(Adds details about accident, Schindler chairman)
ZURICH, April 5 (Reuters) - Elevator maker Schindler is selling its Japanese business to United Technologies' Otis unit after its new installations in the country were halted following a 2006 accident.
It gave no financial terms in a statement on Tuesday.
Following the sale to Otis Japan, Swiss-based Schindler said that it planned to remain in Japan to "meet its legal and societal obligations with respect to ongoing legal cases".
A 16-year-old boy died in June 2006 in an accident in a Schindler elevator installed in a Tokyo government housing project. Schindler contended that a third-party company was responsible for maintenance on the elevator, and Chairman Alfred Schindler has complained the company was the victim of a "witch hunt" that resulted in a collapse of business in the country.
Before the accident, Schindler had a roughly 1 percent share of the Japanese market.
"Schindler has based this strategic decision on its historically small overall market share and its withdrawal from the new installation elevator market 10 years ago," the company said in its statement.
Last year, a Schindler elevator service technician was cleared of wrongdoing in the 2006 accident by a Tokyo District Court.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)