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Tennessee has a rich history in terms of our relationship with Japan. We’ve seen over
$14 billion in investment in Tennessee from Japanese companies and over 33,000 Tennesseans
have jobs with those companies. You look at that rich history and the rich investment
and you really trace it back to now senator, then Governor Lamar Alexander who first convinced
Nissan that Tennessee would be a great place to base their business. Since then I think
over 150 other companies, Japanese companies have come here. We had a chance to host a
lot of those at a lunch one day and it was incredible to see company after company come
in and talk about their investment in Tennessee, and why they chose us. We also took the chance
while we were there to renew our relationships with a lot of our larger partners: Mitsubishi’s
, Nissan’s and Bridgestone’s and so many others. We had excellent one on one meetings.
I always think that when it comes to economic development and job recruitment, that the
best source is where you’re already doing well, and it’s one of the reasons I think
you see a focus on Japan for us when we look at our foreign investment. Japan is larger
than our next four countries combined, and that relationship is one that I intend to
build on and strengthen. It was a great trip, we had a wonderful delegation representing
the state, again one of those times when I was really proud of the effort and the results
that Tennessee is producing.