Administration of George Bush, 1992 / Jan. 8

And lastly, and this is the end, you’ll be every one of you. happy to know, I just want to thank all of the people in this wonderful city who have given Barbara Bush, over here, and me such Note: The President spoke at 4:10 p.m. In a warm welcome. When we got off that hel- his remarks, he referred to Yoshiya icopter here and came by those wonderfully Kakimoto, Governor of Nara; Taro Miura, warm, smiling faces, extending to us a Mayor of Kashihara; , Jap- warm, Japanese welcome, we felt very, very anese Minister of Foreign Affairs; and grateful and very emotional. And that said Charles Lazarus, chairman and chief execu- an awful lot about the friendship between tive officer of Toys-R-Us. A tape was not and the of America. available for verification of the content of Thank you. And may God bless each and these remarks.

Remarks With Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa of Japan to the Presidential Business Delegation in January 8, 1992

The President. Let me just say to those beat of our country in jobs in small busi- on the American side and this very distin- ness, independent business. And so, the guished delegation of American business head of the Independent Business Associa- people that are here, led by our able Sec- tion is here, the National Association of retary of Commerce, how pleased we are Manufacturing. And in these discussions, to be in Japan and, Mr. Prime Minister, your friends and colleagues are talking to how much we appreciate your hospitality. our organizations as well as to these busi- Are we going to have a translation or do ness executives and individuals in whom I we—— have so much personal confidence. The Prime Minister. Go ahead. I think But we’re grateful to you. And I would we understand. just like to turn the floor over to you, sir, The President. And to the Japanese here, for any comments that you’d care to make. let me say how important we view this part The Prime Minister. Thank you, Mr. of our trip. The trip is not simply about President. If I may, a few words. jobs and business. This is a terribly impor- Secretary Mosbacher, distinguished U.S. tant part of it. But given the breadth of business executives, I hope you are having understanding of this Prime Minister, we’ve a productive meeting. It must be quite rare, been able to talk about world security prob- even in the United States, for such an out- lems, about a global partnership, about the standing group of business executives to get big picture. To guarantee that this big pic- together in one room, particularly from such ture continues to unfold in a positive way, a broad spectrum of industries ranging from we must make dramatic progress on the potato chips to computer chips. [Laughter] business side. And indeed, Prime Minister I should be delighted if you take full advan- Miyazawa and I have had a real opportunity tage of this special occasion for the benefit now to begin once again our discussions of of both economies. this. President Bush and I are working hard But I would say to you, my friend, these to advance our bilateral relationship includ- are good people, our business people. They ing its economic aspect, not only for the are people that not only represent individual sake of our two countries but also for the American companies, but in a sense we’ve rest of the world. In so doing, both the brought a delegation that is widely con- President and I have great expectations for nected with chambers of commerce, Fed- the input from the private sectors. eration of Independent Business, the heart- Now, 18 people are enough to form 2

49 Jan. 8 / Administration of George Bush, 1992 baseball teams. I hope you will be throwing interest. balls of imaginative and creative ideas back The Prime Minister. You have done a and forth with the Trade Minister here great deal to bring this new world of peace, today, as well as with Japanese business rep- really, after the Gulf thing. resentatives tomorrow morning, so as to fur- The President. I might use this oppor- ther utilize market-access opportunities here tunity to say here in front of our leaders in Japan. in Japan that there had been some rumors You are welcome. Thank you very much. around that in the United States, that I have The President. May I correct an omission? addressed myself to in the United States, Yesterday, far beyond the call of duty, Mr. of a disappointment on the part of me as Watanabe, the Minister, met with our peo- President about Japan’s part in Desert ple and came down and couldn’t have been Storm. With the press here, let me just re- more hospitable to Mrs. Bush and me. And peat what I’ve said at home: Japan stepped I’m very sorry I did not mention that in up and did what Japan was asked to do. the beginning of my remarks. And I have been very grateful for that. We note these things. We Americans note And to the degree that anyone here might these courtesies. And that one, I think, was be asked about whether we were dis- wonderful. And your asking the former appointed in Japan’s role, the answer, as Prime Minister to come down there to greet I’ve said back then, is no. Japan did what us also was noted with great appreciation was asked of Japan. And Japan was there and got this visit off, I think, Mr. Watanabe, in several important ways, and they were to a good start yesterday. not asked to send troops into Desert Storm. But now we’ve got to follow through. We understand, and we didn’t ask for that. We’ve got to be specific. We’ve got to get And so let me just take this opportunity to as much as we can, set tables, times— to tell you that’s not an irritant between ‘‘Let’s do it by then.’’ And I think we can us. do it. I really believe that we can move The Prime Minister. I, Mr. President, this process forward. And it is in our inter- greatly appreciate your saying so. I think ests; it is in your interests. And I like to we did our utmost, and I do appreciate your think that because of the progress Japan has saying that. There perhaps had some mis- made and the enormous potential that we understanding on your part, on our part, both have, that world leadership is at stake. both sides of the Pacific. But I do appre- We’ve got something here with the world ciate your saying that. that’s changing. These people have heard The President. Yes. Well, there’s none on me give this speech, but I’ll be very short. mine, but there may have been on our side But Kiichi, when you look at where we were of the Pacific. There’s a lot of misunder- a year ago or 2 years ago in terms of world standing over there. But I want you to know peace, your little kids in this country or kids that because we thought you responded in our country growing up worried about very positively. You shouldn’t have a burden nuclear holocaust, and now we see a tre- of people saying you didn’t. mendous opportunity—— The Prime Minister. Should we get down The Prime Minister. This is really a new to our discussions again? wind in the world. The President. Okay. Thank you all. The President. It is. So, we’ve got to lead it. And we’ve got to work; we’ve got to iron out these differences between us so that we Note: The President spoke at 12:26 p.m. to can go forward without tensions mounting Japanese and American business leaders and dividing up the world into trading blocs. meeting in Akasaka Palace. In his remarks, And I am really excited about the potential. he referred to Michio Watanabe, Japanese But here’s a man that’s demonstrated his Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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