B.E. TOKYO....
TUE 11 AUG 92 18:56
PG.07
CONFIDENTIAL
1
and investors ses Buch raturn. The Japanese may also have other priorities. How far do we want to push Central Asia up their list? If Lonrho, BP et al make progress on exploitation of the region's mineral wealth, against US competition, they may not thank us for engaging the Japanese too deeply.
Young Businessmen
9.
:
Yes. Clearly we must develop these links for the longer term. sure The Prince of Wales is right to draw attention to the importance of young Japanese businessmen, but we must be clear about what is meant. So far as UK/Japan 2000 is concerned, the senior figures on the British side are stuck with their Japanese opposite numbers, whose average age will always be older. But old in Japan does not mean out (numerous examples to hand) and David Howell and his colleagues would be wise to maintain their contacts at these levels, even while working up the gradual and selective injection on the Japanese side of figures in, say, their 60s. might propose to David Howell that he take up the idea (already I believe considered by Patrick Jenkin) of a second level group comprising not so much Young Turks as the people drafting the papers or otherwise supporting the main members.
10.
We
The 2000 Group aside, and taking now your own thought of a regular exchange of young businessmen, our first reaction is again that the younger movers and shakere across Japanese industry are on the whole in their upper 40% or 50m. Richard Branson and Anita Roddick are a rarer species here. We do however have contact with the New Business Council, an organisation which looks after the interests of younger and less catablished companies. Family firms also throw up younger entrepreneurs. I also want to get closer than we have managed so far to the Junior Chamber of Commerce movement (JayCees).
11. In sum,
a balance must be struck. The people who love Britain and put up the money are still currently the old guard Moritas etc. As for the Prime Minister's visit, you will see that we are recommending against a business group and think that, rather than bring a delegation of the young, the Prime Minister would do better to capitalise on the forces on the ground -- young British teachers, young engineers, young Daiwa scholars (we plan to bring them together when he visits). You do not incidentally mention sporting contacts. I see a good deal of mileage in this area and have again suggested covering it during the Prime Minister's visit.
Technology
12.
This is a key area. our science is rightly admired but we can get more juice out of it. We are looking in detail at ways of doing this. Our approach must of course ensure that existing mechanisms for bilateral exchanges are used to their utmost. The office for Science and Technology must build affective links with its Japanese counterparts. We hope Kr Waldegrave will visit before long. We shall want to encourage mora systematic handling of information about scientific developments in Japan. We might also act more visibly as the bridge between Japan and Europe, using our CERN Presidency to draw the Japanese further in and encouraging Japanese firms to take part in EUREKA projects.
CONFIDENTIAL