Fletcher Challenge decides on Japanese-speaking boss

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 5

Fletcher Challenge decides on Japanese-speaking boss

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo The value of using Japan-ese-speaking New Zealanders to conduct business in Japan is “indisputable,” according to Sir James Fletcher, the chairman of Fletcher Challenge Corporation. Sir James, in Tokyo to launch Tasman Pulp and Paper Japan, Ltd, said this had been acknowledged by very senior Japanese representatives of the pulp and paper industry he had met this week. With the exception of the Dairy Board, Tasman Pulp and Paper represents the first New Zealand manufacturing company to establish fully a company in Japan, New Zealand’s biggest export market. It is headed by Mr Phillip Ashenden, a New Zealand specialist in Japanese business who is literate and fluent in Japanese. Many New Zealand businesses are still divided on the merits of posting a Japanese-speaking New Zealander in Japan, some

taking the view that a foreigner’s Japanese language ability can be as much hindrance as help. “I feel very strongly that your Japanese-speaking European has to be verywell spoken.” said Sir James. “If his Japanese were not very good it could be a bit counter-produc-tive." Mr R. E. Parrott, general sales manager for Tasman Pulp and paper, said the decision that the company had reached on the need to have a New Zealander who spoke Japanese as a prime requirement for the job was a very carefully considred one. “We did take into account the alternate view that it was counter-productive, and we don’t believe that,” said Mr Parrott. “We've been received much more warmly and more openly by having someone who spoke and understood their language very well,” said Sir James. “The nuances are so important here. The Japanese expression is not the open, easy-going type of talk we have as New Zealanders. You need to understand what they are saying and what they are not saying and the way in which they are expressing themselves. 'When from time to time they choose to fudge a question you have to understand that it is not a lack of understanding of the question but more a reticance to be totally forthcoming.” Tasman Pulp and Paper this year is expected to ship about 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes of bleached kraft pulp and unbleached pulp to Japan, its second most important market after Australia, for a return of about $7 million. The company’s Japan arm will be studying ways to enter the sensitive Japanese newsprint market, the world’s second biggest after the United States. Sir James saw no threat to the viability of newsprint exports posed by electronic media. “The remarkable thing here is tht 90 per cent of the newspapers are sold on a contract basis where they are delivered night and morning to the homes,” he said.

Japanese had had a service of morning and evening newspaper home deliveries for so many years that Sir James said he did not see any dramatic change in their use. As the cost of paper became more expensive and the quality of newsprint improved there would be a wider market for newsprint because it was still in the lower end of the cost scale of paper. Mr Parrott said that a Canadian Pulp and paper Association committee on electronic media at a meeting about three weeks ago had concluded that the electronic media had made about as much progress as they were going to make. The media were starting to fight among themselves with home computers beginning to compete with television. Sir James did not believe that New Zealand had become too dependent on Japan as a market in the same way that it formerly was heavily dependent on Britain. “A politically stable country such as New Zealand with a good trading record for reliability is valuable to them. We are very good clients of the Japanese; the trade balance is back in their favour.” Sir James said that New Zealand had done a “remarkable job” of moving out of a “virtual straitjacket” of trade with Britain and finding new markets. “The dairy industry is an example. They are not only diversifying markets but diversifying product,” he said. “There is such a high consumer factor in Japan that if we tailor our products in areas such as meat to the market then there is a great opportuity. It is an affluent market and the Japanese are used to paying high prices.” Sir James admitted that Japanese companies appeared still reluctant to take advantage of New Zealand's closer economic relations with Australia by manufacturing in New Zealand for export to Australia. “C.E.R. is pretty new, and there really has not been a lot of time for investment decisions to be made and there may have been some

scepticism about how well C.E.R. would work but on the face of it is working extraordinarily well. “Japanese are somewhat cautious in their overseas investments and there have been more obvious targets than New Zealand for investment.

“Some of the Middle East debacles where they have lost enormous sums of money have somewhat disillusioned Japanese companies about the merits of overseas investments, but it is hoped that is just a passing phase,” Sir James said.