CONFIDENTIAL
research and development activity in Japan with potential spin-off for British industry. The development of exchanges in this area is a major priority for this Embassy at present. The latest event, talks at the Royal Society in July between senior British and Japanese officials, is regarded as a very successful experiment. It led to the identification of some · 50 potential collaborations between British and Japanese scientists. As a result we have new links between UK Government departments and research councils and Japanese organisations. The links between researchers will focus on exchange of information, exchanges of researchers and on collaborative projects. We are likely to see more UK researchers coming to a greater variety of Japanese research centres than in the past. And there are important new opportunities for British industrial researchers to work for a time in Japanese research teams. This not a woolly or starry-eyed approach: our aim is our own national interest - know your competition, cooperate where it is in our commercial or scientific interest to do so, and take advantage of the facilities available in a country which is spending more than 6 times that of the UK on R&D and an increasing amount on basic research.
10. The strengthening of S&T links with Japan can also be associated with the need to broaden the activities of Japanese inward investors in the UK to embrace R&D and design in addition to production. This is beginning to happen and the trend is to be welcomed.
Political Issues
11.
The Japanese are becoming acutely conscious that their economic strength is arousing expectations of a more high profile diplomatic effort. They are slowly emerging from the American shell and beginning to build up a more direct interest in international problems. They can still be less robust than we would like (eg on Salman Rushdie) in defence of human rights or wider Western interests. But it is important to remember that in spite of 44 years of very strong American influence this is not in its origins a European or Christian country. There is no natural law requiring the Japanese to share our values. That by and large they do so, is an immense benefit for Western interests and a direction which it is in all our interests to maintain.
12. One of the problems which the Japanese themselves feel is that the core of their foreign policy is a head-to-head relationship with the US. They are not members of any of the major multilateral fora for coordinating Western interests except the Economic Summits and the OECD. Neither at present offers much opportunity for close coordination on political issues. Hence the importance which the Japanese attach to their
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