Decades after the rise of offshoring led North Carolina factory owners to ship jobs overseas — cratering the state’s textiles and furniture industries in particular — state officials are in the latest stage of a push to convince foreign companies to invest in North Carolina, bringing factory jobs back to the state.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper oversaw an economic development strategy that saw companies promise to bring thousands of new jobs to North Carolina, with particularly strong interest from Japanese companies in a wide range of industries — Toyota, Fujifilm, Nipro and others.
In 2025, there has been a bipartisan effort by other top North Carolina politicians to continue following similar strategies. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein returned just days ago from a trip to Japan and Taiwan, where he met top business and government officials. And state Labor Commissioner Luke Farley, a Republican, is currently in Taiwan on a separate trip that he described Tuesday as a trade mission.
“Everybody I’ve talked to this week, I’ve made sure to let them know that North Carolina is open for business — and we have been named the No. 1 state in the country for business three of the last four years,” Farley said, offering a variation on a message often spoken by Stein and the state’s corporate recruiters.
The governor is the state official in charge of economic development strategy, while the labor commissioner’s main focus is workplace safety. It wasn’t clear Tuesday if Farley had told Stein or state economic development officials about his trip; spokespeople for Stein and Farley didn’t immediately provide comment.
“Commissioner Farley, I can’t believe I didn’t see you in Taiwan,” Stein told Farley Tuesday after Farley said he was attending the meeting remotely from the island. “I was there on Saturday. I just got back from a trip to Taiwan and Japan that was immensely successful.”
But any additional publicity for North Carolina is welcome, Stein added, especially if it helps enhance the state’s reputation in Asia. Stein teased a new economic development announcement coming “hopefully in the coming weeks” out of his overseas trip but gave no further project details, which typically are veiled in strict secrecy.
“North Carolina is very well-known over there,” Stein said. “Our brand is strong internationally. Folks know about us being a hub of biotech. They know about us being good for business. … A lot of agricultural interest. People like our North Carolina sweet potatoes in Japan. So it was a very productive and positive trip.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, WRAL asked Stein what benefits the state should be able to expect from his trip.
“Well, good relations,” Stein replied. “Japan is the number-one source of foreign direct investment in North Carolina, both in terms of the amount of capital invested and the number of North Carolinians who go to work every day at a Japanese-owned company. So having those relationships — Japan is very much a place of relationships and trust. And there are a lot of companies that have existing locations [in North Carolina] that are considering expansion. There are other companies that are considering coming here afresh.”
Industries such as pharmaceuticals and clean energy have so far contributed the biggest job-creation numbers in the state in recent years due to overseas investments.
Japanese drugmakers Kiowa Kirin and FujiFilm are investing billions in plants in Lee and in Wake counties, where workers research, test or manufacture new products.
And two of the state’s biggest bets in recent years using economic incentives — essentially, tax breaks promised in exchange for new jobs — have been made to lure Asian automotive factories here. That includes a massive Toyota battery plant outside of Greensboro that’s slated to begin production next week, with plans to eventually employ more than 5,000 North Carolinians.
Another deal ‘in the near future’?
Landing the Toyota factory was Cooper’s chief economic development accomplishment as governor, and during his final year in office, he also hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a rare visit to North Carolina by a sitting head of state.
Stein has sought to carry over those ties, such as his work this past week in Japan — where he led a multi-state delegation of dozens of officials from across the southeastern United States. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also attended.
In recent years, many Southern states have had success bringing in new factories, due to a combination of factors including comparatively cheap land, anti-unionization laws and educational systems equipped to train workers for careers in manufacturing.
A willingness to spend billions in taxpayer-funded incentives — often in the form of performance-based tax breaks and utilities — have also helped states including North Carolina land new businesses. The Toyota plant alone could land the company hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives from state and local government funds, as long as the company delivers on job-creation promises.
It’s a deal that state officials on both sides of the aisle see as well worth the investment. And Stein said he believes he was able to finalize at least one more such deal on his recent trip abroad.
“We were making the case every day,” he said. “ I look forward to, hopefully, good things happening in the near future.”
AloJapan.com