County Could See a Tsunami of New Japanese Investment
The giant Japanese traders and manufacturers established operations in Southern California in the late 1970s and early ‘80s and have been refining and expanding them ever since.
Now Orange County may be seeing a new wave of investment from Japan. In recent months, we’ve had a major noodle maker, a big printing firm and a tofu maker build or enlarge factories in the county, and next month a mid-sized Japanese injection molding company will open its first U.S. operation in an Anaheim industrial center.
The new molding business, Meiho Technology Inc., is funded by its 24-year-old parent, Meiho Co. of Fukuoka, Japan. But officials say it will stand alone as a separate company catering exclusively to the U.S. market.
Meiho has leased a 50,000-square-foot building in Anaheim and will have about 30 employees when its state-of-the-art automated machinery starts up next month. By next year, says general manager Miki Imai, the plant will employ about 120 workers.
Jeff Mitchell, the Voit Commercial Brokerage agent who helped Meiho find its new home, said the company looked at several locations in California and at five in Orange County before settling on the 6-year-old building in Anaheim’s Catellus Corporate Center.
Anaheim’s redevelopment agency, which offered tax benefits and breaks on electricity and water prices from the city-owned utility, was a big factor in the deal, Mitchell said. But Meiho also liked the Anaheim site because it provided a modern building, a strong labor pool and good freeway access.
Meiho officials in Japan contacted Mitchell and expressed interest in Orange County based on the recommendation of another Japanese firm the broker represented in a site search last year.
Imai said that Meiho is coming here because it sees the country--and especially the concentration of high-technology companies on the West Coast--as a prime market for its specialty plastics and custom molds for printed circuits.
In addition to its ongoing payroll, Meiho will spend more than $11 million to remodel, upgrade and outfit its Anaheim home--almost $10 million of the total on machinery and other factory equipment.
There’s no hard data yet on how many smaller companies from Japan, Europe or elsewhere have moved into Southern California in recent years, but Cal State Fullerton economist Anil Puri says it makes senses that we’ll be seeing more and more of them.
“Once the large companies have established channels of communication and begun disseminating information back home,” Puri said, “the costs of opening up plants in a new country drop significantly for those who follow.”
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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com
