which have been held on a regular basis for the past five years, were discontinued after the bilateral agreement expired March 31.

Japan has argued that further bilateral talks on the issue are no longer necessary because it has done everything it promised to do in the action plan and because a multinational World Trade Organization agreement over government procurement went into effect in 1996.

IWC workshop eyed

U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta agreed Wednesday with Yoshio Yatsu, the agricultural, forestry and fisheries minister, that the two governments jointly propose a workshop at the Science Committee of the International Whaling Commission on Japan's research whaling.

Japan and the U.S. will make the proposal at the IWC annual meeting to be held in July in London so that the workshop can be held by summer 2002, a Japanese official said.

Last September, Mineta recommended that President Bill Clinton impose trade sanctions on Japan after Tokyo decided to include in its whaling program two species protected under U.S. law.

Clinton said in late December that Washington will keep the Japanese whaling program under surveillance and left the sanctions decision to the incoming administration of George W. Bush.

Mineta on auto trade

U.S. Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta said Thursday in Tokyo that trade tensions may flare up once more if Japan continues to refuse to sign a new bilateral agreement to increase American auto and auto parts exports, as they did in recent ministerial-level talks.

"Unfortunately, this sector accounts for well over half our bilateral trade deficit," Mineta said.

"And with the auto sector slowing in the U.S., we do not want to see an impasse or friction in this sector. But that could well happen," he said.

Mineta spoke to the press after holding discussions with Japan's ministers for trade, land, and forestry and fisheries.

Mineta also suggested to the press that Japan should strive to attract foreign investors and promote competition in the telecom market in order to revive its ailing economy.

"In effect, the de facto monopoly of Japan's local telecom market -- combined with a weak and ineffective regulatory system -- significantly dampens incentives for Japanese entrepreneurs to develop a web-based economy," he said.

Asked for comments on concerns that the recent fall in the yen's value could trigger further trade friction, Mineta said more attention should be paid to structural trade issues than to currency fluctuations.