Correspondents' Correspondence Japan Wants Ford

...And the long-range results of such a trip, in terms of hard agreements on tariffs, quotas and revaluation, could certainly indicate that the new President has the capacity to pick up where Nixon left off in the conduct of foreign policy, the only really redeeming aspect of the previous Chief Executive's otherwise sordid tenure in office.-donald Kirk...

...Because of the communique signed by President Nixon and Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka during the latter's trip to the United States in August of last year, they were obligated to entertain Mr...

...Tariffs and trade quotas are another item on the Japanese agenda...

...After years of diligent bargaining and a certain amount of downright intimidation, the Nixon Administration succeeded in persuading Tokyo to liberalize tariffs and quotas on a wide variety of imports...

...In this atmosphere, therefore, it was logical for Japan to renew its invitation to the American President, despite the inevitability of protests by local Socialists and Communists...

...The issue at that time was the Japanese-American security treaty, and although demonstrators ritualistically continue to protest against the pact, it has long since faded as an item of controversy...

...Nixon sometime before the end of 1974...

...The Nixon resignation, of course, has cleared the air, and the Tanaka government, as eager as ever for a genuine "Presidential visit," has quickly proffered an invitation to President Ford...

...decision in the following month to impose a 10 per cent surcharge on imports as a means of forcing a revaluation of the yen...

...What better way, then, for the unpopular Tanaka to exhibit his eagerness to combat the problem than by receiving the just-installed American chief of state for the purpose of insuring good relations...

...Yet, as might be expected, they looked on the prospect of the embattled American leader descending upon them as a nightmare-the more so since his unpopular position at home could make successful the kind of demonstrations that had forced the cancellation of President Eisenhower's visit 14 years ago, the last scheduled appearance by a U.S...

...Since last October's Mideast war, however, the Japanese have been beset with seemingly insoluble inflation, and are now growing restive about these ar rangements...

...and, second, the much more significant U.S...

...A trip to Japan could be considered useful by President Ford as well...

...Most Japanese seem to take the treaty for granted-And view it as protection against the further inflation that would result if the nation built up its own military establishment beyond the present minimal level of under 200,000 troops...

...Moreover, in view of Ford's relative inexperience in foreign policy matters, the Japanese would like to impress upon h'm as promptly as possible their fears about the energy crisis and shifts toward isolationism within the U.S...

...President that enabled it to undermine Eisenhower's plans in 1960...

...Japan Wants Ford Tokyo-Not long ago, Japanese officials were facing an almost impossible political and diplomatic dilemma...

...Indeed, inflation is the real issue here, the only one that penetrates the life of literally everyone in the country...

...Forever worried about Washington's inclination to overlook them while pursuing other aims, the Japanese have not forgotten the two celebrated "Nixon shocks": First, the July 1971 announcement that he was going to China, made with only a half-hour's notice to America's leading Asian "ally...

...The yen, pegged at 262 to the American dollar a year ago, has decreased in value to 302 to the dollar-And may go down even further...

...No one here, including the leaders of the radical groups, believes the splintered Japanese Left can muster the force against the new U.S...

...chief executive...

...It would establish him as an international mover-treading on territory where his predecessor had not ventured at all during his five and a half years in the White House...