Tokyo post important

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32678, 6 August 1971, Page 3

Tokyo post important

(N.Z.PA. Staff. Correspondent). TOKYO, August 4. The next New Zealand Ambassador to Japan will take iip his post early next year:at a vital stage in the development of relations between the two countries. New Zealanders in Tokyo who are playing the “diplomatic succession; guessing game,” believe the new man will find himself in one of the most challenging, and potentially most satisfying, jobs in the diplomatic service. Members of the New Zealand community hope the Government will continue its recent policy of appointing men among its most senior and experienced career diplomats to the post. This would also be warmly welcomed by the Japanese as evidence of New Zealand’s growing inter-

est in Japan and its developing involvement in the AsianPacific region; The present Ambassador, Mr R. H. Wade,, formerly High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur, Deputy High Commissioner in London and director of the Colombo Plan Bureau, will leave Tokyo at the end of the year. He has been appointed Deputy Sec-retary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. His predecessor in Tokyo Mr J. V. Scott, is now New Zealand’s permanent representative at the United Nations. The new ambassador will arrive in Tokyo when New Zealand-Japan trade and political relations are entering a new stage. The recent rapid rise in New Zealand exports to Japan—l 9 to 20 per cent a year—was checked to about 10 per cent in 1970, and ob-

servers predict a period of consolidation rather than great expansion. At the same time, longterm prospects for New Zealand primary produce, especially dairy goods, appear better now than at any time in the past. Japanese Government officials are talking freely of increased dairy imports, but there could be long and detailed negotiations as Japan wrestles with the problem of restructuring its agricultural industry.

The new Ambassador will obviously have a major role in keeping New Zealand’s interests in front of the Japanese, while carefully watching all developments. Politically, there are signs that Japan, long a solid follower of American foreign policy, is about to adopt a more independent attitude on world affairs. In doing this, she will establish new relationships. and seek to strengthen existing ties.