Fukuoka, Japan’s 41-year-old mayor came to Atlanta last week on the tail-end of the SEUS Japan 38th conference held in Birmingham, Ala., bearing his optimistic agenda for his city’s future.
Although Soichiro Takashima tends to focus on Seattle as the aspired model for his city because of Silicon Valley’s startup culture, he didn’t forget Atlanta to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its sister city relationship.
The Coca-Cola Co.‘s Atlanta headquarters threw open its doors to Mr. Takashima and more than 100 Japanese delegates for a reception on Nov. 17 during which Mayor Kasim Reed greeted his counterpart.
The headquarters of Coca-Cola West, one of seven Coke bottlers in Japan, is located in Fukuoka, but the city boasts many more similarities aside from being in the Coke fraternity.
A sister city friendship agreement was signed in 1994 by former Japan Prime Minister Toshiba Kaifu who saw the potential for collaboration from the cities’ similarities as capitals, regional transportation hubs and centers of technological development and manufacturing. A formal sister city agreement was concluded in 2005.
Mr. Takashima made a point in his remarks at Coke, however, of looking forward instead of retracing his city’s ties to Atlanta. The prime minister on his mind was not Mr. Kaifu, but rather Shinzo Abe, whose “Abenomics” growth strategy designated Fukuoka last year as a National Srategic Special Zone for Global Startups and Job Creation.
Not surprisingly for a mayor who first was elected at age 36 five years ago in a country where politicians generally don’t consider entering politics until their 40s, he spoke energetically — in outstanding English — about the city’s youthful population with the greatest number of students of any city in Japan with the exception of Kyoto, and underscored that 30,000 of them are enrolled in science courses.
Almost 20 percent of its population is between the ages of 15 and 29, a remarkable number in a country with an aging population. It also includes a large number of women with 51.7 percent of them ranging from 15 to 29 years old.
Exhibiting a flair for marketing, Mr. Takeshima touched on many of his city’s positives including its increase in tourists, especially those who arrive by cruise ships as well as the unique proximity of its port to its airport and to its railroad station.
He didn’t forget to promote the city’ history, food, or traditional culture, but he bore down on its efforts to attract startup companies.
Under Mr. Abe’s development plan, Fukuoka is one of a select few designated as a Special Economic Zone, providing tax breaks and special incentives for companies to move there.
Mr. Takashima can talk-the-talk of “one-stop shopping” for startups as well as anyone, and he is famous to declaring several years ago in his “Startup City Fukuoka Declaration” that he wanted to see the city become the “Silicon Valley of Asia.”
The accomplishments of Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon and Boeing are never far from his conscience.
His presentation is more balanced than just that of a high powered salesman, however, and he is somewhat disarming with his acknowledgement of the city’s weaknesses.
An airport with only one runway and with limited space to build others is a setback, he acknowledged. A shortage of appropriate buildings is another major concern, he admitted, saying that he is thankful to his national government’s relaxation of building codes allowing the city to address this problem immediately.
He also would like to see the city have more national headquarters of multinational companies instead of their many branch offices, and he wants to build waterfront capacity to handle the increasing number of cruise ships coming to the city.
Despite the welcoming reception for the 38th SEUS Japan event held in Birmingham where among the distinguished guests was former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who grew up there, and Japan’s ambassador to the U.S., Kenichiro Sasae, Mr. Takashima could only return home with vivid memories of Atlanta.
His warm reception at Coke was attended by a large number of local officials, Japanese officials based in Atlanta and executives of Georgia companies.
During his visit at Coke, Mr. Takashima heard presentations by Scott McMurray, division director of Georgia’s global commerce division, who provided an overview of the state’s important trade with Japan and its extensive presence of Japanese companies;
by Japanese Consul General Kazuo Sunaga whose very presence was a reminder that the Japanese consulate general is located in Atlanta and
by Takeshi Saito, who directs the office of the Japan External Trade Organization for the islands of Kyushu, where Fukuoka is located, and Okinawa, and who served as JETRO’s head in Atlanta from 2006-09.
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