Helen Clark is not afraid to snap at the hand that helps feed her nation.
A year after an exchange of terse statements with Tokyo over its whaling program, the New Zealand prime minister is visiting Japan with a high-level trade delegation to strengthen business ties between the two countries.
Although she intends to raise the issue of a South Pacific whale sanctuary in talks with Japanese officials, Clark is also in Japan no doubt to ensure that the brief but intense diplomatic dispute in January 2000 has not hurt bilateral relations.