TOKYO: The Childrens Investment Fund Management, the $10 billion British hedge fund, on Friday accused the Japanese government of manipulating public opinion to justify rejecting its bid to double its stake in J-Power.

“This outcome was predetermined,” John Ho, Asia chief of the fund, known as TCI, said at a news conference here. “Even before we applied, the decision to reject us had been made.”

He added: “The recommendation has done Japan a major disservice.”

Japan advised TCI last week to drop its request to buy more J-Power shares, invoking national security for the first time in turning down a bid some investors viewed as a test of its openness to overseas capital. Japan ranked last among major economies as a destination for foreign direct investment from 1997 to 2006, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“The implication of TCI choosing the global arena to fight is an example of the frictions engendered when global capital flows encounter resistance from entrenched local interests,” said Ed Rogers, chief executive of Rogers Investment Advisors. “All of these deals need to be looked at in isolation to determine if the entire Japanese system is truly fighting globalization. I dont believe that to be the case.”

Ho said that the fund was refusing to withdraw the bid to raise its holding in the and that was seeking further talks before a final government decision, which may come by mid-May. “The process has not been fair,” he said.

TCI was not considered on its merits after Japans trade minister and his deputy made public statements opposing the fund during a review of the bid, the fund said Friday. Unidentified ministry officials were “constantly quoted” in local news reports as saying that TCIs application to double its holding in J-Power would be rejected, TCI said.

“Undefined concepts of national security and public order have been used as a pretext to block legitimate investments,” Ho said. The fund said the purpose of ministry leaks was to ensure a negative decision was “a foregone conclusion.”

Shares of J-Power, formally known as Electric Power Development, rose 3.2 percent to close at 3,920, or $37.40.

Increased foreign investment in the utility might threaten the countrys power supply, Japans advisory notice argued. In addition to its nuclear ambitions, J-Power is Japans only producer with plants nationwide, and it runs the sole transmission grid linking all four main islands. Overseas investors hold as much as 40 percent of J-Power, and TCI is the biggest shareholder.

On Wednesday, J-Power won state approval to construct its first nuclear plant, which will be the first in Japan to use recycled fuel. Ho repeated on Friday that TCI had offered to abdicate voting rights involving the nuclear plant to meet security concerns.

Trade Minister Akira Amari this month called TCIs bid “different from other investments by overseas companies” and cited a need to prevent insufficient investment in power transmission networks.

Ho said Japanese officials had “sensationalized the issue by referring to potential blackouts and power shortages, which are unfounded and unprofessional.”

J-Powers 1.77 percent return on assets lags behind the 2.20 percent of Tokyo Electric Power and the 2.16 percent of Kansai Electric Power, which serves the region around Osaka.

TCI this month urged J-Power to increase dividends, name outside directors and spend as much as 70 billion buying back shares that had lost 27 percent of their value in the past year.

The fund dismissed government concerns that steps to raise returns might hinder investment in plants and transmission.

The fund estimates that J-Power spent 68 billion - double its forecast 32 billion profit this year - buying stakes in companies like Nippon Steel. Those investments have yielded a loss of 15 billion, it said.

“This has been great in raising transparency and improving corporate governance in Japan,” said Angus McKinnon, senior partner at Tozai Investment Advisory, a hedge fund adviser based in Tokyo. “Hopefully, it may even wake up the government.” Nippon Steel forecasts profit drop

Nippon Steel has forecast a 41 percent decline in profit because material costs are rising faster than product prices can be increased, Bloomberg News reported Friday from Tokyo.

Net income will probably fall to a five-year low of 210 billion in the year through March 2009 from a record 355 billion in the previous year, the company said.

OCALA, Florida: The actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to a maximum of three years in federal prison on Thursday for three misdemeanor convictions of failure to file his income taxes.

Snipes was also sentenced to one year of supervised release. He remained free Thursday, and will be notified later when he should report to prison.

His lawyer requested a facility not too far from his familys home in New Jersey, and the judge said he would recommend that.

Snipes was convicted by a federal jury on Feb. 1 on three of the lesser charges that he faced and was acquitted on the most serious charges.

The case was the most prominent tax prosecution since the billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley was convicted of tax fraud in 1989. Snipes, who has built a worldwide following acting in films like the “Blade” vampire trilogy, had become an unlikely public face for the tax denier movement, whose members maintain that Americans are not obligated to pay income taxes and that the government extracts taxes from its citizens illegally.

Tax deniers assert variously that the tax laws are valid but do not apply to them, that no law makes anyone liable for taxes and that the government tricks people into paying. Promoters of tax denial claim that people can legally stop paying income taxes by executing certain documents, or by not signing others, like tax returns. Courts have rejected all these arguments.

