The United States urged Japan on Tuesday to make appropriate preparations, in terms of taxes and qualifying securities, for introducing easier conditions next May for facilitating mergers and acquisitions.
"The question of what kind of stock can be used, and most particularly, the question of tax exemption, is probably the two major issues that we are looking at along with several others," said Michael Michalak, U.S. ambassador to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Michalak, of the State Department's East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, met with Japanese officials on investment during a bilateral working group meeting Monday in Tokyo after the APEC trade ministers' meeting in Ho Chi Minh City last week.