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Editor’s note: This article is the latest in a series of sponsored content highlighting the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s international activities as part of an annual partnership with Global Atlanta. The chamber will host an event on Tuesday, March 8, to celebrate Japanese business and investment in Cobb. Register via email here
We caught up with past and present leaders of the two oldest Japanese companies in Georgia to learn about the rich history of Japanese investment in Cobb.
The two oldest Japanese companies in Georgia have an ongoing, friendly dispute over which was the first to start up operations in the state. But whichever is correct, their presence started a long and prosperous history between Japanese investors and Cobb County.
A March 8 event at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce invites Japanese and local companies alike to celebrate the county’s legacy of Japanese business and investment. YKK Americas Group and Murata Electronics North America Inc., both located in Cobb, have the longest history here.
“Our presence in Atlanta since 1970 allowed us to claim that we were the first Japanese company in the state,” said Alex Gregory, retired chairman and CEO of YKK Corporation of America, a Japan-based zipper and fastener manufacturer that opened an assembly plant and sales office in Fulton County in 1970 and a vertically integrated manufacturing center in Macon in 1974. The company’s Southeast headquarters opened in Cobb County in 1977, an office that is now its base for the Americas.
“Murata was the first Japanese company to actually begin operations in Georgia, three to five months before YKK!” rebutted Tom Yamamoto, former head of Murata Americas, a maker of electronic components that began manufacturing operations in 1973 in Rockmart, Ga., in Cobb.
What is certain is that these two companies began a wave of Japanese investment in Cobb County and throughout the state, bringing Japanese business and culture to the region and forging relationships that continue today.
Those relationships are the focus of a reception to be held on Tuesday, March 8, 5-7 p.m., at the Cobb Chamber in Marietta. The “Select Cobb Japanese Celebration Reception” is an opportunity to highlight Japanese companies’ success in Cobb and to show support for them in the community.
Japanese Consul General Kazuyuki Takeuchi, officials representing the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), leaders of the Japan-America Society of Georgia and local elected officials are scheduled to speak. The chamber is partnering with JETRO to bring Japanese companies to the event.
All Japanese or Japan-related companies are invited to attend this networking opportunity that will celebrate the close ties between Japan and Cobb County that have lasted for more than 50 years.
A history of mutual respect
During the 1970s when YKK and Murata began operations in Cobb, Japan and the United States had begun an exchange-rate war, which made for an increasingly tense situation for Japanese companies in the Southeast U.S., according to Mr. Yamamoto. When the 1985 Plaza Accord among the G-5 nations strengthened the yen dramatically, importing products from Japan became twice as expensive, further increasing tensions.
In response, industries in Japan and the Southeast, including leaders from YKK and Murata, founded the Southeast U.S./Japan Association (SEUS-Japan) in 1976 to find common ground and “make the path easier” for Japanese companies to come to the region, Mr. Yamamoto noted. SEUS-Japan, the Japan-America Society and similar organizations encouraged an influx of Japanese companies, including Kubota Manufacturing of America Corp., Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of America and others, to locate here in the 1980s.
As the patriarchs of Japanese investment in Cobb County, Murata and YKK had much experience to share with other Japanese companies looking to come to Georgia and the Southeast, Mr. Yamamoto added. He was asked by the Georgia Department of Economic Development to meet with Japanese corporate visitors to “tell them how easy and comfortable it was to live in Atlanta” and to teach them the ins and outs of managing an American labor force. He has continued to help welcome Japanese visitors and transplants to Georgia even after retirement.
Mr. Gregory has a similar story. He began working with YKK when it first opened its zipper manufacturing facility in Macon in the early 1970s and, after 16 years as YKK’s Americas group president, he still serves on the board of one of the company’s subsidiaries, YKK AP America Inc., headquartered in Austell.
His and Mr. Yamamoto’s participation in not only their companies but in local Japanese business and cultural organizations like the Japan-America Society have helped promote positive relationships between Georgia and Japanese communities.
“The Japan-America Society does a wonderful job bringing Japanese and Americans together through programs that help us better understand one another. Even if political relations are not always easy, we can depend on this foundation of mutual respect and trust,” Mr. Gregory said.
He added that the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Georgia, the Consulate-General of Japan in Atlanta, JETRO and other Japan-related organizations work together to support Japanese companies throughout the state.
“We are very lucky in Atlanta to have these organizations that work together so well. We have a relatively small Japanese community, so there is a lot of cooperation. Not every state has this. It’s a huge selling point for Georgia,” Mr. Gregory said.
This cooperation among Japanese organizations, companies and their local Georgia communities has helped Japanese companies to weather downturns and dramatic economic shifts over the decades.
Shifting with the times
Neither YKK nor Murata closed up shop in Georgia when manufacturing began to shift overseas in the 1990s, Mr. Gregory and Mr. Yamamoto both emphasized.
