From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Japan's Gerontocrats are running scared....
Date: 3 Jan 1993 05:54:51 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: headcrash.berkeley.edu

Japan's Ruling Party to Set Up Lobbying Office in Washington

By Stuart Auerbach
Washington Post

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, fearful that the Clinton administration
will take a tought stance against Japan on trade matters, plans to open its own]
lobbying office in Washington, a leading Japanese newspaper reported in Tokyo
this week.

The LDP, which has controlled the Japanese government for almost 40 years, will
be the only foreign ruling political party to have its own lobbying
operation in Washington, separate from that country's embassy.  In the past,
the LDP has hired American lobbyists to accompany key party officials
around Washington and arrange meetings with high administration officials,
leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill, experts at think tanks and journalists.

According to the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, the aim of the LDP lobbying
office will be to establish contacts with Clinton administration officials,
many of whom are unknown to Japanese policy makers, and to collect information
on the new administration's policies.

After 12 years of friendly ties with the Reagan and Bush administrations, Japanese
officials are concerned that Clinton's trade and economic policies will hurt
its interests--especially as its trade surplus with the United States grows
and its automobile and electronic companies are falling short of fulfilling
past promises to buy more American semiconductors, auto parts and cars.

They are fearful of efforts to collect more taxes from Japanese companies
operating in the United States, a Clinton campaign pledge; of antitrust action
against Japanese business practices that hurt their American competitors;
and of stronger efforts to open Japan's closed markets.

"No mistake about it.  They (Clinton and his team) are going to pressure us
even further to open our domestic market.  They will make things tough for
us," Japanese commentator Kazuki Hidaka tola a closed-door meeting of 
about 300 middle- and senior-level Japanese business executives in Tokyo
a month ago.

But Hidaka, who has worked in Washington for 20 years as a commentator for
the NHK television network and is now a fellow at the Hudson Institute, an 
Indianapolis-based think tank that studies public policy issues,
predicted that Japan has a year's breathing space while the Clinton
administration decides on the specifics of its policies.

Hidaka told the Japanese executives that Japan already wields great 
lobbying power in Washington.

"The main country in the trade debate, gentlemen, is ourselves--Japan," he
said.  "We have more power over Congress than Germany does.  Our level of
power over there is almost equal to that of Israel."

However, Clinton campaigned abainst the influence of foreign lobbyists.  And
Congress is considering tightening registration rules for lobbyists that work
for foreign interests.

These concerns led the Japanese Foreign Ministry to advise the LDP against 
setting up its own lobbying operation, the newspaper reported.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan