78-07-A1

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Japan I

Transcript For the last few weeks you've been hearing commentaries I prerecorded before setting off on a 'round-the-world trip that was definitely not non-stop. In the next few broadcasts I'd like to talk about some far away places that have a great bearing on our security and economy. Nancy and I flew to Honolulu for an overnight stop where I participated briefly in an economic conference before flying on to Tokyo the next day. That flight took us across five time zones and the international date line which has always intrigued and sometimes confused me. Out there in the vast and trackless Pacific on a Friday afternoon we came to that dividing point at which a day was taken out of our lives. Friday instantly became Saturday. Of course, if you turn around and return by the same route you'll get the day back again. We've done this a few times before, but this time we would continue on West until we finally reached California. As far as I'm concerned we've permanently lost a day unless sometime we do the trip in reverse. I found myself wondering all sorts of things such as, wasn't there a split second when it was Saturday for those in the front of the plane and Friday for those in the rear? Or what would happen if a ship were becalmed--astraddle the line--and passengers could walk back and forth from Saturday to Friday and back to Saturday. Well, enough of that. I want to make one thing clear--we were not on a vacation. The four-day schedule in Tokyo included two speeches, a question-and-answer session with the Foreign Correspondents Association, a full round of meetings with business and industrial leaders, meetings with leaders in Japan's legislature, the Diet, meetings with cabinet ministers, and with Prime Minister Fukuda. We had previously met in 1971 when he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. An American visiting Japan can't help being impressed by the vitality and energy of the people. You come away with an uncomfortable feeling that they have something we once had and took for granted but which, if we haven't lost entirely, we are in danger of losing. Their per man hour productivity far exceeds ours and the rate at which it is increasing is almost double ours. A shopping trip or even a coffee break in a cafe leaves you with two impressions. One is of unfailing, cheerful courtesy on the part of everyone you do business with and the other the full reality of how anemic our American dollar has become. I'd like to meet an American who couldn't be shocked by a $40 price tag on a cantaloupe. At that rate it's cheaper to eat money. Incidentally, the next time I'm caught in rush hour traffic I'm going to remember the all-day-long, curb-to-curb traffic in Tokyo where we never saw a bent fender or an unwashed car. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-07-A1 Production Date 05/15/1978 Book/Page RPtV-293 Audio Youtube? No
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