INTRODUCTION

Edward Heath (1916–2005), who was the British prime minister from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1975, had a distinguished career in politics, which he described in his autobiography The Course of My Life, published in 1998. He was an accomplished yachtsman and musician. This essay focuses on his visit to Japan in 1972 and covers briefly his later involvement with Japan primarily as a member of the advisory council of the Praemium Imperiale Awards. In 1998, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government in recognition of the contribution he had made to deepening and developing Anglo-Japanese relations.

OFFICIAL VISIT TO JAPAN

Preparations and background

Mr Heath had been prime minister at the time of the state visit to London of the Japanese Emperor in the autumn of 1971 and had had a lengthy discussion over dinner at the Guildhall with the then Japanese foreign minister Mr Fukuda Takeo, largely about US-Japan economic relations and Japanese exports of textiles. Mr Heath in his autobiography simply recorded that in September 1972 he had been the first British Prime Minister to visit Japan. In a telegram to President Nixon on 11 September 1972, he said that he had begun to think that he should go to Japan after talking with the President in Bermuda in December 1971, but he had no doubt realized before then the growing importance of Japan and the need for Britain to pay greater attention to relations with such a significant economic power. The visit took place at a time when economic relations with Japan were strained and there was a significant imbalance in trade between the two countries. In his meeting in Tokyo on 18 September 1972 with Mr Tanaka Kakuei, the Japanese prime minister, Mr Heath said that he could not understand why none of his predecessors had come to Tokyo before.

There had been a steady increase during the 1960s in British interest in Japan. It had been agreed in principle that the two Foreign Ministers should meet annually but more often than not these meetings had been postponed.