Representatives from Austin's business community hope to strengthen ties with Japanese automotive suppliers and electronics manufacturers on a visit to Tokyo and Nagoya July 25 through Aug. 4.

The four-person Austin delegation will spend three days in Tokyo meeting with about 15 companies that either have a presence in Austin or may be potential new employers here in the future. Later, the Austin group will join 65 other Texans, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other high-ranking officials, in representing Texas at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan, just outside Nagoya.

"First and foremost, we want to express our sincere appreciation to the Japanese companies that have already made investments in Austin," says David Porter, vice president of economic development at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. "Second, we want to be able to discuss with other companies the benefits of doing business in Austin."

In addition to Porter, the Austin delegation includes Gary Farmer, who is chairman of the Greater Austin Economic Development Corp. (GAEDC). Farmer heads the Opportunity Austin initiative to create 72,000 new local jobs in the next five years. The Japan visit is one of 18 Opportunity Austin excursions planned in 2005.

The Chamber has prepared an eight-page Austin brochure in Japanese, as well as a 12-minute video in Japanese promoting the city to prospective new employers. The group will distribute the video on CDs.

"We already have a number of Japanese companies in Austin, so we have some of the basic infrastructure Japanese employers might look for, including as a Saturday school," Porter says.

Also representing Austin on the trip will be Jason Ford, director of economic development at the Chamber of Commerce; and Jerry Heare, a principal with at real estate firm NAI Commercial Industrial Properties Co. and chairman of the Chamber's automotive supplier initiative.

Heare says he and representatives from several Texas cities have scheduled a joint meeting with executives at Toyota Motor Corp. during the visit. Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. is currently constructing an $800 million Tundra truck assembly plant in San Antonio.