Kaifu to ‘Do More’ to Ease Trade Friction

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu said today that Japan will “do more” to ease trade friction with the United States and pledged further efforts to reform Japanese politics.

Kaifu presented his new Cabinet to Emperor Akihito after a long wrangle in his conservative party over his insistence on keeping scandal-tainted politicians out of the administration.

As he was doing so, a weekly magazine said it will publish an article Thursday charging that Kaifu received larger donations than he has acknowledged from Recruit, the company at the heart of a 1988 influence-peddling scandal.

Kaifu’s difficulty in forming a Cabinet came shortly before he was to leave for California, where President Bush is expected to urge Japan to be more conciliatory in sluggish trade talks.

“There is no magic word that will erase the $49-billion trade surplus,” Kaifu told a nationally televised news conference.

Japan will reform import taxes and expand domestic demand, he said, but “that is not enough, so we will do more. If you look closely at what we’re doing in Japan-U.S. relations, you’ll see how hard we are working.”

Kaifu revealed no details of new initiatives Japan might offer in his talks Friday and Saturday with Bush in Palm Springs.

Officials in both countries spoke of the need to develop their “global partnership” despite deep problems between the two biggest economies in the capitalist world.

But a question mark hangs over the government’s political strength to take domestic and international initiatives.