The week, which celebrates the historic relationship between Greater Manchester and Japan, was launched with a keynote speech last Thursday from Bolton Council leader Cllr Nick Peel.
Cllr Peel said that the recent news that manufacturer Astemo will be investing around £100M in its Horwich factory, creating more than 200 jobs, shows the value of this relationship.
He said: “From a Bolton perspective, in July we were delighted to welcome news that Astemo will be investing £100m in their Horwich site
“Astemo will be creating 200 jobs and will be the only company in the UK manufacturing inverters for electric vehicles, putting Bolton at the forefront of the EV revolution.
Bolton Council leaders met with the guests from Osaka (Image: Dominic Holden) “We are delighted that Astemo chose their Bolton site amongst global competition for this investment, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with Astemo to support their growth plans.”
Astemo’s investment in the site off Mansell Way in Horwich is aimed at creating a new supply line to create inverters for electric vehicles.
Turning to elsewhere in Greater Manchester, Cllr Peel added: “Other notable Japanese investments announced this year include Mizkan, who announced £17M investment in their Middleton site, and Daikin, who will be opening a new training centre in Trafford this autumn.”
Bolton is one of several areas to have benefitted from Japanese investments (Image: Dominic Holden) The ties between the region and Japan go all the way back to 1865 when during the industrial revolution a group of students travelled to Oldham.
They then brought back machinery from Oldham manufacturers the Platt Brothers back to Japan.
Astemo is now one of 25 Japanese owned companies in Greater Manchester which together employ more than 3,000 people.
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These companies also include Kratos Analytical, Brother, Mizkan and Hitachi.
Greater Manchester also has to have partnership with Panasonic and Daikin, who are helping the city region to drive forward its decarbonisation ambitions.
On Friday, Bolton also welcomed a Japanese delegation to a meeting at town hall, which is understood to be the only part of the region they visited other than Manchester city centre.
The delegation included Osaka City Council president Kotaro Sugimura and director general of the secretariat Koichi Tatsumi.
AloJapan.com