Osaka consulate temporary

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 36

Osaka consulate temporary

The New Zealand Government has made a yearahead booking to get the best site in Osaka for its first combined Government consulate-commercial centre in Japan’s second city. Because the building under construction in central Osaka will not open until December, 1986, the consulate-general opened on Thursday in a temporary office. However the official opener, the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, man-, aged to disguise that fact by holding the ceremony in the city’s swankest hotel, the Royal, in the presence of 500 of Japan’s top Government and business executives.

Guests dined on New Zealand crab, venison and kiwifruit pie, flown in by courtesy of Air New Zealand, as the Mayor of Osaka, Mr Yasushi Oshima, and the prefectural governor, Mr

Sakae Kishi, congratulated the Lange Government on its commercial sense.

The new consul-general, Mr Michael Lear, aged 38, said he had no doubt about the fitness in bringing Government services to Osaka in a one-year-only office until the permanent centre opens. “Osaka is growing so rapidly we had to take advantage of this opportunity,” said the former trade commissioner at the Tokyo embassy. “Canada and Italy have opened consulates here recently. Austria has opened a trade commission. The United States is building a regional centre. “Foreign banks are moving here in big numbers, preparing for the commercial funding of a $4O billion international airport to be built on a man-made island in Osaka Bay.” Rather than delay a year, Wellington agreed with ad-

vice from its Ambassador to Tokyo, Mr Roger Perrin, to be in the forefront of the foreign influx and rent temporary premises. The consulate-commer-cial centre concept will work on a limited scale at these premises in the Kokusai Building in east Osaka.

Two companies, Air New Zealand and Lambsfur, Ltd, have leased office space near the consulate. The business they do will prove valuable in the opening of New Zealand’s first combined centre overseas in early 1987. Mr Lear says trade inquiries already suggest there will be no difficulty attracting New Zealand corporate tenants to the permanent site.

“We already have three definite starters and one probable,” he said. “That leaves space for one or two more potentials.” The foreign rush to Osaka

matches Japan’s own rediscovery of the biggest city in Kansai, the region south-west of Tokyo that includes the ancient capital, Kyoto, and Kobe, one of the orignal Japanese entry ports to foreigners. Kansai, traditional rival of Kanto (around Tokyo), is determined to catch up with the eastern capital city with multi-billion dollar projects. The opening of the international airport on a manmade island in 1993 is expected to coincide with direct flights between Osaka and Christchurch. This will stimulate trade opportunities for New Zealand exporters. Osaka and Kobe already handle 25 per cent of meat imports from New Zealand (or 12,000 tonnes), 35 per cent of fish imports, 25 per cent of dairy products, 65 per cent of vegetables, and 40 per cent of the fruit.

Headquarters for major Japanese manufacturers — Matsushita (makers of National and Technics) and Sanyo electronics are a couple •— Osaka offers a vast manufacturing base for New Zealand raw materials. But because most New Zealanders fly into Tokyo and too few get far beyond, Osaka area’s potential goes begging. On-the-spot advice by Japanese-fluent Mike Lear and his staff, backed by New Zealand companies preparing to support the Lange Government move, should now change that. “We are open for business and raring to go,” says Mr Lear. His address: Osaka Kokusai Building, 30-Azuchi-machi-2 chome, Higashi-ku, Osaka. Telephone 06-271-2451. — Copyright, NZ Japan News.