Nader Urges Japanese to Demand Consumer Rights

TOKYO —  America’s most famous consumer activist, Ralph Nader, came to the land of the $50 watermelon and told Japanese consumers today to quit letting business shove them around.

Nader, who aims to galvanize Japan’s nearly non-existent consumer movement on a two-week speaking tour, encouraged the Japanese to demand the same consumer rights and protections available to Americans.

Nader, 55, held up the successes of the U.S. consumer movement as a goal for Japan and criticized the Bush Administration for working to dismantle those achievements.

“Vice President (Dan) Quayle doesn’t even know how to spell the word consumer, “ Nader told reporters.

“The Reagan-Bush governments have been the most antagonistic to the enforcement of consumer health safety laws,” he said. “They have not enforced the anti-monopoly laws. They have not recalled products. They have demoralized the (consumer-related government) agencies.”

Nader said the most urgent consumer problem in Japan is the unrestricted advertising and sale of tobacco, which leads to 200,000 deaths a year and is encouraged by the United States.

“I find it offensive that our government, using tax money, has been battering at Japan, South Korea and Thailand to open their market for a death-dealing drug called nicotine packaged by the U.S. tobacco industry,” Nader said.

Nader has an uphill battle trying to excite the notoriously docile Japanese consumer.

The weakness of Japanese consumers is reflected in high prices of goods, which are on average three times the price in America. The Japanese argue that they are willing to put up with high prices in exchange for better quality and service and full employment.

But Nader called on the Japanese to quit accepting high prices.

“No more gaman, “ said Nader, referring to the Japanese word for enduring pain without complaint, considered a Japanese virtue.