Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai is headed to Japan Sunday for five days to meet with companies that could relocate business or expand into the San Antonio region.
“We have a couple Japanese businesses that are proposing to come in immediately so I will pay them a visit,” Sakai told the San Antonio Report Tuesday.
Details about economic development missions are generally kept under close wraps, but documents laying out the trip’s cost mention Bexar County’s investments in training residents for careers in advanced manufacturing, with a particular focus on “vehicle and related production.”
Japan is considered a top global market for foreign investment because of “domestic demographic trends that force them to develop ‘off-shoring’ production strategies,” the documents said.
“I want to let the people in Japan know — especially the business people know — that there’s a new county judge who just happens to be Japanese American,” said Sakai, whose grandparents immigrated from Japan to South Texas. “In my culture … relationship building is crucial.”
A 1974 trip to Japan made by Henry Cisneros, before he became mayor, led to a key relationship that helped bring Toyota to San Antonio in 1984.
In more recent years, Bexar County leaders took heat for funding a different economic development effort that fell far short of its goals to market the Texas-Mexico automotive cluster to Chinese companies.
A March 2024 report from Bexar County indicates the region is on track to be competitive for these types of projects, thanks to major changes in workforce development.
Sakai said Tuesday that his goals for the trip include making sure that the county’s investments are matching up with the companies that want to come here.
“There’s a lot of discussion, and perhaps diverse opinions, as to the effectiveness of our current workforce,” Sakai said. “One of the reasons why I want to go to Japan is to make sure they feel that the skill set of the labor that they’re getting satisfies their needs.”
If not, he said, partnerships like the one the county has with Alamo Colleges may need to be revisited.
Sakai’s chief of staff Matthew Polanco, Executive Director of Economic and Community Development David Marquez, and leaders from the economic development group Greater:SATX will also be on the trip.
Bexar County Commissioners Court approved funding for the group’s travel Tuesday, which is expected to total about $73,000, or $18,000 per person.
Sakai and his wife, Rachel Dias-Sakai, recently met with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida when the latter was in Washington, D.C. to address Congress.
Rachel Dias-Sakai will also attend the trip to Japan next week, but her travel will be paid for personally, Sakai said.
