Portland / U.S.A.

The town where your family tells you, "You can go home to Japan. We'll stay here!"

Toshio Uda / Portland Branch, Marubeni America Corporation

Apart from people who know people who live there or have contact with it through work, most Japanese people probably don't really know much about Portland. It's located on the West Coast of America, between Seattle and San Francisco. Its state name, Oregon, was often appeared in the title of a TV drama often telecasted during the '80s and '90s in Japan.

I always think hard about where to take people who come to visit, but in Portland there isn't a "must-see" tourist spot. Instead, go just a little way outside town and the expansive scenery all around you is a sightseeing experience in itself. There are no fantastic skyscrapers, but driving through the outskirts of town you are surrounded by mountains, rivers, vast areas of farmland, soothing to the eyes and soul. Although to Japanese people waterfalls aren't such a rare sight, take a trip of just under an hour outside town to the fairly small-scale Multnomah Falls. With the majestic flow of the vast waters of the Columbia River, they will seem to carry away your cares.

If asked about the main industries in Portland or Oregon, agriculture is probably what comes to mind first. There's no doubt about it. All three team members of the Portland Branch stationed here are engaged in business-matters related to food. That said, even in Oregon State, high tech industries have been developing in leaps and bounds, and as a percentage of the state's total production they rose from 3% in 1990 to 29% in 2000. When the economy was booming, salaries were high and numbers employed in high tech industries sky-rocketed. But then from 2001 onwards with the start of recession, the dependence on high tech industries that had emerged too fast too soon, contrary to everyone's expectations, turned into the worst rates of unemployment in the whole of the United States.

The surprising thing, though, is that walking around in Portland or even in its suburbs, you'd never know it. The people of Portland are genuinely open and friendly. People always greet each other even just riding an elevator. It is by far the friendliest of the all places I have been to on business or vacation in other states. The families of the team stationed here all really love it, and Portland is the kind of place where your family turns round and tells you in all sincerity, "You can go back to Japan. We'll stay here!" Why not come and see for yourself? Hope to see you around!

Palisades State Park. Used as the location for a TV drama show. Also known as "Akira-no-zeppeki" in the 1984 Japanese TV drama "From Oregon with Love". Enjoy hiking in summer and skiing in winter at Mt. Hood. Columbia Grain Ltd., a member of the Marubeni group. Cereal export is one of Portland's key industries. Downtown Portland