CONFIDENTIAL
State's planned visit in May might serve as
as a base.
Sir J Whitehead has proposed that the visit outside
Tokyo, to Oita, should be retained, but that it might
take place at the beginning of the Secretary of State's trip. I attach a preliminary draft programme.
FLIGHTS
6. I understand that the Secretary of State will attend Cabinet meetings on Thursday, 7 January and on Thursday 14 January (Parliament is due to reconvene on Monday,
11 January). According to provisional winter schedules
British flights to Japan (British Airways and British Caledonian fly on alternate days except Wednesday) will
depart at 1220. Given his Cabinet commitment the
Secretary of State would not have time to catch the
Thursday flight and he would therefore have to leave on
Friday, 8 January, which would effectively reduce the
length of the visit to 4 days. This would still enable
him to carry out a full programme of high-level talks in
Tokyo as well as spending a slightly shorter weekend in
Oita. The Secretary of State may, however, wish to consider the possibility of flying out on Japan Air Lines (JAL) flight 402 which departs on Thursday evening at 1900. This would add almost a whole day to the programme
and allow a fuller visit to Oita. This option is shown as an alternative on the draft programme. (The question of flights and timings will, in any case, have to be
reconsidered once the winter schedules are firmly
established).
PD6AAD
CONFIDENTIAL