Boycott Threatened : Increase Minority Rolls, Jackson Urges Japanese

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Tuesday urged Japanese companies in the United States to hire and use more black, Latino and women employees, suppliers, distributors and other firms, threatening a boycott of some Japanese products if negotiations with Japanese firms fail.

“Our relationship (with Japan) is free but not fair,” Jackson told a Los Angeles lunch gathering of executives of businesses owned by blacks, Latinos and Asians. Blacks and other minorities, he contended, buy about 20% of the Japanese cars sold in the United States but Japanese auto makers use few minority-owned dealers or suppliers.

The civil-rights leader and possible 1988 presidential candidate also called on Japanese firms to pull out of South Africa, contending at a press conference that Japan has become Pretoria’s top trading partner and that a pullout could deal a “significant blow” against South Africa’s apartheid system of racial discrimination.

“No nation can be a great nation if it runs an economic surplus and a moral deficit,” Jackson said of Japanese investment in South Africa.

Jackson’s focus on Japanese firms represents a new step in his longtime campaign urging giant corporations to contribute to the economic development of minority communities and businesses. Until now, Jackson’s Operation PUSH has targeted primarily such American companies as Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and Revlon.

His efforts also come in the wake of the controversy over remarks last September by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to the effect that blacks, Latinos and other American minorities bring down U.S. educational levels.

In response, Jackson recently visited Japan and South Korea and met with executives of such companies as Toyota, Matsushita, Sony and Hyundai, urging them to increase their affirmative action efforts in the United States.

In an interview Tuesday, Jackson said he will soon release specific demands for Japanese firms to increase their use of minority businesses and employees. A boycott of Japanese products could ensue “if negotiations with Japanese companies break down,” he said. “We have the consumer power and the climate to pull off effective boycotts if they are selective boycotts,” he added. However, Jackson denounced the anti-Asian racism that has accompanied criticism of Japan’s economic policies, telling the lunch audience that those seeking economic fairness with Japanese companies “must not be a part of the anti-Asian bashing, anti-Hispanic bashing, anti-black bashing and anti-Semitic bashing” that appears to be growing nationwide.

Some Japanese company officials said Tuesday in interviews that they support efforts to develop more minority business ties. James R. Olson, a spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., the American marketing arm of the Japanese auto maker, said, “We’re open to everybody” but that few minority suppliers have approached the company.