Otago toys no game to Japanese buyers

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 12

Otago toys no game to Japanese buyers

By BRUCE ROSCOE in Tokyo

The Japanese understand when people talk about perfumes fromParis, or cars from Detroit, but when the subject is wooden toys from Otago, they are more than a little puzzled.

But when one 'of the Otago trade mission’s businessmen quietly confided at a New Zealand Embassy reception in Tokyo that he had just concluded a $NZ65,000 deal ’ for wooden toys, the atmosphere suddenly changed. The businessmen spent more than a week in Tokyo and Osaka. “We are not afraid of coming from a small region. As a trade delegation we are not afraid of being small businessmen,” the leader of the mission (Mr R. Wilson) told a gathering of over 50 ing Japanese businessmen who were representing mainly importing and banking concerns. One director of a Japanese trading company said, “You know, I didn’t know where Otago was.- This man is small, but he’s tough. I can understand his sentiment.” Mr Wilson said, “All the doors were open to us, thanks to the assistance of the Japan Chamber of Commerce. Every member of the mission has either a confirmed Order or a trial one. If we came as individuals, we would have gone back emptyhanded.”

At the embassy reception, Mr Wilson managed to entertain as well as educate some very ini fluential men, a consida

erable achievement when the audience, is Japanese businessmen who are known almost equally as well for their lack Of humour as they are for their: quiet aggressiveness. “New Zealand is well known in Japan for having about 20 sheep per head of population. But Otago deserves special consideration. We have at least 60 sheep per person.” Many of the Japanese businessmen could hardly stop laughing.

When he added that Otago also leads New Zealand in exports per head of population, the effect seemed to be as though some of those present had just had a stiff drink.

“In New Zealand, we have enjoyed the social benefits our politician.; have handed out over the years,” Mr Wilson ventured. This time, it was the New Zealand businessmen present who could barely stop laughing.

“But we were concerned that our politicians paid little attention to the South Island and particularly to the Otago region,” he continued/ “We are taking the initiative whenever, possible. We are taking the’ initiative to export.”

To commemorate their visit, the Otago exporters published a book in Japanese. With more than 600 colour photographs on 108 pages, “Sekai e nobiru Otago no yushutsu” (Otago’s expanding exports to the world), introduces New Zealand and more than 56 Otago firms equipped to export their agricultural and finished manufactured products to Japan. It also details the

back-up harbour, airfreight, and banking services to facilitate those exports.

All of the promotion material the mission had prepared was in Japanese, which must have been a refreshing change to Japanese firms which are often plagued with the English language brochures.

. After being in Japan for only six days, the Otago businessman who had sold wooden toys and educational kits for Japanese kindergartens said, “I could go home tomorrow.” However, if he, or other members of the mission are later unable to supply their orders, it might have been better for them to return early. Backing down on confirmed orders from Japanese firms could seriously jeopardise chances of- obtaining future ones.

But that businessman was beaming. "It is a question of manpower, not materials,” he said. “There is plenty of wood.”

Pressed for a negative aspect of the mission, Mr, R. M, Miller, New Zealand’s Ambassador to Japan, said: “The only negative aspect I can suggest is the question why do the Auckland, Canterbury and other regions not get off their backsides and make similar efforts?”