Debra Tsuchiyama Baker travels to Japan with Mayor Sylvester Turner as a delegate for the City’s investment and trade mission

In October 2022, Debra Tsuchiyama Baker joined Mayor Sylvester Turner, the Greater Houston Partnership and other delegates on an investment and trade mission to Japan to establish new avenues for cooperation in energy, innovation, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and transportation/mobility.  The week-long meetings in the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Chiba included a series of high-profile business and government meetings to establish new avenues to cooperate in energy and other business endeavors and to strengthen ties with Japanese global trade partners and Houston’s Japanese firms and businesses, as well as promoting economic and cultural ties in Japan.  The Houston delegates visited Chiba City – Houston’s Sister City for more than 50 years – to celebrate the relationship between the Houston’s port and ports in Japan that are key to trade growth, in addition to visiting Daikin, Mitsubishi, Toshiba and others.  Other engagements included a U.S. Embassy briefing for the delegates, briefings and travel on the Japanese bullet train and attendance at the Houston Ballet’s first-ever performance of Swan Lake in Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo.