Visit To Japan By Mr Nash Had Limited Value

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28835, 4 March 1959, Page 11

Visit To Japan By Mr Nash Had Limited Value

[From the Tokyo correspondent of “The Press.]

TOKYO, February 27. In his only prepared speech during his eight-day tour of Japan, the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Nash said: “My visit had no dramatic objectives; it will have no dramatic consequences.” Summing up the result of his tour, Japanese might well ask why he used the word “dramatic?’ They were very impressed with his vigour and enthusiasm, but wondered what the trip was all about.

Ostensibly it was reported, and affirmed by Mr Nash on his arrival in Tokyo, that the expansion of trade would be “one of the most important subjects I hope to discuss.” From the outset, however, he took the rigid stand that New Zealand would make no concessions on import restrictions now in force and maintained this stand unflinchingly—adding that the Japanese should take care not to imperil the position of New Zealand’s domestic industries—throughout his talks with the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Nobusuke Kishi, the Foreign Minister, Mr Aiichiro Fujiyama, and the Minister of Trade. Mr Tatsunosuke Takasaki. At the same time he bombarded the Japanese with enthusiastic reports on the prospects for New Zealand coal and timber.

Exchange of Views As a result of these tactics, the “discussions” developed, so far as could be ascertained, into an “exchange of views.” Mr Nash his views, the Japanese theirs, with neither party willing or able to come down to the give and take of negotiation. The Japanese were clearly disappointed while the prospects for New Zealand’s coal, timber, and other produce cannot be said to have been greatly enhanced. All the talks were conducted in a friendly atmosphere and were, if nothing else, conducive of goodwill, which may or may not pay off in the future. Apart from trade, there were no other outstanding issues between the two countries requiring negotiation or settlement The Japanese concurred with Mr Nash’s views on the recognition of Communist China, except that in their case the consequences to be weighed before acting were the loss of American and Nationalist Chinese goodwill and trade.

Unbalanced In his contacts with businessmen and industrialists, Mr Nash was confronted with representatives of the big combines and more advanced plants. This had, of course, been arranged to impress him, but the impression it gave of Japanese industry was for that reason unbalanced. New Zealand’s exports to Japan pass through the hands of the big trading houses and go mainly to large-scale industry but most of the Japanese goods New Zealand imports come from small and medium-sized producers. The Nihon Koku steel mill in Tokyo was included in the itinerary partly as an example of heavy industry and partly because the company is interested in New Zealand. Technicians at the mill were able to show Mr Nash some samples of blast furnace coke made from a test mixture of Japanese, American and New Zealand coals. This was one bf the first tests completed with trial shipments of New Zealand coking coal and Mr Nash was told it had been found “very satisfactory.” The other plants inspected, the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Suminoe carpet works, the Nippon Felt Company, and the Jujo paper mills, were other examples of plants shown because of their prestige value or because of the fact that they were using materials imported from New Zealand.

In spite of his interest in department store prices in Osaka and Tokyo, 'Mr Nash was, it appeared to this correspondent, effectively prevented by a wellorganised tour schedule and a screen of diplomatic protocol, from making any contact with either the workers or the actual manufacturers supplying New Zealand.

It was surprising also that Mr Nash, as an ardent labour leader, was not given an opportunity to meet—except at a formal recep--1 tion—Japanese labour leaders. . Trade union leaders in Japan and

members of the affiliated Socialist Party are in fact mostly left-wing doctrinaire socialists or Marxists, but not so vastly different from the New Zealand Labour Party in the early ’thirties. “Remarkably Energetic” On the credit side, Mr Nash made a popular impression in Japan as a “remarkably energetic old man” who made his “junior” counterpart (the 62-year-old Japanese Prime Minister) look old and feeble. Until Mr Nash outlasted him, Mr Kishi had prided himself on being the most youthful and most energetic Prime Minister of recent times. Yet, after talks in a mountain resort hotel which went on well after midnight, Mr Nash went for a walk up the mountain and had left the hotel in the morning before Mr Kishi and Mr Fujiyama were even awake. Since then, Japanese newspaper and radio commentators,, who are mostly anti-Kishi, have been having fun at Mr Kishi’s expense, suggesting that he study Mr Nash’s diet and live a clean life—a slighting reference to allegations that Mr Kishi has been involved in scandals concerning State funds. In addition, to a reputation for boundless energy, Mr Nash has also been held up in Japan as a paragon of political virtue, of “shushin” as the Japanese call it, while one Japanese university professor, who recently visited Australia and New Zealand, remarked that it would be a good idea to exchange Prime Ministers for a year—to have Mr Nash clean up Japanese politics and send Mr Kishi to New Zealand for “shushin” lessons.

Serious comment on Mr Nash’s visit and views were however conspicuously absent from the vernacular press. The only leading article was run by the English language “Japan Times,” a small daily which often represents the views of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The big Japanese language dailies ran only reports of his arrival and activities and brief outlines of his background and politics. Altogether, Mr Nash completed a very full schedule and saw a tremendous amount of Japan in the eight days he was here. He will undoubtedly be able to conduct New Zealand’s policies towards Japan with a better understanding of the post-war Japanese than hitherto, but it was disappointing that he was not able to give the Japan-New Zealand trade the stimulus it needs to make it really profitable to all parties concerned.