Nakasone Expected to Make Offer on U.S. Visit : Japan Ready to Help Defray Costs in Gulf

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will tell President Reagan in New York on Monday that Japan is prepared to make a financial contribution to lighten the American burden of providing Navy escorts to oil tankers passing though the Persian Gulf, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said here Thursday.

Yoshifumi Matsuda told foreign correspondents he is confident that Nakasone will express Japan’s “willingness to do something” on the basis of widespread support that he said exists among the Japanese public for aiding the U.S. effort to safeguard oil shipments from the strategic gulf.

The prime minister, however, will not be able to tell Reagan how much aid Japan will provide, or specify in what form such assistance will be given, Matsuda added.

Looking Into Assistance

A Foreign Ministry task force, Matsuda noted, two weeks ago began exploring ways in which Japan could assist the American effort; its work will not be ready for the meeting scheduled Monday between Nakasone and Reagan.

“We believe we should do something to cooperate with other Western nations,” Matsuda said. “We cannot take any military action whatsoever. So the logical consequence is financial assistance. . . .”

Matsuda’s statement was the first official declaration that Japan will provide financial assistance for the U.S. patrol and escort activity in the Persian Gulf. Previously, Japanese officials had said only that the Foreign Ministry was considering the possibility.

The move came four months after Japanese diplomats, on the eve of the Venice economic summit in June, ruled out any consideration of financial assistance unless some kind of U.N. organization were set up to protect shipping in the gulf.

Japanese reluctance to get involved melted only after Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands announced plans to take part in the protection effort. That left Japan--which gets 60% of its oil from Persian Gulf producers--conspicuously absent from the assistance efforts.

Although the American government has not asked Japan for help through diplomatic channels, Ambassador Mike Mansfield, in a speech here last Monday, publicly urged Japan to contribute in a non-military fashion to the protection of shipping in the gulf.

Nakasone is expected to face a demand from Reagan that he resolve an increasingly bitter dispute over the failure of American firms to win substantial contracts in the construction of a new $7-billion Osaka Airport. U.S. officials, it has been reported here, are considering lodging a formal complaint of unfair trade practices against Japan over the airport project. If found to have discriminated against American firms, Japan would be subject to retaliatory trade penalties.

On Wednesday, the prime minister instructed his transportation minister to come up with new measures to ensure equal opportunity for U.S. construction firms to win airport contracts.

Their 12th Meeting

Nakasone will be meeting Reagan for the 12th time in what has become a widely publicized first-name “Ron-Yasu” relationship. It is likely to be their last while Nakasone is still in office. His term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party expires Oct. 30, and, after a successor is chosen, he is expected to resign as prime minister to clear the way for Parliament, probably in early November, to elect the new ruling party chief as head of government.

The prime minister, who will arrive in New York on Saturday, also is scheduled to deliver a speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. He will leave New York on Tuesday to return to Tokyo.