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with the look-East policy but he wanted to emphasise that The in this sense it was a problem for the Japanese too. Malaysians seemed to think that their trainees sent to Japan could absorb Japanese working ethics in six months. Japan therefore feared the result of any Malaysian disillusionment. Malaysia was also complaining about the effects of yen appreciation on the price of eg auto parts and on the yen-loan debts. He confirmed that the debt/service ratio was 20%. A third difficulty was the cancellation of visits by Malaysian Ministers at the eleventh hour. This had happened most recently with the Finance Minister and was embarrassing for the Japanese. Perhaps it had something to do with rank-consciousness. Dr Wilson said that the look-East policy was difficult if it was exclusive, although some balance had returned in Malaysian perceptions. We had, for example, more Malaysian students in tertiary education here than from any other Commonwealth country and even had some secondary students paid by the Government. sympathised over the problem of visit cancellations. This happened to us from time-to-time with many countries. Mr Yanai thought that some more Japanese companies would re-locate their plants in Malaysia and could even export from there back to Japan.
He
This should
be particularly attractive to Malaysia, which was, for example, already exporting a significant number of air-conditioning units.
Korea
8. Mr Yanai, who had recently served in Seoul, ended by saying that relations with Korea, delicate and challenging, took up most of his Division's time. Counsellor Nakamoto had been handling Korea before his appointment to London and could be a useful contact for us here. Dr Wilson appreciated this.
9. The meeting ended at 1230.
Far Eastern Department
3 September 1986
Distribution:
Dr Wilson
HKD
SEAD
Planning Staff
Mr Bowie, FED
Chancery, Tokyo
Political Adviser, Hong Kong,
pd3aay
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