U.S. Urges Japan to Improve Ties, Trade With Israel : Diplomacy: Bush wants firms to abandon Arab boycott. He’ll meet prime minister in Los Angeles.

The Bush Administration is putting pressure on Japan to improve its ties with the Israelis, and, in particular, to bring to an end the longstanding compliance by many Japanese companies with the Arab boycott of trade with Israel.

During a series of meetings here during the last two days, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and other U.S. officials told Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama that the Japanese should “make clear their opposition to the (Arab) boycott,” a senior State Department official said.

Without making any new commitments, Nakayama responded that “he would like to have this Arab boycott studied carefully,” Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Taizo Watanabe later explained. Responding to the Administration’s suggestions that Japan strengthen its relations with Israel, Watanabe said simply, “That is what Japan was intending to do.”

Eager to demonstrate Japan’s continuing importance to the Administration, the Foreign Ministry announced Friday that Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu plans to meet with President Bush in California on April 4. The White House said the meeting will be in Los Angeles.

The Administration’s new effort to foster Japan’s relations with Israel is intended to serve two purposes: It would increase Japan’s diplomatic involvement in the Middle East, and it might also gradually open the way for Japan to ease the financial burden on the United States in providing economic help to Israel.

“It’s not that we’re beating Japan over the head,” asserted one Administration official. Even so, he said: “We have a unique opportunity now in the Middle East. If everyone can kick in something, there’s a chance we can change the rules of what has been a very intractable game.”

Japan obtains nearly 70% of its oil from the Middle East. For years, many leading Japanese companies have gone along with an Arab trade boycott that is aimed at undermining Israel’s economy, an apparent reflection of their strategic need for energy supplies. The World Jewish Congress complained this month that the Japanese firms complying with the boycott include such corporate giants as Toyota, Nissan and Toshiba.

In mid-January, as war was about to break out in the Persian Gulf, Japanese banks stopped doing business with Israel, and Japan halted mail service to Israel. The services were resumed at the beginning of February.

Japanese officials note that Israel was not singled out, but was merely one of a number of Middle East countries affected by banking and postal changes. “The main cause was due to the crisis in the region,” said one Japanese official. “The claim that Japanese banks followed the Arab boycott is not true.”

Watanabe and other officials also point out that the Japanese government is not responsible for the actions of private Japanese companies that comply with the boycott. “It’s beyond the control of the Japanese government,” said one Japanese diplomat. “We don’t have as strong laws as you have in this country.”

A Japanese spokesman said, “As a government, we have never supported the Arab boycott, and we have never treated Israel in a discriminatory way.”

However, Japanese government and industry sources in Tokyo said earlier this year that Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry more than a decade ago initiated a policy of “administrative guidance” to discourage Japanese firms from trading with Israel.

“We don’t trade with Israel because the government tells us not to,” Tsuneo Tanaka, group executive for international operations at Hitachi Ltd., said in an interview.

The Japanese companies’ compliance with the boycott has attracted increasing attention on Capitol Hill. More than 90 House members have signed a letter to Ryohei Murata, Japanese ambassador to the United States, urging Japan to normalize its trade relations with Israel and to include it in the list of Mideast countries receiving Japanese contributions to offset war costs.

“It is outrageous that Japan has compensated every other front-line state, including Jordan, which sided with Saddam (Hussein), and Syria, which is still on the State Department’s terrorist list, but has failed to provide Israel with any war-related assistance,” said Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles), one of the sponsors of the House letter.

Japan has agreed to give a total of $2 billion to Jordan, Egypt and Turkey to make up for their financial losses during the war, and it also agreed this month to make a $100-million loan to Syria.

The Bush Administration agreed early this month on a compromise aid package that will give Israel $650 million in cash for the costs it bore as a result of the war. Japan has given no aid to Israel, but it has agreed to give about $11 billion to the United States.

“In view of Israel’s high income level, the Japanese government has not extended (foreign aid) to Israel before,” a Japanese spokesman said Friday. “And we do not have any intention of changing that in the near future.” However, he said, Japan favors increasing trade and cultural ties with Israel.