(TNS) — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s trade mission to Japan this year is showing signs of paying off.

The governor on Monday announced an agreement between Fujitsu, a Japanese advanced technology corporation, and New Mexico State University to launch an innovation hub at NMSU next year.

She also touted Japan as a possible market for natural gas produced in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin , though no specific agreements or timelines have been set for that effort.

The new and potential partnerships took center stage during an all-day trade summit attended by Shigeo Yamada , Japan’s ambassador to the United States , and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon , among other government officials and business leaders.

Lujan Grisham and Gordon were both part of the same trade mission to Asia in April. They said their two states share a friendly rivalry when it comes to energy and economic issues, but are also willing to work together on regional initiatives.

“I hate to say bipartisan; this is just good business,” Gordon said at one point during a Monday news conference at the state Capitol in Santa Fe .

For her part, Lujan Grisham called New Mexico and Wyoming “energy powerhouses” that could help countries like Japan with their energy needs while reducing its carbon emissions.

“This is a huge opportunity for the western states and the United States in general,” the New Mexico governor said.

The Monday trade summit coincided with the release of a regional report focused on expanding the exportation of natural gas from the Rocky Mountain region.

That report, released by the Western States and Tribal Nations Energy Initiative, was funded in part by New Mexico and identifies two pathways for transporting natural gas to the West Coast , where it can be shipped to Asian markets. One of those routes, the Southwest Pathway, would cross Mexico to the Pacific Ocean , while the other, the Pacific Northwest Pathway, would cut through the state of Washington .

New Mexico was the nation’s third-highest natural gas producing state in 2024, providing about 8% of the nation’s total natural gas withdrawals, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

The state is also the nation’s third-largest energy producing state overall — trailing only Texas and Pennsylvania — and produces about 11 times more total energy than it consumes.

But New Mexico at times has dealt with a glut of natural gas in past years, and Lujan Grisham said it’s possible the state would have to increase its pipeline infrastructure if an export agreement with Japan is ultimately signed.

“As demand grows, we would need to do more infrastructure investment,” the governor told reporters, while adding the state has the current capacity to at least begin such an agreement.

Meanwhile, Yamada, the Japanese ambassador, said Japan’s government has committed to $7 billion in annual purchases of American energy, but acknowledged the Rocky Mountain coalition is one of several options being considered.

“This is a very good detailed introduction of the potential Rocky Mountain gas and we will seriously look into it,” he said, referring to the effort involving New Mexico , Wyoming , Utah , several Colorado counties and two Native American tribes.

As for the innovation hub at NMSU, a memorandum of understanding signed by university President Valerio Ferme and a senior Fujitsu official lays out a four-year timeline for creating a national “testbed” for research and innovation.

Under the agreement, NMSU will establish a facility with reliable power and cooling, work with the state’s two national laboratories and procure servers, while Fujitsu will provide the technical hardware and other services.

The agreement does not contain any state financial incentives, though Lujan Grisham said such investments could be considered in the future depending on how the partnership evolves.

© 2025 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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