Kakuei Tanaka: "The U.S. Comes First"

The brief political honeymoon that followed the election of Kakuei Tanaka, 54, as Premier of Japan is now clearly over. Last week, in the study of his official residence, an embattled but still cheerful Tanaka discussed some of the domestic and international challenges facing his Liberal-Democratic government with Time Inc. Editor in Chief Hedley Donovan and Tokyo Bureau Chief Herman Nickel. Excerpts:

JAPAN'S RELATIONS WITH THE U.S.: Relations with China will become important, but relations with the U.S. come first. The Japanese attitude toward China has been split around 50-50 pro and con closer relations. When it comes to the Soviet Union, the pros are only 10% of our people. In the case of the U.S., I would say that about 70% are supporters of the U.S. If Japan is to contribute to world peace, she must perfect her own security, and to this end she must cooperate closely with the U.S. In the economic and technological area, Japan must cooperate with the U.S. in helping underdeveloped nations.

ON TRADE AND THE DOLLAR: The pace of Japan's imports from the U.S. has doubled. Thus the trade balance for the U.S. has improved considerably. We now think the $4.2 billion imbalance in Japan's 1972 fiscal year will be cut to around $2.7 billion this year. I believe that current U.S. policy on the dollar is very clever. Despite all your assets, you make out your currency to be very weak. A stronger dollar is also to Japan's benefit, and so we are ready to cooperate with the U.S. to strengthen it.

ON JAPANESE-RUSSIAN COOPERATION:

Right now we are talking to the Soviets about seven projects, including the Tyumen oil pipeline, the Yakutsk natural gas fields and offshore oil and gas exploration. The main objective for us is to diversify our sources of raw materials. Admittedly, there is a political aspect to oil. That is why we are asking for the participation of U.S. capital. We would hope that $200 million would come from U.S. oil companies.

ON HIS UPCOMING MOSCOW VISIT: I am not thinking much in terms of taking new initiatives in [international] affairs. [In going to Moscow] I am not trying to obtain some specific political or diplomatic object, but I have a feeling that just my going there will bear some fruit. After all, President Nixon achieved a detente with Peking; and then he visited Moscow, and now the U.S. is selling the Russians 18 million tons of wheat. But before going there I will visit the U.S. President Nixon went to Peking without telling anybody, but I will not do that kind of thing.

ON JAPAN'S IMAGE ELSEWHERE IN ASIA: I am not too apprehensive about this. We will give a lot more untied aid, through the World Bank, the I.D.A., the Asian Development Bank and the Viet Nam Reconstruction Conference. We will act in such a way that nobody could see any economic invasion. But like the U.S., Japan will be called names.

ON THE PROBLEMS OF HIS PARTY: In the big cities, the left tends to support academic men. They usually are not very hardworking, but for some reason they appeal to people, especially since they don't wave the red flag of their socialist and Communist sponsors but the green flag [of the fight against pollution]. One factor has been women's suffrage; women don't vote on the big national issues, but on things that affect their daily lives.

The declining or less developed areas, mostly in Kyushu and Hokkaido, that used to be strong leftist territory have now come into the Liberal Democratic Party fold because general living conditions were raised. But in the big city areas like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, the left and especially the Communists have moved into our strongholds. This is due to inflationary trends, housing shortages and growing pollution, the Communists claim, but I feel that's not the whole story. I believe it's simply a result of the frustrations of big city life. Finally, the LDP has been in power for a quarter-century, and we have become bureaucratic and lagged behind in our grass-roots contact with the people.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.