Rehabilitation of Los Angeles : Images of Crime, Riots Are Fading in Minds of Japanese

For two days, Mayor Richard Riordan relentlessly pitched a new Los Angeles--safer, cleaner and more economically robust--to the well-heeled tourists and investors of Japan.

And while Tuesday’s unexpectedly early verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial prompted Riordan to cut short his planned two-week Asia trade mission, in the eyes of Japanese, the city is slowly rehabilitating its image as a chaotic metropolis torn by racial conflict and crime.

The Northridge earthquake, the 1992 race riots and the murders of two Japanese exchange students last year had darkened the Southland’s cheery image of endless summers and Disneyland thrills, helping to send tourism and investment by the Japanese plummeting.

But since the end of last year, officials here say the frightening images have begun to fade. Instead, more favorable portraits have begun emerging of Southern California, largely because of an appreciation of the region’s earthquake expertise after the Kobe temblor in January and the fervor surrounding Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo, a Japanese national.

“Japanese people were impressed by the fact that L.A. recovered so quickly from the earthquake,” said Naoko Tsuchida of the Keidanren, Japan’s most influential business group, which sponsored a Monday lunch for Riordan. “We want to learn from L.A. in reconstructing Kobe.”

Riordan, in two major speeches before Japanese business executives and a visit to a neighborhood police station, tried to reinforce such sentiments by pitching his improvements in public safety and passing out baseballs autographed by Nomo.

Billing Los Angeles as “the safest of any big city” in America, Riordan told the Japanese that crime has dropped 20% in the last two years, that the police force would increase by 40% and that the city ranks 48th in crime among U.S. metropolitan areas.

After visiting one of Japan’s famous koban neighborhood police stations in the tony Ginza district Sunday, he said he would promote use of a similar system Downtown and in other densely populated parts of Los Angeles.

Riordan also pitched a revived business climate, saying the city has surpassed New York in foreign trade, replaced many of the jobs lost in the aerospace industry and opened a new international trade zone.

Many Japanese executives familiar with Los Angeles “realize we are safer, friendlier and cleaner . . . but you just don’t turn perceptions around quickly,” the mayor said in his first visit to Japan since the Korean War.

Japanese here say the sell remains tough. But although the Japanese gave been in retreat from their disastrous Southern California real estate ventures, the California Office of Trade and Investment in Tokyo reports a revival of Japanese investment statewide, especially in food-processing and high-tech facilities.

Still, Masayuki Kohama, a Hitachi Ltd. executive who established a rare rapport with Angelenos while promoting his firm’s philanthropic activities, said major investors continue to shy away from the City of Angels. Kohama said the city appeared cleaner in a visit last week but that “the bad image remains.” He urged Riordan to step up public relations activities and actively court the Japanese media.

Hiroshi Yahagi, a former Los Angeles correspondent for the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun who recently published the book, “Los Angeles,” said Japan’s own lingering recession has made the rejuvenated business climate in Los Angeles and elsewhere glitter more brightly--particularly American strides in the technology and telecommunications industries.