OSAKA (Kyodo) Osaka World Trade Center Building, a private company affiliated with the city, effectively went bankrupt Thursday for the second time in five years.
The Osaka District Court accepted the company's request for protection from creditors under the corporate rehabilitation law and issued a protection order later Thursday.
"The company will apply for the corporate rehabilitation law, with no other choices left because of severe business conditions," Osaka Mayor Kunio Hiramatsu said Thursday.
On March 24, the prefectural assembly rejected Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto's proposal to move the prefectural government's main office to the 55-story WTC Cosmo Tower, the company's landmark office building near the port of Osaka, to save the debt-ridden company.
The company was established in 1989 through investment by the city and companies.
