Japan Foreign Minister Heads for U.S. for Talks

Japanese Foreign Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka left Sunday for meetings with President Bush and U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III in Washington to discuss Japan’s response to China’s bloody crackdown on dissidents and U.S.-Japanese trade friction.

Mitsuzuka, a former trade minister who became foreign minister in the new Cabinet formed June 2, will meet with Bush, Baker, U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills, Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.).

Mitsuzuka said before leaving Japan that he will not be pressured into imposing economic sanctions against China. Japan has called the crackdown by the Chinese government “regrettable” but has said it is “essentially an internal affair.”