Elise and Molly visit Nitto.
Our time in Japan is quickly coming to an end, as we finished up in Nagoya on Thursday morning and headed even further south to Osaka for our final meetings.
In Nagoya, we met with Nitto, one of Zionsville’s newest companies located on Bennett Parkway. Like many of our other partners, Nitto is a very large company that manufactures and distributes a broad variety of products like stationery or smart phone components, however we spent a majority of our time talking about their work in the auto and aerospace sectors.
Molly and Elise meet with representatives from JETRO.
Our final meeting was with JETRO Osaka (Japan External Trade Organization), which was an educational opportunity for us to learn about their work and their region.
Our goal with this visit was to raise awareness about Indiana and to ensure that Boone County is on their map. JETRO was pleased to learn that two of Osaka’s companies – Nitto, mentioned above, and NTN, in Whitestown – have a presence in our community.
Representatives from Nitto receive gifts from a local Boone County craftsman.
In closing, please know there are many purposes to a trip like this. We want to raise awareness of Boone County and meet with prospects if we can (a difficult feat in Japan; cold calling isn’t done here), but most of all, to build relationships with our existing companies. Yes, we do that back at home, but it is incredibly important to make visits such as these to formally express our appreciation, listen to their concerns, and work with those companies on solutions that matter. This is business developments at its most grassroots level, and it is done differently here in Japan than in the United States.
Elise and I both appreciate the opportunity to represent Boone County here in Japan, and we look forward to updating you all on more in the time ahead. See you next week!