Through the Eyes of the Consul General of Japan in Detroit

 
It has been exactly four months since I moved from San Francisco on the West Coast of the U.S. to Detroit in the Midwest. During this time, I’ve made eleven business trips to Ohio, one of the two states under our jurisdiction. I always go by car, not airplane. My consulate driver is Nikeda, an African-American woman who used to drive city buses in Detroit. Despite her background, she drives quite fast. In fact, the other day she was pulled over by the Ohio State Police for speeding on the highway—but most of the time, the ride is smooth. It takes about three and a half hours one way to get to Columbus, the state capital.

The name "Ohio" is said to come from an Iroquois word meaning "Great River." People from the state are nicknamed “Buckeyes,” after the native buckeye tree.

When you cross from Michigan into Ohio, you can tell immediately. The roads in Ohio are much better (Fix the dumb roads by Governor Whitmer of Michigan).  The sky feels wider—a sign of the flatter landscape. Do you know Ohioans don’t call Michigan by name; they refer to it as simply “the northern state.” The University of Michigan and Ohio State University are fierce rivals in football. In the auto industry, Michigan is associated with Toyota and Nissan, while Ohio is Honda. Japan is Ohio’s largest foreign investor—thanks in large part to Honda—whereas it ranks second in Michigan.

So why is investment in Ohio so strong? Governor Mike DeWine puts it this way:
"Ohio has abundant fresh water. Next, we have low-cost electricity. And we also have a high-quality workforce."
Honda has made large cumulative investments, but recently Intel announced a $28 billion semiconductor investment over five years. At the site, I observed 30 cranes and 1,000 workers are currently leveling the ground.

“Jimmy, in ten years, Ohio will overtake California to become the wealthiest state in the U.S.,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, a beaming gubernatorial candidate born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents. The fresh water from the Great Lakes and the Ohio River is the source of his confidence.
In Ohio, I’ve been visiting regional cities and exchanging views with mayors—Cleveland, Troy, Brunswick, Findlay, Bowling Green, and Dublin. Honorary Consuls Mr. Hiroyuki Fujita in Cleveland and Mr. Dave Cook in Columbus represent the Consulate well. This fall, Maestro Keitaro Harada is scheduled to conduct the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Japanese language education is thriving at universities, and at Ohio University in the southeast, 26 first-year students from Chubu University were on a short-term study program. Before taking this post, my image of Ohio was limited to soybeans and corn—but, in a good way, reality has proven to be much more than that.

The revival of waterfront areas across the United States—could Ohio’s abundant fresh water hold the key to a bright future? I hope to continue traveling with Nikeda and learning even more about this fascinating state.