In Boston, Kaifu Touches Base With Red Sox, Pilgrims, Harvard

Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, whose whirlwind tour of Boston on Sunday included stops at universities, a Red Sox baseball game and a re-created Pilgrim village, said he met with the area’s academic leaders to gather views on improving higher education in Japan.

Japan’s new leader, in Boston as part of a 12-day visit to North America, posed briefly Sunday in Harvard Yard under a statue of founder John Harvard. The previous evening, he listened closely when he gave a dinner for the presidents of Boston-area universities.

His guests, besides Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and other local politicians, included the presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other area universities.

“I know that Boston is a city which is very earnest and enthusiastic about anything relating to education,” Kaifu said.

Kaifu’s visit also had its lighter side Sunday as he donned a Red Sox cap at Fenway Park and tossed out the first ball at Boston’s game against the Seattle Mariners. When Kaifu threw the ball to Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman, he became the first Japanese leader to do so at a game in the United States.

Kaifu also stopped at the city’s Museum of Fine Arts before ending his afternoon in Plymouth, where he visited Plimoth Plantation, a re-creation of a 17th-Century Pilgrim village.

Kaifu, 58, is scheduled to travel next to Mexico and Canada.