Japanese business leader: “From what I heard today, I’m kind of really convinced that maybe Maryland really is the best place for me”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.

Baltimore Sun: Gov. Wes Moore’s Sales Pitch in Tokyo is Turning a Few Heads

April 14, 2025

By Sam Janesch

• “This is a great support,” Nonaka said after attending a seminar with Moore and then speaking directly with both him and a deputy secretary for the Maryland Department of Commerce. “I was exploring the pathway to collaborate with Maryland … They are taking care of not only the big companies, but a startup.”
  
  
• Urabe Kenji’s corporation, Terumo, brought its medical technology manufacturing to Elkton in 1972 and now has nearly 1,300 employees at the location. Access to shipping at the Port of Baltimore and “government incentives” have been important to their growth, Kenji told business representatives.
  
  
• Christian Park, who asked Moore about the state’s support in advancing AI technology, said in an interview later that Moore’s answer — that no state “is more eager and bullish on the future of what AI can bring” — made him think twice about where he wants to take his planned relocation to the U.S.
  
  
• Park said he’d been planning on moving to the tech scene in Silicon Valley or Houston as soon as this summer. Now, he said, the I-95 corridor of other startups and university-trained engineers between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore sounds like it could be a better option.
  
  
• “From what I heard today, I’m kind of really convinced that maybe Maryland really is the best place for me because ultimately we want to actually help to implement the solutions to government as well,” Park said.
  
  
• “The idea that Maryland will be the ‘capital of quantum,’” he said, reiterating a favorite phrase, “is not just something that’s going to be really good for Maryland’s balance sheet. It’s going to be really good when it comes to Maryland’s larger contribution to the world.”
  
  
• Masashi Hirose, CEO of a Japanese quantum company that recently launched in College Park, said it was “more than a slogan” to say Maryland can be the world capital of quantum.
  
  
• “It’s backed by coordinated action across government, academia and industry,” said Hirose, of NanoQT. “The ecosystem here is strong.”