No Concessions Made to Envoys, Nakasone Says

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, facing public criticism within his party for his handling of the trade dispute with the United States, declared Tuesday that he made no new concessions Sunday when he met with two special U.S. envoys.

“I said nothing new,” Nakasone told Japanese reporters when asked about White House spokesman Larry Speakes’ statement that President Reagan welcomed “new commitments” received from Japan by Gaston Sigur, a member of the National Security Council, and Lionel H. Olmer, under secretary of commerce.

The President himself said nothing in an interview Monday about new commitments, commenting only that “he (Nakasone) is going to continue doing his utmost to bring about some changes,” according to the Washington Post.

Mission on Rush Basis

Sigur and Olmer flew to Tokyo on Saturday to appeal to Nakasone for additional concessions on opening Japan’s telecommunications market before new rules went into effect Monday ending 105 years of government monopoly in the field. Their eleventh-hour trip came two days after the Senate adopted a resolution, 92 to 0, calling for U.S. retaliation unless Japan opens its telecommunications market to imports within 90 days.

Nakasone also said Tuesday that he gave the two envoys no promises that Japan would remove obstacles to imports of forestry products, including a reduction or elimination of a 15% tariff on plywood that the United States is seeking. “I said absolutely nothing at all” on forestry products, the prime minister said.

Later, before Parliament, Nakasone blamed what he called “U.S. congressional frustrations against Japan” partly on “misunderstanding and one-sided emotionalism.”

“However, given the fact that Japan has accumulated huge sums of dollars (in trade surpluses), the situation cannot be ignored,” he said. “I am in the midst of making desperate efforts to seek a solution.”

Nakasone made the statements as leaders of his governing Liberal Democratic Party openly criticized him for the first time for failing to consult the party before making commitments to the United States.

“Things will not turn out well if the prime minister fails to offer clear-cut explanations to the party and bring the government and the party together as one body,” declared Susumu Nikaido, 75, the party’s vice president. Last October, Nikaido threatened to challenge Nakasone when the prime minister sought a second term as party chief.

“The time has come for Nakasone himself to come before the party to offer explanations,” added Nikaido, who also is titular head of the party faction actually led by former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. Tanaka, who recently suffered a stroke, has been sentenced to four years in prison for accepting a Lockheed bribe.

Personal Instructions

Kichiro Tazawa, deputy chairman of the party’s general affairs council, also criticized Nakasone during a party executives’ meeting. “The government is running ahead by itself with pronouncements which make it appear as if conclusions had been reached,” he said.

The criticism was directed at Nakasone for personally issuing instructions to government ministries involved in drawing up a major package of “market-opening” measures. The government will lay out the details of those measures next Tuesday on the eve of an April 11-12 meeting in Paris of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s council of ministers.

Japanese government officials, seeking to explain the apparent contradiction between Speakes’ claim that Nakasone had made “new commitments” and Nakasone’s denial, supported the prime minister’s account.

Takao Fujinami, the chief Cabinet secretary, said at a news conference that he believes the United States interpreted “the prime minister’s expression of support and understanding at the political level” for U.S. requests “as an important development.”

And Michihiko Kunihiro, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Economic Affairs Bureau, said Nakasone has “thrown his personal weight behind assurances” that Japan will make additional concessions in an attempt to meet American demands on telecommunications trade, including a reduction of the number of standards that Japan requires telecommunications equipment to meet.

However, Kunihiro added that the assurances of further concessions had already been made to Olmer in negotiations that ended last Thursday in Washington. Japan’s commitments remained the same after Nakasone’s meeting here Sunday with Sigur and Olmer, he said.

In the Washington talks last week, Moriya Koyama, vice minister of the Postal and Telecommunications Ministry, told Olmer that Japan is willing to discuss additional reductions in the number of standards for importing the telecommunications equipment into Japan.

Today, the newspaper Asahi published what it said was a copy of a letter Koyama gave to Olmer promising to speed up the talks “to make the level of standards between the United States and Japan fair.” Nakasone, through the Koyama letter, also said the talks will be carried out on the basis of “entrusting to the customers the choice of terminal equipment and telecommunications machinery.”

This was taken here as an indication that Japan is prepared to dramatically cut the number of standards it has set for telecommunications equipment.

On Monday, the Postal and Telecommunications Ministry issued new rules for the telecommunications industry, fixing 30 standards for such equipment. Previously, the ministry required equipment to pass 53 standards, a level that American businessmen say has blocked their sales in Japan.

Kunihiro also criticized, without naming them, U.S. senators who have called for retaliation against Japan for failing to open its telecommunications market.

With Monday’s end to 105 years of government monopoly, Japan’s telecommunications market, he said, becomes only the second in the world “to become fully deregulated,” a change he said Japan is carrying out in less than three years, compared to the 10 years the United States took to deregulate its telecommunications market.

“We are one of the best students of the United States in this area, if not the best, and I really don’t understand why retaliation should be considered,” he continued. “I sincerely hope your businessmen will try the market first before any notions of retaliation are considered.”

He also said Japan is prepared to make additional changes to accommodate foreign firms, if changes prove necessary.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe told the Cabinet that he will visit Washington on April 13 and 14 on his way back to Japan after the OECD meeting.

Foreign Ministry officials said Abe will brief Secretary of State George P. Shultz on next Tuesday’s package of “market-opening” measures. Abe is also expected to discuss with both Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger the U.S. request that Japan participate in research on Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense initiative.

Japan offers U.S. a chance to be heard. Details in Business.