WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown says he was recently contacted by Kanji Yamanouchi, the Consul-General of Japan stationed in New York because he was interested in visiting the mayor's city.
"Naturally, this is a very important year with the election in three weeks, and they say this area is a key area in the state of Pennsylvania and the whole country," said Ambassador Yamanouchi. "Seeing is believing, so I had good conversations with business leaders and the leaders here."
The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce hosted the mayor and ambassador for lunch at the Westmoreland Club, where they primarily talked about business opportunities.
"The mayor has a great vision to make Wilkes-Barre the center of entrepreneurs and new industry. That would energize Japanese entrepreneurs to come over here, and the people are very nice, like you," said the ambassador.
"We discussed my goal is to make Wilkes-Barre the entrepreneur capital of Pennsylvania, and the ambassador very much understood that, and hopefully, we will be able to work together by having Japanese entrepreneurs coming to Wilkes-Barre hopefully investing in business," added Mayor Brown.
This is the second ambassador from another country, Mayor Brown has hosted this month. He says it's all part of his plan for the city of Wilkes-Barre.
"This is a new beginning for the city of Wilkes-Barre as I keep saying over and over," Brown said. "(We do that by) creating jobs, forming partnerships and friendships, and that's what we're doing in these meetings is forging together so that maybe in the future we can work together and I am hoping so."