(Radio Iowa) — The Midwest U.S.-Japan Association is scheduled to meet in Omaha early next week and Iowa’s governor will be among six governors from the region to attend. Naoki Ito– the Consul-General of Japan who is based IN CHICAGO — will deliver opening remarks at the conference Monday morning.

“I”m really hoping that through this conference our partnership, our friendship will grow,” Ito says. Other speakers include Japan’s ambassador to the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for trade and the C-E-O of Kikkoman, the world’s largest producer of soy sauce. Ito, the Japanese official based in Chicago, says the conference will also feature government officials from Japanese provinces.

“So this is an opportunity to develop a two-way business (and) economic dialogue,” Ito says. The governors of Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin will be there. Governor Kim Reynolds is scheduled to attend the opening session on Monday.

According to federal data, Iowa exported a billion dollars worth of raw commodities and products to Japan last year. Japanese-owned companies based in Iowa employed six-thousand people in 2017 according to the International Trade Administration.