Macon leaders strengthen Japan ties with Kurobe visit

When Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce President Jessica Walden stepped off the train in Japan last month, she spotted the words Macon, Georgia, etched in stone at the Kurobe station. 

Nearly 50 years ago, Kurobe and Macon forged a Sister City relationship that blossomed after YKK Corporation purchased 54 acres in the Ocmulgee East Industrial Park in 1972 to build its National Manufacturing Center that opened in 1974. 

“One relationship started 50 years ago can lead to a global impact and bring our communities closer together,” Walden told the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority at its November meeting that included approving the purchase of 780 acres for future economic development.

Walden joined Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller, County Manager Keith Moffett, the Industrial Authority’s Executive Director Stephen Adams, Chairman Robbie Fountain, authority board member Ember Bishop Bentley and others in a cultural and economic development exchange visit that coincided with visits to Tokyo from Gov. Brian Kemp and President Donald Trump.

Over the last five decades, Macon and Kurobe have exchanged high school students and medical professionals from Atrium Health Navicent and Kurobe City Hospital.

“The connection between Macon-Bibb and Kurobe is built on mutual respect and a shared vision for the future,” Miller said in an MBCIA news release. “The visit allowed us to strengthen those personal relationships and set the foundation for the next generation of cultural and economic partnerships.” 

Maintaining those relationships led to the international zipper and fastener manufacturer’s YKK AP division investing up to $125 million in 2024 to open its 400,000-square-foot manufacturing plant to build doors and windows for residential use.

A year ago, during a 50th anniversary celebration of YKK’s presence in Macon, leaders from both cities began talking about planning a commemoration of the half-century mark for the sister city relationship in 2027. 

For the first time since Mayor Robert Reichert traveled to Japan in 2017, local economic development leaders began planning a trip to Kurobe, which concluded with the two-day 2025 Southeastern U.S.-Japan Conference, or SEUS-Japan, in Tokyo, that drew Gov. Kemp after a stop in South Korea. 

Miller was the only Georgia mayor attending SEUS, which he said was invaluable for potential economic development, and he was invited to a personal meeting with Gov. Kemp and the president of YKK. The corporation’s global assets totaled nearly $479 billion in 2023.

Total trade between Georgia and Japan exceeded $8.2 billion in 2024, according to a news release from the governor’s office. 

“I will say that being a part of the Georgia delegation with the governor was very important for economic development in Middle Georgia,” Miller said. “We were able to have a lot of conversations there we would not have had here in Macon-Bibb County. So certainly, those touchpoints also with three other governors from other states there, to be where the world leaders are at. You had the first female (Japanese) prime minister there. At the same time, you also have President Trump’s visit within a half a mile of where we’re at, really all those things going together … the trip’s going to be very fruitful for Macon-Bibb County.”

Tallying expenses for the trip will take a few weeks, but Adams expected the total cost to be under the $100,000 MBCIA budgeted for the trip. The authority made all the arrangements to take advantage of bulk rates but will be reimbursed for some of the travelers.

Adams said the authority is using non-taxpayer dollars to fund the trip for Miller and Fountain, their spouses and Adams. The county will cover costs for Moffett and Adams’ wife, who is the county’s communication manager and documented the trip. Moffett’s wife will be paying her own way, Walden was funded by the Peyton Anderson Foundation and Bentley secured private funding, Adams said.  

Kurobe hosted and funded many of the delegation’s activities while in town, he said.

The trip’s cost estimate is only a small fraction of Japan’s economic development investment in Macon with YKK and Nichiha, which launched a $150 million expansion in 2022.

Nichiha, which manufactures fiber cement building materials, recently announced it would be closing one of its Macon plants and expecting about 170 job cuts next month. 

“Obviously, it’s very unfortunate to see a slowdown,” Adams said. “We have contractual obligations with them associated with their most recent expansion that they had done, that does come along with jobs and investment criteria and thresholds for which they are still exceeding.”

MBCIA is working with the company to schedule job fairs for affected employees, he said. 

In reflecting on the Japan trip, Miller said he thought about the 2006 loss of Brown & Williamson and hundreds of jobs, and he recognized the importance of maintaining industrial relationships. Although he said he does not like to travel, the mayor thought it would have been a disservice to the community not to have visited Japan at this time. 

“That’s why you have to go when the trips allow. The stars are not aligned that often,” said Kevin Brown, MBCIA’s legal counsel.  

Adams agreed that the timing was crucial for the visit since it had been eight years since Macon’s last visit.

“Relationships matter in this business,” he said. “Market conditions are challenging right now for which we can’t control. Relationships are in our control.”

Bentley, who is the executive director of the Georgia Aerospace & Defense Alliance and vice president for external relations at Mercer University, called the experience “amazing.”

“Everything that they were talking about is stuff that our community and our region can offer for future investment,” Bentley said. “For us to have YKK is wonderful because of the culture that they create through this cycle of goodness. And it’s all about taking care of their people, and then their people taking care of the people around them. And I think that speaks a lot, speaks volumes about what’s expected of us as well, and our partnership, and how much they value that.”

Fountain was inspired by the Japanese culture of taking pride in their work. 

“I don’t care if they’re scrubbing a toilet or they’re president of the company, it really shows in their work ethics, their appearance and everything,” Fountain said. “It was remarkable just how much they showed their kindness. It was an awesome experience. I can’t hardly put it into words kind of how they made you feel when you were there.”

Miller and the delegation was amazed at how clean the streets were even without public trash cans everywhere. 

“If you had trash, you carried a bag with you, put your own trash in your own bag till you got to a receptacle,” Miller said. “It’s a change of culture. It’s a change of mindset, and we certainly can learn a lot from them on that.”  

The mayor said numerous Japanese companies want to come to America and having a seat with the Georgia delegation at SEUS-Japan gives Macon-Bibb County an edge in recruitment.

During the Nov. 3 authority meeting, the board agreed to take steps to invest about $8 million for Phase III of the Ocmulgee East Industrial Park to purchase hundreds of acres for future industrial development.

Relationships built and fostered on the recent trip lay the foundation for greater understanding between the two cultures — just the way Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter and his administration did in the early 1970s which brought YKK to the midstate. 

Walden said considering the many visits Japanese leaders and executives have made to Macon, this trip was super important. 

During the visit, she noticed words from the state’s former president that echoed the importance of the trip.

“There was a great quote from Jimmy Carter also inscribed on their walls that said just that: ‘When we take a moment to understand each other’s culture and education, that’s how you make a difference in our communities,’” she said.

Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government news for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at fabian_lj@mercer.edu or 478-301-2976.