While industrial jobs have been leaving Michigan and Ohio for the better part of three decades, the influence of Japanese companies on the local economies in both states has been steadily rising.
A new survey released by the Japan's Consulate in Detroit counted nearly 700 facilities, ranging from small sales offices to giant assembly plants in the two states. The Japanese-affiliated businesses also employed more than 93,000 workers, according to the survey.
In Ohio alone, where Honda now employs more than 16,000 workers, more than eight percent of the industrial jobs are now connected to Japanese companies in a state that has always been considered something of bellwether for American manufacturing in general.
Japanese-affiliated companies employ roughly 64,000 workers in Ohio, which is down slightly from 2003. More than 40,000 of the jobs are in manufacturing. Overall there are 340 Japanese-affiliated facilities in Ohio, and more than 70 percent of them are involved in manufacturing.
Keiji Mura, Japan's deputy consul general in Detroit, said a significant portion of the Japanese companies based in the region are connected to the automobile industry, and he predicted Japanese companies will continue to invest in both states. In all, nearly 9000 Japanese citizens live in Michigan, and more than 6000 in Ohio, the consulate added.
New arrivals
Only last week, Hino Motors Ltd., one of Japan's largest builders of commercial trucks, dedicated its new headquarters for Hino Motors Manufacturing USA in Farmington Hills, Mich. It moved to the Midwest from Southern California.
Derek Kaufman, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Hino, said the Japanese truck maker - which is controlled by Toyota Motor Corp. - has operated in the United States since the mid-1980s, but it wants to expand.
"It's primarily a planning and coordination facility. But it will grow as the volume with Toyota and the volume with Hino (trucks) grows," he added.
"In moving our U.S. headquarters to the heart of the automobile industry, we place ourselves in an excellent position to further expand our market share and better coordinate our manufacturing operations in the United States," said Hideichiro Chikahiro, president of HMM. "Businesswise, being located in Michigan enables us to be within a close proximity to our core customer base."
Kaufman also said being located in Detroit will make it easier for Hino to work with American suppliers as it expands truck production at a new plant now under construction in Arkansas.
Not just production
Last spring, Toyota also announced plans to build a new technical center on 600 acres near Milan, Michigan. Nissan also expanded its technical center in Farmington Hills last year.
Overall, Japanese companies in Michigan boosted employment by one-half percent last year at time when many of the state's companies were cutting back, according to the Japanese consulate's survey. Japanese firms employed a total of 30,238 workers in Michigan. According to the survey, the number of Japanese-affiliated facilities in Michigan actually dropped by four to 347, but the total number of employees increased by 176. However, the number of Japanese citizens living in the state also increased by 2.3 percent, the survey said.
Mura said the increase reflected the changing nature of the nature of the work done in Michigan by the Japanese employers. Increasingly, Japanese companies have increased the size and scope of their technical centers, and that's helping bring more Japanese professionals and managers to the Detroit area. Detroit's northern suburbs in Oakland County are the home to the largest collection of Japanese-affiliated facilities with 177 and more than 5300 Japanese citizens.
The stable Japanese community in the Detroit suburbs also has attracted a number of businesses that specifically cater to the Japanese community, the consular officials noted.
