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A series of roadshows by lawmakers designed to celebrate Japanese investment around Georgia made its latest stop in Gwinnett last week.
On June 26, a group of Georgia-Japan Legislative Caucus members and business leaders joined Japanese Consul General Mio Maeda on a visit to Ricoh Electronics and Etria Inc., affiliated companies co-located on a 66-acre campus in Lawrenceville.
Ricoh, which makes printers, copiers, scanners and other office technology, has long been present in Georgia, launching a major expansion on the site in 2011.
In 2017, the company shut down its logistics arm, absorbing some 50 employees into Ricoh Electronics Inc., which now has multiple locations in Gwinnett.
In 2024, Japan-based Ricoh partnered with Toshiba Tec on a global joint venture dubbed ETRIA to manufacture multifunction printers. ETRIA Manufacturing USA Inc. makes toner as well as other related products like shipping labels and barcodes.
“We toured the facility and got a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how labels and toners are made – a process that gave us a new appreciation for the everyday items we often take for granted,” Sandy Riordan, a consultant with Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP and coordinator of the caucus’s activities, wrote in a recap.
The caucus, which boasts May visit took a group to Hitachi-Astemo in northwest Georgia. Earlier trips have focused on Aflac Inc. in Columbus, the insurance giant that logs the majority of its revenues in Japan, as well as Murata Electronics America in Cobb County, one of the state’s earliest Japanese investors, among many others.
On March 18, the caucus hosted its annual Japan Day at the Capitol for the third straight year, with exhibitors showcasing their wares including:
- Hitachi Astemo
- OFS
- Toyo Tires
- QUICK, USA
- Mizuno
- Yakult
- YKK
- Kuraoka Clinic
- Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Georgia
- Japan External Trade Organization
- Shimizu America, Inc.
More than 40 members of the Georgia House of Representatives and some 15 state senators are part of the caucus, which was constituted to acknowledge a partnership that over 50 years has seen some 400 Japanese companies invest more than $11 billion and create 30,000 jobs that impact the furthest reaches of the state.
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