JAPAN SEEKS TO STRENGTHEN PARIS CURRENCY ACCORD

  Japan will seek to strengthen the
  Paris accord on currency stability at the meeting of the group
  of seven leading industrial nations tomorrow, Japanese
  officials said.
      However, the officials travelling with Japanese Finance
  Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and who asked not to be identified,
  would not provide any details of how they wanted the accord,
  which was signed by the six leading industrial democracies in
  February, to be strengthened.
      Currency target zones, or reference ranges, will not be
  discussed at the G-7 meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow,
  the Japanese officials said.
      The meeting, which is being held in conjunction with this
  week's International Monetary Fund/World Bank sessions, will
  reaffirm the currency pact and there is no need for changing 
  the language used in the Paris accord, the officials said.
      Miyazawa met with U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker early
  in this afternoon and discussed the dollar/yen exchange rates,
  officials said, but they declined to disclosed the details of
  that discussion.
      The Japanese officials also declined to detail what
  Miyazawa and Baker discussed on the subject of greater joint
  intervention in currency markets to stabilize the dollar or on
  independent American intervention.
      The officials said such a money market action to stabilize
  the dollar is not only for the benefit of Japan, which is
  suffering from a sharp appreciation in its currency, but also
  for the benefit of the United States as well.
      As to U.S. urgings for Japan to take steps to boost its
  domestic demand to reduce its trade surplus, Japan will explain
  economic measures to the G-7, the officials said.
      However, Miyazawa failed to outline the size of the
  Japanese economic package in his meeting with Baker today
  because the Japanese 1987/88 budget has not been authorized by
  the Diet, or parliament, despite the new fiscal year which
  started April one, the officials said.
      Japan's ruling liberal democratic party revealed its own
  economic package today calling for more than 5,000 billion yen
  in additional spending.
  

