Time July 19, 1993 [antikvár]

FROM THE PUBLISHER Covering the G-7 summit last week in Tokyo was a tricky reporting job. The national leaders, many of them faltering in the polls at home, badly needed to portray the meeting as a success. All the hype made it hardei* than usual to get an accurate assessment ^ of the week's achievements. Our correspondents spent all day gathering opinions and information from seven different sides, then devoted their evenings to figuring out how much of it was substance and how much smoke and mirrors. Was the "breakthrough" on the gatt talks a promise to create millions of jobs, or just a first step forward in a still perilous process? Did President Bill Clinton put U.S.-Japan relations back on a friendly footing by his campaign-style charm with the Japanese people? Tough questions call for toughei* (juestioners. Luckily for us, we had Tokyo bureau chief Ned Desmond organizing the effort. "Covering a G-7 demands a lot of discipline and attention," he says. "The most difficult thing is to see behind the expressions of self-congratulation and determine what, if any. progi-ess has really been made." Ned was part oC a force that included Washington colleagues Dan Goodgame and Michael Dulfy, who reported on Clinton, correspondent Kumiko Makihara and researcher Sa- A seasoned practitioner: Desmond in Tokyo tsuki Oba. They spent the week conducting man-in-the-street interviews, reviewing the Japanese press and calling officials, diplomats and trade experts. The Japanese foreign ministr\-made their job. as well as that of ever>" journalist there, a little easier by arranging efficient daily briefings in the Hotel New Otani and the Hotel Okura, whei'e the Clinton team was based. "The only thing they can't do is add hours to (he day." says Desmond. "Reportinga summit is a marathon because there are so ^ many points of view to capture." I Ned joined Time in 1984 as a i'e-I searcher, leaving New York to be-I come our New Delhi bureau chief in S late 1988. After (hat stint he boned i up for the Tokyo job by taking a six-Í month leave of absence during which he studied the Japanese language and politics on a fellowship at Oxford. He took over the Tokyo bureau a year ago and was immediately struck liy how much his new post was the antithesis of his last. "I rarely wore a (ie or saw an office tower on the olf-road beats of South Asia." he says, "but now 1 am in (he liut-toned-down world of Big Business and G-7 summits. The chal-ItMiges could not be moi'e different." That may be so. but the ap-pi'opriate responses—hard digging and cool analysis—are (he same, and Ned is a seasoned practitioner.