Gov. JB Pritzker will lead a trade mission to Japan accompanied by a number of top legislators, political allies and business people, his office said Friday.
The trip comes as Pritzker has announced ambitious pushes into quantum technology, clean energy and manufacturing, all of which were among the industries his office said would be highlighted on the trip. The group departs Saturday and is due back Thursday.
As he has in the past, Pritzker said the trip is part of his mission to be Illinois’ “chief marketing officer” as companies decide where to do business. The delegation will meet with “counterparts in Tokyo, a news release said.
While results from such trade missions can be hard to track, the office has said the trips build bridges with foreign-owned companies. For example, it has previously tied a recent multimillion dollar allocation to a downstate village to its efforts with a German company, Wieland, that has a plant in that village. The governor visited a Wieland manufacturing facility in Germany last year.
But results of other trips have been less concrete. After a trade mission to Canada this spring, Pritzker’s office announced he signed a memorandum of understanding with the goal of further strengthening trade ties between Illinois and Ontario.
Japan is Illinois’ eighth largest export market and sixth largest import market, according to the governor’s office.
The manifest for the trip indicates about 50 people are going, among them Senate President Don Harmon, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, three deputy governors and about 30 private sector leaders.
The business contingent includes Curt Bailey, CEO of Related Midwest, the company trying to develop a new White Sox stadium on the parcel of land known as The 78.
Lawmakers still seemed skeptical of public funding for a new Sox stadium last month after the team and Related treated some of them to a river cruise and presentation of the proposed site. The White Sox just wrapped up a record-breaking season in which they lost more games than any team in Major League history, and any stadium funding request would come as the Bears this year proposed a multibillion dollar lakefront stadium project of their own.
Also traveling to Japan is Christy George, former executive director of the Chicago 2024 Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention who recently was announced as the new president and CEO of Intersect Illinois, the state’s economic development organization. George previously worked in Pritzker’s administration.
Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, a Springfield lobbying force, is also on board, as is Christian Mitchell, a former deputy governor now working as vice president of civic engagement at the University of Chicago, the governor’s office said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, in the midst of political turmoil with Chicago Public Schools, is also planning an international work trip this month: his office on Friday announced plans to go to London in a trip meant to “leverage the global exposure” brought by the Bears game there Oct. 13.
