Japan Offers Small Loan to Aid Poland

Japan today pledged a $150-million loan for “remote” Poland and said it is considering other aid to Poland and Hungary to help relieve their economic crises and promote democratic reform.

By contrast, the U.S. Congress has voted $864.5 million in outright aid to Poland, France has pledged $645 million and West Germany has offered $1.62 billion in trade credits.

Japan’s low-interest loan would be used for Poland’s currency stabilization program, said Mayumi Moriyama, the chief Cabinet secretary.

Japan is also considering loans through the Export-Import Bank to cover trade and investment insurance for Hungary and is studying plans to provide emergency food aid to Poland and technical assistance to both countries, said Kenzo Oshima, director of the Aid Policy Division at the Foreign Ministry.

Asked why Japan was giving a loan rather than a grant, Oshima conceded Poland probably would have been happier with a grant.

“It is up to each country to decide what fits,” he said. “The U.S. apparently felt a grant would be more preferable. . . . As far as Japan is concerned, we felt a concessional loan would meet, if not 100% of their requirements, at least an important part.”

Japan has defended its relatively slow development of an aid package for Eastern Europe by saying the region is remote from Japan and relations had not been important during the time those countries, as members of the Soviet Bloc, had little independence.

“It can’t be denied that part of the world is remote,” Oshima said. “It is not something like China or Korea to Japan.”