Popcorn, Claret on the Ginza : Nakasone’s Import Campaign Hits Hectic Tokyo Intersection

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone’s campaign to boost imports took to the streets Saturday with Japanese government officials espousing the merits of foreign-made trash cans, baby buggies and popcorn poppers.

At a busy intersection in Tokyo’s crowded Ginza shopping district, a stage was set up for the foreign products, which were recommended by Japanese housewives who have lived overseas.

“People will feel closer to these products if they can see them right in front of them,” said Shiro Miyamoto, executive vice president of the Japan Export Trade Organization. “This is the first time we’ve brought goods directly to the people, instead of an organized fair or bazaar.”

Last week, Nakasone appealed to Japanese citizens to each buy $100 worth of foreign goods a year to help soften a rising international outcry against Japan’s growing surplus with its trading partners.

Uniformed girls wearing sashes that said “Manufactured Products Import Campaign” handed out leaflets with Nakasone’s picture on them, while government and business officials called on shoppers to take a closer look at what was on hand.

Taking up half the stage was a British baby carriage, a French drop-leaf table, an Italian clothes horse and a huge West German parasol.

Representing the United States were the popcorn popper, a pineapple cutter, a sprinkler head for watering lawns and a plastic garbage can.

Also on stage was the most popular display--Australian wines.

A huge poster overhead bore a color picture of Nakasone with the headline, “Join Hands With Countries of the World Through Imports.”

Nakasone kicked off a domestic “buy foreign” campaign by announcing his new package of trade measures designed to increase access to Japanese markets of foreign products in the fields of telecommunications, electronics, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and wood products.

“I think Nakasone-san is right,” said Hideo Yanagi, 67, as he sipped an Australian claret. “We have to buy foreign things. If Japan buys things, then we can sell, too.”

Yanagi, from Fukuoka on the southern main island of Kyushu, said he doesn’t care much for wine, but that he liked the Ginza display. “It will be something to talk about when I get home.”

He said he planned to shop in Ginza for summer clothes and toys for his grandchildren. “But I won’t buy Japanese toys, my grandchildren wouldn’t like them. They know them all already.”

The Ginza display was held from 11 a.m. to dusk and was aimed at housewives who would buy the appliances on display. However, people seemed most interested in the wine.

“Well, you can’t have a taste of the bloody clothes horse, can you?” said Denis Gastin, senior trade commissioner with the Australian Embassy in Tokyo.

A catalogue of 199 items was distributed to onlookers “so Japanese importers can easily find addresses of manufacturers,” said Yuji Kubo of the export trade organization.

About 100 of the items in the catalogue, which lists household items from cherry tomato peelers to an automatic toothpaste dispenser, are already available in Japan, Kubo said.