Thursday, after a day-long hearing, Federal District Judge William Terrell Hodges talked of the importance of deterrence in tax cases and noted that, despite Snipes apology in court, he had a years-long record of defying the tax laws.

No fine was imposed. The judge left that to the civil process.

Snipes was seated as he heard the judges sentence. He had a stoic expression and pursed his lips repeatedly. Later, his wife, Nikki Park, collapsed in tears outside the courtroom.

A member of Snipes legal team said they would appeal.

“We were hoping for a complete acquittal,” a lawyer for Snipes, Linda Moreno, said. “I have faith in the process, and I have faith in the jury system. We will appeal.”

Snipes co-defendants Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile Д who were convicted on two felony counts Д received longer sentences.

Kahn Д who has refused throughout to acknowledge Hodges authority Д was given the maximum sentence of 10 years, plus three years of supervised release.

Rosile was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Snipes was indicted in October 2006 for filing a false claim for a $7 million refund (of taxes paid in 1997, before he stopped paying taxes), and conspiracy with his two co-defendants to defraud the government through that claim, which was not paid.

Since 1986, Snipes has appeared in more than 50 films, earning at least $103 million, court papers showed, including more than $58 million in the years covered by the indictment, 1999 through 2004.

Snipes arrived at the federal courthouse on Thursday in a black sports utility vehicle. Wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie, he walked up the sidewalk with a bit of a slow-but-confident swagger.

As Snipes approached the courthouse door, he was greeted by about 15 photographers and 20 reporters, standing behind yellow crime scene tape with about half a dozen police officers keeping order.

He waved and flashed a peace sign; a reporter yelled a question. Snipes looked at the reporter but did not response. He clasped his hands in front of his face in a prayer-like gesture and bowed his head.

Then he walked into the courthouse.

Who can blame Sony’s (http://www.businessweek.com/ticker/) http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=631152&symbol=SNE for sounding a bit self-congratulatory? Since taking the helm nearly two years ago, the Japanese company’s first gaijin chief executive has ticked off nearly every one of the ambitious targets on his reform checklist for the $71 billion electronics and entertainment giant. With Sony’s profit outlook improving, Stringer’s optimism only seems to echo what financial analysts have been saying about the company for months.

But investors still found plenty of other reasons to criticize Stringer & Co. during Sony’s annual shareholder meeting June 21 at a Tokyo hotel. One vocal shareholder, Koji Morioka, a Kansai University economics professor and founder of nonprofit shareholder activist group Kabunushi Ombudsman, submitted the only proposal that didn’t come from the board of directors.

For the fifth consecutive year, Morioka demanded full disclosure of top executives’ pay and recommended a revision to the company’s articles of incorporation. Unlike many publicly listed U.S. companies, Japanese firms rarely reveal how much individual executives and directors make. Sony is no exception. It has repeatedly expressed opposition to shareholders’ requests for more information. “I’m dissatisfied with the company’s avoidance of this issue,” Morioka told the gathering. He condemned Sony’s “lack of transparency” and attacked its decision to “ignore such a large number of shareholders.” Record-Breaking Forecast

“We think we offer sufficient disclosure,” President http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=2864219&symbol=SNE replied. Morioka’s measure failed to get the two-thirds approval it needed to force the company’s hand, but a growing number of shareholders made it clear that they favor more openness. More than 44% of shareholders supported the proposal, up from 42% last year.

Given Stringer’s record, you would think shareholders shouldn’t have much to gripe about. The Welsh-born U.S. executive has overseen a revival in the core electronics division, which accounts for 70% of overall sales, and has improved companywide profit margins. This fiscal year through March, 2008, Sony has forecast a fivefold rise in operating profits to nearly $3.6 billion on a 6% gain in sales to $71 billion. Its prediction for $2.6 billion in net profit would be the company’s best ever.

The upbeat figures are one reason Sony’s shares have rocketed 26.8% higher this year. “The company remains our top pick in the consumer electronics sector,” Deutsche Bank (http://www.businessweek.com/ticker/) analyst Yasuo Nakane wrote in a June 18 report.

Yet among the questions from Sony’s shareholders were many that reflected skepticism about the turnaround. One investor, who identified himself by his surname, Sakata, called the performance of the Walkman portable music players “shameful” and demanded to know why the Apple (http://www.businessweek.com/ticker/) iPod was dominating a global market that once belonged to Sony. Others were just as harsh: Why is the gaming division losing $1.9 billion if sales are up, and why wasn’t there a fall guy? Why should the yen’s weakness hurt Sony if it’s hedging against such a possibility? If Sony was recovering, why were dividends still so low?