Tokyo Has ‘Financial Clout to Change Our Way of Life Forever’ : Rising Japanese Investment Stirs Racism in Australia

A surge of Japanese money into Australian real estate has triggered a wave of anti-Japanese feeling and fears of an economic invasion.

The equivalent of $6.4 billion has been spent in Australia by Japanese property buyers.

Local news reports said a bus full of Japanese tourists was pelted with eggs by a group of angry Australians earlier this month in the Blue Mountains, about 60 miles west of here.

Businessmen and a Japanese government spokesman said the attacks bordered on racism and warned of the potential effect on the Australian economy.

Anti-Japanese Protests

On Queensland’s Gold Coast resort strip, conspicuous Japanese buying of hotels, golf courses, tourist shops and houses has led to public protests by local residents, and the creation of an anti-Japanese investment body called “Heart of a Nation.”

Its chairman, Bruce Whiteside, an immigrant from New Zealand, told a packed meeting in the Gold Coast city of Surfers Paradise last month that Australia was “selling its soil.”

“What the Japanese have to offer (to Australia) is giving cause for alarm,” he said. “Many ordinary Australians perceive that the Japanese involvement with this country has a wider implication than the mere settling of a few thousand immigrants.

“Japan possesses the financial clout to change our way of life forever. It has the ability to unsettle the sovereign people and to influence the decisions of governments. We cannot go on silently accepting this state of affairs when deep down we resent this shameless intrusion of Japanese investors and tourists.”

In his speech on Japanese investment on the Gold Coast, a favorite destination for Japanese tourists, he did not mention that New Zealanders escaping to a warmer climate were still the biggest foreign buyers of Gold Coast property.

Moreover, government figures show that at the end of 1987, Japan ranked just third among foreign investors, with $16.8 billion invested in Australia, well behind the United States’ total of $32 billion and Britain’s $28.8 billion.

Growing Xenophobia

Japanese investors in Australia have expressed concern about what seems to be growing xenophobia directed at Japan.

A Japanese consulate-general spokesman said he was “disappointed” by the recent outbursts and emphasized that Japan was not the largest investor in Australia.

The spokesman said there are undertones of racism on the land issue: “It is the consulate’s view that there seemed to be some attempt to equate Japanese investment in Australia with the wartime experiences of our two countries. The expression of such views is disappointing. . . . Japan has not been investing exclusively in Australia but throughout the world, and its overseas assets now total more than $1 trillion.”

Australia, the spokesman warned, could jeopardize its burgeoning tourist trade with Japan--its biggest customer--which could net the country more than $800 million in foreign revenue by 1992.

Japan is also Australia’s biggest trade customer, taking 26% of its exports and posting trade deficits of more than $1.12 billion annually.

Warren Bird, Lloyds Bank NZA’s chief economist, said Australia must reconsider the image it is presenting to the Japanese: “Australia must not lose sight of the fact that it is running a current account deficit and substantial external debt and needs offsetting funds to finance them.

“We get big economic benefits from these foreign investments, and they bring in much-needed competition. Rather than reacting to them with anxiety, Australians should see it as a vote of confidence in our economic future.

“Unfortunately, some of the arguments being put forward by anti-foreign investment groups are bordering the lines of racism.”

Costing Country Billions

Kyo Suzuki, chief representative of Mitsui Bank in Australia, echoed Bird’s analysis that continued antipathy could cost the country billions of dollars in foreign revenue.

“Japanese investors will be less aggressive in investing here if they feel uncomfortable about it,” Suzuki said.

“Australia needs foreign funds to service its debt and deficit. I think the government should consider this matter more seriously and must express how it feels about it.

“For years the British, Americans and more recently the New Zealanders have been investing heavily in Australia--substantially exceeding that of the Japanese--with almost no opposition.

“We (Japanese) are very upset and uncomfortable about the situation. The general opinion expressed by the public and in the media has been very unfair.”