The 13 May issue of Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Journal) reported on a unique 'round table' conference held in Japan the previous weekend, between business leaders from Europe, America and Japan.
The Journal, having noted that real information is produced from 'networks of people' who understand each other, concluded, 'A new and valuable network of people has just been created in Japan, at a time when she tends to be a target of pressure from the rest of the world.'
The visiting group was headed by Frederik Philips (former President of Philips Electrical Industries) and Olivier Giscard d'Estaing, Vice-President of the European Institute of Business Administration at Fontainebleau.
They had jointly convened an initial round table conference on world trade conflicts the previous year. This took place during the annual industrial sessions at Caux, Switzerland.
The May visit to Japan by the 10-strong Euro-American delegation helps to prepare the ground for the next round table session at the end of August, again in Caux. While in Japan, the Western industrialists held discussions with Mr Makoto Kuroda, Vice Minister of International Trade and Industry, as well as with the managements of top Japanese companies including Canon, Matsushita Electrics, Nissan and Toshiba.
Summing up the spirit of the visit, Olivier Giscard d'Estaing told his Japanese hosts: 'We believe in miracles. Japan has already performed two: that of her postwar reconstruction and that of her breakthrough to the position of second-biggest economy in the world. Together now we have to perform a third one - that of partnership in the solution of existing tensions.'
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