Mixed reviews back home for U.S. visit

Press, 4 September 1989, Page 10

Mixed reviews back home for U.S. visit

NZPA-Reuter Tokyo Japan’s Prime Minister, Toshiki Kaifu, received mixed reviews from his country’s press yesterday for his performance during his first trip to Washington. Mr Kaifu was counting on a good performance in Washington to boost the fortunes of his fledgling administration and distract public attention from a series of sex scandals that have rocked the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (L.D.P.). “It was evident they (the L.D.P.) wanted to create a new positive! image of Kaifu’s Cabinet (in Japan) through' his visit to the United States, his first political show,” the Japanese daily “Asahi Shimbun” said.

The “Asahi,” Japan’s most progressive newspaper, gave Mr Kaifu high marks for his performance in Washington, saying the Premier, aged 58, did better than many of his older predecessors.

Mr Kaifu leaves the United States today for Mexico and Canada before returning to Japan on September 10.

After a 90-minute meeting with Mr Kaifu on

Friday, the United States President, George Bush, said Japan agreed to become an “import super-Power” to help cut its troubling trade surplus with the United States. The conservative news- , papers “Yomiuri Shimbun” and “Sankei Shimbun” praised Mr Kaifu for confirming the importance of United StatesJapan relations after months of political uncertainty in Japan. But other newspapers were not so complimen-

tary about the new premier, who took office three weeks ago after his scandal-plagued predecessor resigned to take responsibility for the L-D.P.’s defeat in elections for Parliament’s Upper House. The biggest financial daily, “Nikkei Shimbun,’’ criticised Mr Kaifu for failing to discuss fundamental economic problems more thoroughly when he met Mr Bush. “It is most important for Japan to counter the emerging conception in the United States that the interests of the two countries basically diverge,” it said. Political analysts said Mr Kaifu’s political future and that of the L.D.P. depended on the Premier’s performance at home and abroad ahead of Lower House elections that must be held before July next year. They said the L.D.P. could lose its Lower House majority and the premiership for the first time in its 34-year history if Mr Kaifu could not convince the voters that he can manage relations with the United States and clean up domestic politics.