Japan: Wind of Change

A Soviet visitor seeks a thaw

It was unseasonably warm and the sky was clear blue. In meteorological and in diplomatic terms, there was a thaw in the air last week when Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze arrived in Tokyo to begin a five-day visit, the first to Japan by a Soviet Foreign Minister since Andrei Gromyko, now the Soviet President, stepped on Japanese soil ten years ago. The latest visitor set an optimistic note, declaring his hope that the two nations will be blown closer together by a "wind of change."

Many Japanese, however, had different ideas: fleets of sound trucks manned by Japanese right-wing activists...

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