Making “penny-a-piece” components for the electronics industry, Murata supplied the U.S. automotive industry from its Rockmart factory. The company gradually shifted 60 percent of its manufacturing to Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, with the Rockmart facility being the company’s last manufacturing site in the U.S. to close and convert to a warehouse. The Murata Electronics North America headquarters remains in Smyrna.
YKK, too, had to adjust to shifting economic trends when apparel manufacturing all but abandoned the U.S. for overseas locations in the early 2000s. Some 59 blue jeans manufacturers – YKK’s prime zipper customers in the Southeast – shut down operations between 1999 and 2005, Mr. Gregory said. When he became president of YKK Corp. of America in 2001, rather than closing operations, he and his team reorganized the company away from apparel and toward different, growing industries like automotive, safety, marine and government services.
[pullquote]“YKK’s exit strategy is never. There is no point where we move out and close down.” [/pullquote]
“YKK’s exit strategy is never. There is no point where we move out and close down,” said Jim Reed, current president of YKK Corporation of America based in Cobb. Instead, the company pivoted to new industries like industrial fasteners and safety, which align well with YKK’s focus on quality and safety, he added.
Non-apparel industries, in fact, have become some of YKK’s most successful markets, as witnessed by the Georgia Department of Economic Development awarding YKK the 2021 Gear Award for supplier of the year in the automotive and mobility industries.
“Advanced engineering, volume and demanding functionality – this is where we see things going forward. Lots of industries need our innovation expertise,” Mr. Reed said.
The transformation of the manufacturing sector via robotics and artificial intelligence puts a premium on technical expertise, and Cobb County has “a lot to speak for itself” as a primary area for companies navigating this manufacturing revolution, Mr. Reed said. Georgia is geographically well-placed for global business and is producing highly skilled technicians in its universities and colleges, he said, adding that he would like to see more and more “great engineers” coming out of Georgia trade schools.
Cobb County is very important for YKK, as witnessed by its three headquarters there: YKK Corp. of America, YKK (U.S.A.) Inc. and YKK AP America Inc. national headquarters, noted the YKK Corp. of America VP of Community Engagement and Corporate Communications Jessica Cork.
“Our headquarters are here because we’ve had such a good experience in Georgia and in Cobb,” Ms. Cork said. “We are committed to staying in the area,” added Mr. Reed, referring to Cobb as a business-friendly community that offers “a balance between commercial and lifestyle.” He noted that developments around Marietta Square and The Battery Atlanta have made meeting with and entertaining foreign guests simple and enjoyable.
Cultural compatibility
One reason for Japanese companies’ positive experiences in Georgia and in Cobb County has been the compatibility of cultures, attested both YKK and Murata executives.
Japanese and Southern culture merge very effectively, said Mr. Reed, because both are relational, mutual and friendly, not transactional or confrontational.
Mr. Gregory, the first non-Japanese president of YKK, agreed, noting that Japanese coming to work in YKK’s Georgia operations were hardworking, nice and respectful, and their Georgia counterparts were welcoming and helpful. Much of groundwork for YKK’s smooth entry into Georgia was laid by then-governor Jimmy Carter, who befriended YKK Founder Tadao Yoshida, and community leaders in Macon and Cobb County who “rolled out the red carpet” for the company, he said.
Murata had a similar experience, said Mr. Yamamoto, who initially found the Southern accent difficult to understand but had a “very good experience anyway because of the good people” he encountered in Cobb.
Both companies retained their Japanese culture in their Cobb-based operations, especially as Japanese restaurants and even a Georgia Japanese Language School opened in the county. Japanese families across Georgia still send their children to this Mableton-based school on Saturdays to study a Japanese curriculum.
Since the 1970s, multiple generations of employees have worked for Japanese companies in Georgia, so, naturally, the cultures have melded. There are now more than 600 Japan-related companies in the state.
For YKK, it’s “hard to say where Japan ends and Georgia starts,” remarked Mr. Reed. “It’s just YKK’s special culture. It grows well in Georgia soil.”
Community longevity
Despite the friendly disagreement on which company was first to start operations in Georgia, Murata and YKK “have been very close,” noted Mr. Yamamoto. “We feel very much like the founders of Japanese culture in Georgia, and we are very happy being here,” he said. “We have been working together for many years to support the Japanese community here,” he added.
The companies support community events such as the long-standing JapanFest, an annual cultural celebration of the amicable relationship between Japan and the Southeast U.S. that is hosted by the Japan-America Society and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce.
YKK’s “Cycle of Goodness” philosophy proffered by its founder has led the company to invest in building relationships in Cobb and throughout the state that are based on trust between the company and state and local governments, noted Mr. Reed.
Mr. Gregory added that Cobb County has treated the company as a “valuable member of the community” and provided a “very supportive environment, which is why we’re still here.”
The Cobb Chamber’s event on March 8 will show Japanese companies that the county is, indeed, supportive of them, now and for the long term.
Contact the chamber’s director of economic development, Amanda Blanton, at ABlanton@cobbchamber.org for more information or to register for the event.
The Pendleton Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Economic Development Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Economic Development newsletters.