TRADE WITH JAPAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20743, 10 December 1930, Page 14

TRADE WITH JAPAN.

GROWING OPPORTUNITIES.

WOOL AND BUTTER MARKETS.

VISIT OF CONSUL-GENERAL. ,The Consul-General of Japan for Australia and New Zealand, Mr. Ko'jiro Inoue, whose headquarters are in Sydney, arrived by the Uliniaroa yesterday. He is proceeding to Wellington to pay his respects to the Government. Mr. Inoue, who received his appointment a year ago, stated that' he had been unable to visit the Dominion earlier owing to pressure of business in the Commonwealth. He hoped his visit would do something to stimulate trade activities between New Zealand and Japan and cement still further the existing bonds of friendship botween the two countries. "New Zealand should be interested in the rapidity with which our standards of living are changing in Japan," said Mr. Inoue. "There is an increasing demand, for instance, for European clothes and that means the importation of increasing quantities of Now Zealand wool. Already 70 per cent, of our imports from New Zealand consist of wool. Our people are regularly adopting European clothes for their work, although I know that when they go back to their homes in the evening they usually change back into the kimono. However, everything is pointing to an increasingly large consumption of wool. You mus.t also remember the Chinese market. The Chinese people have certainly not used much wool so far, but the climate, which in parts is very cold in winter, lends itself to a fashion in European clothes and the habits of the people are bound to change bit by bit." Speaking of Japan's importations of New Zealand butter, Mr. Inoue said that statistics showed that after the signing of the trade agreement between the Dominion and Japan two years ago butter imports had trebled. New Zealand had received the benefit of a reduction in the import duty. "Thero is a great potential market for New Zealand butter in Japan," he said. "It all depends on how tastes change in the country districts, which have not become Europeanised to the same extent as the cities and towns. Once the rural centres go the way of the cities there wRI bo a wonderful market for your butter."

Referring to Japan's exports, Mr. Inoue said that 60 per cent, of the exports to New Zealand consisted of silk and he was pleased to know that that textile was being more widely used for articles of attire in the Dominion than ever before. Other useful exports that New Zealand accepted were cotton textiles, timber, porcelain and fancy goods. "It all amounts to this,"' he added, "that our two countries are exchanging wool and silk and both are tied very tightly to thes? two strings of trade." Mi. Inoue proposes to visit Christchurch and Dunedin" on the conclusion of his Wellington mission and will revisit Auckland before returning to Sydney.