Development News From Southwest Indiana

Mayor hopeful Japan trip will reap benefits
By BERNIE SCHMITT, managing editor, Vincennes Sun-Commercial, August 9, 2005

Mayor Terry Mooney is hopeful that his recent visit with Toyota officials in Japan will lead to a meeting with Toyoto Motor Manufacturing of Indiana regarding a spinoff business that may produce parts for the company's new hybrid car.

The Vincennes City Council welcomed Mooney home Monday from a trip that included lost luggage and being awakened in the middle of the night by a small earthquake the night before coming home. Mooney and Knox County Development Corp. president Gary Gentry accompanied Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels who led a delegation of over 60 business and governmental leaders to Japan and Taiwan last week. Daniels is hoping to spark a new round of investment in Indiana.

"I think the governor got his point across that Indiana wants to do business with Asia," Mooney said. "They were long, busy days. Going with the governor gave us the opportunity to access places we'd never go."

That access included meeting with the chairman of the board of Toyota, as well as high-level government officials of both countries. Mooney was among a handful of mayors selected to accompany Daniels, and during a reception each had the opportunity to tell the Japanese what their cities had to offer. There also was a panel discussion involving a number of company CEOs and presidents who wanted to know more about the quality of life in Indiana communities rather than the specifications of industrial parks.

"There were a lot of questions about what kind of schools do we have, are there interpreters at hospitals, things like that," Mooney said. "They even wanted to know if they could get an Indiana driver's license in Japanese. They seemed more concerned about quality of life issue than anything else. It tells me that those issues are important."

Mooney and Gentry did not meet with Futaba's president, who was visiting the United States, nor Excell, whose company president was out of the country, too. Members of the Indiana delegation were guests of Toyota during a visit to the World's Fair in Tokyo, where Toyota provided a demonstration of robots. The group also visited Toyota's headquarters.

"They had a museum-like display which showed how Toyota got started," Mooney said. "They began with making sewing machines."

Time will tell whether the contacts made with Toyota will lead to more Knox County manufacturing business for the Toyota plant in Princeton. With gas prices likely to remain high, hybrid cars will take on new importance and Toyota will be making them at Princeton.

"The thing we have to think about is if we can land a company that makes parts for Toyota, will we have the workforce to staff it?" Mooney said.

"If I learned anything it's that the Japanese are big on long-term relationships," he said. "They may be modernized, but they certainly aren't 'westernized.' It's still a culture that is based on relationships and trust."

A lost bag of luggage showed up at City Hall Monday, and Mooney said that experiencing an earthquake on the 25th floor of a hotel room was disconcerting. "I called to the front desk and asked we had just experienced an earthquake," Mooney said. "They said, 'we think so.' Then I asked if everything was OK and they said 'we hope so.'"

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