Ad - Wednesday, January 4, 1984 - North Shore News

Strictly personal
EE

by Bob Hunter

IT IS UNFORTUNATE that Japanese consul
general Taizo Nakamura has been posted elsewhere
after having arrived in Vancouver only a year and a

half ago. I liked his style.

Far from being the smiling,
evasive diplomat, Mr.
Nakamura was a straight-
shooter who wasn’t afraid to
think aloud. ,

He commented last year
that the growth of economic
relations between our two
countries — representing
over $8 billion in trade — had
increased at a far greater rate
than the degree of mutual
understanding.

He spoke the truth. Yet he
himself had an = excellent
understanding of Canada.
He taught me something
about my own country |
hadn’t quite realized.

I knew, for instance, that
last year, 40 per cent of
Canadian exports to Japan
came from B.C.

Our dependence on
Japanese markets has
become rather over-
whelming, in fact, especially
in the areas of coal and cop-
per ore, although there is no
major resource field in
Western Canada where they
are not involved: petro-
chemicals, pulp mills, liquid
natural gas, uranium, fish-
packing, not to mention a
few.

But the degree to which the
Japanese have integrated
themselves into Canada’s
economy — and the ways in
which they help us — are not
generally appreciated.

For instance, nowadays
most of the bulk carriers and

freighters heading out under
the Lions Gate are carrying
exports whose sale was ar-
ranged through one of the

great Japanese trading
houses like Mitsui or
Marubeni.

An ever-increasing number
of these sales involve third-
country trading deals wherein
the Japanese act as middle-
men between Canadians and

customers in, say, South
America.
Japanese trading cam-

panies have developed some
of the largest and most
sophisticated communica-
tions networks in the world.

Mitsui, for instance, has
over 200 branch offices
abroad. Marubeni has almost
as many. On a single day, 500
telexes will come and go
through their Vancouver of-
fices, pinpointing trade deals
brewing on every continent.
Coded information goes out
to dozens and dozens of
countries.

From the Japanese point
of view, the advantage of
Knowing what Canadian
businessmen have for sale lies
in bejng able to strengthen
their supply position.

That is, if a chemical
market opens up in, say, In-
dia, and the buyer wants
some machinery as well, the
Japanese trader can tap a
Canadian businessman who
happens to be manufacturing
just such machinery on the

School officials
“see some light’

FROM PAGE A1

Her hope for the New Ycar
is that the board will be able
to ‘‘take stock and begin
mending the broken fences of
relationships between the

board, staff and parents tn
West Vancouver.’

“*) hope that by September
84, we will still be providing
quality education for ~-West
Van children within the given
framework .”” Sikula said

Busy P.O.-
changes days

THE BRITISH Post Office
has discovered that its post

Offices are less busy on
Tucsdays than on
Wednesdays “‘because of
shifting patterns of

business "'

Hence, all British
issucs during 1984 will
day” on Tuesdays,
than Wednesdays

stamp
“taest
tather

WE SUPPORT

the United Way

He has our number

shoulder and cut him in on
the transaction

Last year, Mitsui’s Van-
couver office alone arranged
nearly half a million business
deais between Canada, Japan
and the rest of the world.
That represents bread on the
table for thee and me.

At dinner a few weeks ago,
consul general Nakamura
told me when he hears the
term ‘‘Japan, Inc.”’ coming
from a Canadian, he laughs.
Not rudely, of course. He
simply finds it amusing.

‘‘When we talk about
Canada,’” he said, ‘‘we refer
to YOU as Canada, Inc.’’ He
went on to explain that the

degree of government in-
volvement (or meddling) in
the business affairs of this
country is vastly greater than
in Japan.

It is Canada, not Japan, he
argued, where industry and
government are so tightly in-
tegrated that they can scarce-
ly be viewed as separate
entities.

If this column reaches your
desk before you leave for
your next posting, Mr.
Nakamura, I just wanted to
say thanks.

That insight of yours
clarifies a vague notion that
has been forming in my head
for a long time, namely that
Canada has become some
kind of economic mutant
halfway between an enor-
mous Post Office and an ac-
tual free market.

The reason Taizo
Nakamura will be missed
here is that he probably had a
better understanding of
Canada than most Cana-
dians.

BOWEN ISLAND residents used humor — with a
serious message — to spread the word of their
plight Monday..

A group of 12 residents
turned up at Horseshoe Bay
ferry terminal and set up an
impromptu gambling casino
with a catch. .

The catch was that no one
could win, something that
Bowen Islander residents say
they now face with new ferry
fares in effect.

The residents are continu-
ing their fight against fare in-
creases, some as high as 122
per cent, announced Dec. 8.
A roll back on Dec. 21 that

saw all proposed increases
reduced by 50 cents didn’t
mollify them.

The gambling casino was
the latest in a series of public
events aimed at rising interest
and support for their fight.

Later this month, ‘the
Bowen Island ferry commit-
tee will meet the board of
directors of the B.C. Ferry
Corporation to argue that the
increases are unwarranted
and that they discriminate
against the residents.

Metro Vancouver

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