OYAMA, Shizuoka Pref. -- Several corporate executives of Japan's most powerful business lobby voiced concerns Friday over the nation's declining economic status in Asia and called for measures to further stabilize financial and currency exchange systems in the region.

"I think Japan's presence (in Asia) is declining," Yoichi Morishita, president of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., said during a summer seminar of Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) here.

Morishita pointed out that American and European companies are now receiving an increasing number of orders for major infrastructure projects that Japanese companies would have taken in the past.

Norio Oga, chairman of Sony Corp., strongly called for regulations on hedge funds, claiming speculative investors are exerting too much clout in affecting the currency rate.

Oga said a stable currency is a fundamental factor upon which all Japanese corporate activities in Asia are relying.

Sony Corp. suffered a significant decrease in income in the last fiscal year due to fluctuations in the exchange rate.

Fuji Bank Chairman Toru Hashimoto said, "The financial and currency systems of Asian countries have yet to become perfectly sound."

He said those countries are still relying heavily on foreign capital, warning they could be seriously affected by speculative money.