Japan Seeks U.S. Help to Improve Image

ATLANTA —  Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, launching an effort to improve his country’s image in the United States, Thursday outlined a “Communication Improvement Initiative” that would include increased cultural exchanges and Japanese language classes for Americans.

In a speech here, Kaifu, fresh from the economic summit in Houston, said that though the two countries have made progress on trade issues, “our communication efforts are lagging behind.”

He said the aim of the initiative, which would be jointly funded, is “advancing true mutual understanding,” adding that he has assigned it “a high priority.”

Earlier, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official, in an unusually forthright discussion of Japanese-U.S. social relations, acknowledged to reporters that the initiative is designed to counteract a range of image problems, including Japan-bashing and the perception among U.S. minorities that the Japanese are racist.

“If that kind of perception is here,” said the official, “then we have to erase that kind of image.”

There is some sentiment against Japan in the United States, he said, adding that the new effort will focus on communicating with ordinary people in “grassroots” America.

Japanese officials said details of the initiative must still be worked out with U.S. officials. They said no budget has been set for the effort. U.S. government officials declined to comment until they have studied the proposals.

The Foreign Ministry official said the Japanese government would be willing to fund the language study both in Japan and America, but he also said the United States “should do its part” to help improve communications.

Kaifu’s speech, delivered to the Japan-American Society of Georgia, portrayed Japan as an economic giant that also is a humane giant, sharing its economic prosperity with others. That thought is apparently intended as the Japanese core message.

From the Japanese viewpoint, Atlanta was an obvious choice as the site to announce the effort. Georgia and the Southeast enjoy heavy Japanese investment; this state’s 312 Japanese facilities represent the largest number outside California. Also, Atlanta is the capital of the nation’s civil rights movement, providing Kaifu an opportunity to establish a counterpoint to strains stemming from a series of incidents, including remarks former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone made in a speech in September, 1986.

Nakasone said: “Japan is now a highly educated and fairly intelligent society. Much more so than America, on the average. In America, there are quite a few black people, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. On the average, it is still very low.”

The Japanese Foreign Ministry scrambled to clarify Nakasone’s remarks, but blacks and Latinos were enraged. Since then, relations have been further strained by reports of Japanese stores displaying Little Black Sambo dolls and by the remarks of Michio Watanabe, a strategist in the Liberal Democratic Party who in 1988 asserted that black Americans have no qualms about declaring bankruptcy. Like Nakasone, Watanabe apologized.

Thursday, Japanese officials were trying to let that history rest.

The Foreign Ministry official likened Japanese living in America to other minorities, saying, “We share the aspirations, the problems” of other ethnic groups, and he declared that there is a “growing solidarity” with black people, noting that Nelson Mandela is planning to visit Japan in the fall.

As part of his day here, Kaifu visited the tomb of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and he had a brief chat with King’s widow, Coretta Scott King.