“A journey of hope and opportunity for our community.”

That’s how Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher characterized his recent trip to Japan.

The Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation held a reception on Thursday for Fincher, who was gone for over a week at the beginning of the month. This was the second straight year Fincher has visited Japan as part of the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association Conference in Tokyo. He and consultant Larry Ingraham, of Ingraham & Associates, traveled to the country several days ahead of the conference to make some personal visits to businesses and government leaders.

Fincher said he came away from this trip with a much better feeling about Cass County’s standing in the eyes of the Japanese investors.

“After last year’s trip, I was a little unsure of the inroads we had made. After this trip, I’m positive we’ve made some very good inroads,” he said. “We’ve established some relationships, now we have to nurture those relationships.”

With Logansport and Cass County trying to increase visibility to compete in the global economy, Ingraham said it is vital Fincher be at the forefront for that campaign. Ingraham, who also accompanied the mayor on his 2006 visit to Japan, has been established in the country since the mid-1970s and used his connections to get Fincher face time with top business executives as well as government officials.

Ingraham said the Japanese view a mayor as the CEO of that community and highly value a mayor’s presence in such excursions.

“They see the mayor as the person who represents the interests of the community,” said Ingraham. “They know if they’re talking to the mayor, they’ve got the right person.”

In addition to meeting with executives from businesses already established in the area, like Logansport Matsumoto and Tyson, Fincher also visited several that are looking to invest in the United States.

Though Fincher acknowledged the value of participating in the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association Conference with Governor Mitch Daniels, he said the most important part of the trip was the visits Ingraham was able to arrange.

“Going with the governor, you get to network with the governor and his people, but if you go with the governor, you’re one of six mayors,” said Fincher. “When you go with Larry, you’re the mayor.

“If I had to go with the Midwest Conference only, I probably wouldn’t have gone.”

Ingraham said it is critical at this point to make a good impression as Japanese business executives often base location decisions on the relationships they’ve formed with the mayor in that community.

“One of the conversations I had was how do the Japanese make the final decision on a location,” said Ingraham. “... The Japanese all agreed amongst themselves that really how they choose after they get deadlocked is to make a subjective decision. They decide based on which mayor they feel the most comfortable with, which mayor visited the most. That’s why the mayor needs to go overseas so he can look the Japanese in the eye and say ‘I want you to bring your business investments to our community.’”

While showing slides of the areas he visited, Fincher continued to stress the importance of making such trips and told the crowd of roughly 25 representatives from local businesses that he was confident his recent efforts would soon bear fruit.

“Honestly, it’s for the future of this community or any community,” he said. “If we don’t do it, some other community will and they’ll benefit from it. We can decide to stop going and we’ll stay where we’re at, but I firmly believe in my heart that if we keep going, next year we’re going to have a Japanese business in this community.”

Carla Knapp can be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or via e-mail at carla.knapp@pharostribune.com