Nippon Paper Industries Co., agreed to increase its equity of NORPAC (North Pacific Paper Corporation) from 20 to 50 percent to be implemented before the end of this year and signed the basic agreement with Weyerhaeuser who is an equity partner of Norpac.

NORPAC is the joint venture to produce high quality newsprint and publication printing paper to be sold to the major Japanese and U.S. newspaper and magazine publishers from the mill established in 1976 at Longview Washington, Nippon Paper Industries increased its equity share from 10 to 20 percent when the additional capital investment was made to build the No.3 machine in 1989.

Nippon Paper's decision to increase the equity share to 50 percent will reaffirm the outstanding quality evaluation of Norpac products in the world market because of its excellent technical skillfulness, and additionally it will help strengthen a strong business tie with the leading forest company Weyerhaeuser to positively generate Nippon Paper's future activity in the foreign countries to become a world class company.