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SV ZOOM INTO: close up of Japanese Prime Minister Ohira (facing camera) listening to question by Visnews's Paul Toulmin-Rothe.
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CU: Ohira replies
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SV: Ohira listens to second question to second question and replies.
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Masayoshi Ohira, has signed out the world energy problem and inflation as the two most important topics for discussion at the Tokyo summit meeting. Seven leaders of the world's major powers will attend the summit on June 28th.

SYNOPSIS: Mr. Ohira, was asked by Visnews' Paul Toulmin-Rothe to name the key topics for discussion at the summit.

Mr. Ohira replied that the thought the most important topics must be inflation and energy. These two problems are intimately related. He said much of the effort by these attending the summit would be aimed at understanding the energy problem and reaching a common policy for its solution.

Mr. Ohira was then questioned about Japan's increasingly important role in the world affairs, and whether that process would continue.

The Japanese Prime Minister replied that every country in the world has a role to play, and Japan is no exception. However, as a country that was defeated in the second World War, Japan still feels somewhat diffident and unwilling to be seen in any way arrogant. Mr. Ohira said that as Japan's economic power has increased in the cultural and academic fields, as well as in economics and politics. It is true, he said, that the world's expectation is for a bigger part to be played by Japan, and the Japanese do understand the responsibility that this entails.