The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1967. Mr Sato’s Visit

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 12

The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1967. Mr Sato’s Visit

Mr Eisaku Sato, who will arrive in Christchurch today, is the fourth Japanese Prime Minister to visit New Zealand in ten years. His visit is ceremonial rather than specific: he will have no more than an hour with the Cabinet during his three days in New Zealand. Mr Sato is here to show the flag rather than to do business; to emphasise that Japan sees its destiny in the Pacific as well as in Asia.

Japan’s relations with other Pacific Powers differ in several significant respects from New Zealand’s. New Zealand is an ally of South Vietnam, Japan is a “ friendly neutral ”, After his visit to Australia and New Zealand Mr Sato will visit South Vietnam, and Taiwan —against the wishes of many Japanese. These visits, he said in an interview on the eve of his departure, would raise no problems so long as he “stuck to the principle of non-intervention in other “ nations’ affairs ”. The “ principle of non-interven-“tion” guides Japanese policy in all its foreign relations. Yet Mr Sato believes that his visits to Australia and New Zealand are part of his job in “ guiding Asia jointly with the leaders of those two “ countries

It is apparent from the rapid development of trade between Japan and Australia and New Zealand that Mr Sato certainly does not regard commercial ties as “intervention in other nations’ affairs” and that the kind of joint guidance he envisages is closely bound up with trade. A Japanese professor of economics has aroused the interest of academic and business circles in his examination of the consequences of a Pacific trade area. If the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand eliminated all tariffs against each other, according to these calculations, trade among these countries would increase by $NZ2273 million a year, and Japan, with a net gain of $442 million in export income, would be the main beneficiary. The Pacific Free Trade Area proposal is not, at this stage, likely to become a popular movement in any of the five countries mentioned; but it cannot be ignored as a possible long-term counter to trading blocs elsewhere, particularly if Britain and the other members of the European Free Trade Area join the European Economic Community. Mr Sato’s mission to New Zealand is not to “ sell ” this proposal to the New Zealand Government; he will be satisfied with his visit, no doubt, if he stimulates New Zealand awareness of Japan as a partner in the Pacific—in all senses except the military. New Zealand has much to gain from a closer association with Japan, and we would be the poorer if we confined the association to commercial ties.