United States-Japan Economic Relations Group Joint Announcement.

President Carter and Prime Minister Ohira announced today that the following persons had agreed to serve on the U.S.-Japan Economic Relations Group: Ambassador Robert S. Ingersoll (U.S. chairman), A. W. Clausen, Hugh T. Patrick, Edson W. Spencer, Ambassador Nobuhiko Ushiba (Japanese chairman), Akio Morita, Shuzo Muramoto and Kiichi Saeki.

This Group was established by President Carter and Prime Minister Ohira at their bilateral May 2 meeting in Washington, when they agreed that a small group of distinguished persons drawn from private life would submit recommendations to the President and the Prime Minister concerning actions to maintain a healthy bilateral economic relationship between the United States and Japan.

On June 25, during President Carter's bilateral Summit meetings with Prime Minister Ohira in Tokyo, it was agreed that the co-chairmen of the Group would be former Ambassadors Robert Ingersoll and Nobuhiko Ushiba. Since their selection in late June, the co-chairmen have been considering potential nominees for the Group. The selections by the President and the Prime Minister reflect the recommendations of their respective cochairmen.

The Group will hold its first meeting in mid-December, with the objective of submitting timely recommendations to the President and the Prime Minister.

Mr. Ingersoll was formerly Ambassador to Japan (1972-73), Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1974), and Deputy Secretary of State (1974 1976). Chairman of the Japan Society since September 1978, Mr. Ingersoll has been a member of many international business committees and councils, including the Advisory Council on U.S.-Japan Relations and the Emergency Committee for American Trade. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago.

Mr. Ushiba, a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Tokyo Imperial University, entered the Japanese Foreign Service in 1932. He has served in various capacities abroad and in Tokyo, including Ambassador to Canada (1961-64), Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs (1967-70), and Ambassador to the United States (1970-73). Mr. Ushiba was named State Minister for External Economic Relations in November 1977 and served as Ambassador for the Multilateral Trade Negotiations from December 1978 until recently.

Mr. Spencer is chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell, Inc. He was a Rhodes Scholar 1948-50 and has been with the Honeywell firm since 1954. From 1959-65 he was their Far East regional manager in Tokyo. He is a director of Northwest Bancorporation and International Harvester.

Professor Patrick is a professor of Economics at Yale University. He holds the Ph. D. degree in economics from the University of Michigan and has several times in his career been granted fellowships for study in Japan. On the faculty of Yale since 1960 and a member of the interuniversity Japan Economic Seminar, he is the author of numerous scholarly publications and co-editor of "Asia's New Giant," a definitive study of the Japanese economy published in 1976.

Mr. Clausen is president and chief executive officer of Bank-America Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bank of America N.T. & S.A. He has been associated with Bank of America since 1949 before his election to his present position in 1969. A graduate of Carthage College, he received his LL.B. from the University of Minnesota and is a graduate of the Harvard Advanced Management Program. He is a member of the Policy Committee of The Business Roundtable, a member of the Business Council, director of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council and of the National Council for United States-China Trade and co-chairman of the Japan-California Association, as well as a member of the Japan-U.S. Advisory Council.

Mr. Muramoto is president of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd. He graduated from the economic department of Tokyo University and entered Dai-Ichi Bank where he has served as Senior Managing Director and Deputy President. From 1971-76 he has been Deputy President of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd.

Mr. Morita is chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Corporation. After graduating from the science department of Osaka University, he established Tokyo Tsush in Kogyo Ltd. (to become Sony Co. in 1958) and became its executive manager. He has been Deputy President, and President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Corporation.

Mr. Saeki has been president of Nomura Research Institute from 1965 to the present. A graduate of Tokyo University, he has served as staff member of the Economic Stabilization Board, director of a division of the Agency for Economic Research and Planning, and president of the National Defense College, Defense Agency.