Why did the mayor go to Japan? Delegation from Miami has info on flights, tech, waste

South Florida travelers shouldn’t expect direct flights from Japan anytime soon, but they may get some help with a new incinerator the county needs to build to manage waste.

That was the take-home message from a 10-day trip to Japan co-led by Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava that ended this week.

Levine Cava and the delegation, which returned to Miami International Airport on Wednesday evening, had several meetings focused on transportation and infrastructure, the Miami Herald reported last month. The goal: to spur greater trade and investment between Japan and South Florida.

Direct flights to Japan?

One priority was meeting with Japan Airlines and continuing to push for direct flights between the world’s third largest economy and South Florida. Mayor Levine Cava; Ralph Cutie, director and chief executive officer of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department; and Alfred Sanchez, president of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, met with JAL executives on Nov. 30.

What they heard, though is that such service appears to be at least one year away, based on individual interviews with each of them after the trip.

JAL officials told the Miami-Dade delegation that they had yet to recover from the pandemic and were focused on resuming existing international routes and improving the company’s financial performance.

“They were clear that they had economic losses,” said Levine Cava, and that “their first order of business through the end of 2024 was to restore those routes.”

Said Cutie: “They are still recovering economically from COVID, and they made that clear.”

Does that mean expansion to Miami or greater Florida will likely have to wait until 2025?

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At the same time, Levine Cava and Cutie made a case that prioritizing new service to Miami could benefit JAL much more than resuming some of the carrier’s older routes, especially given changes in migration within the U.S. since the pandemic and South Florida’s newfound appeal to the finance and technology sectors.

“We did say: ‘You might want to consider whether some of those [older]routes might not be as successful as our new route because of changing patterns,’ ” said the mayor.

Cutie provided lots of numbers including Miami International Airport’s record passenger volume. Levine Cava recounted, “Ralph did a great job of presenting very compelling data on why it made sense for Japan Airlines to do a direct flight.”

JAL is seriously considering it, she believes. “Our direct route may be better for you than one of your older routes,” said Cutie, summarizing the case he and Levine Cava made.

Sanchez also came away optimistic. He said JAL is waiting for at least three new planes they have ordered, and they want to have two to three that are ready to fly between Tokyo and Florida before agreeing to start the new flight. “I would be absolutely surprised if we don’t get a direct flight.”

The question is, when?

Other areas on the trade trip

Even as no known business deals were finalized on this trip, several areas showed promise, and some discussions are advancing that may lead to economic benefits for the region in the coming years.

, Japan is Florida’s second largest importer of merchandise, totaling $9 billion in 2022. Automobile and aerospace are key sectors.

Japan also exports to South Florida. Hitachi Rail has provided several train cars to Miami-Dade Transit’s Metrorail system. The parent company of Brightline, the yellow train that goes from Miami to Orlando, was SoftBank until earlier this year.

The latest trade trip built on past visits by other Florida political leaders.

In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis led a trade mission to Japan where he met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and a variety of business leaders, including executives with All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines. In October, the state organized a trip with tourism promoter SelectFlorida and Secretary of State Cord Byrd leading the way.

Who went to Japan from Miami? Where did they stay?

Levine Cava co-led the group with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and County Commission Chairman Oliver Gilbert III. According to the chamber, 50 people traveled from Miami. All companies paid their own way, according to Sanchez.

Also traveling were County Commissioners Marleine Bastien, Juan Carlos Bermudez, and Kevin Marino Cabrera.

The group spent eight nights at the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo and two nights, Friday and Saturday. at the Hyatt Regency in Kyoto, according to a copy of the group’s itinerary obtained by the Miami Herald through a public records request. They left Miami International Airport in the early hours of Nov. 25 for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport where they connected to a non-stop flight to Tokyo. They returned via Los Angeles International Airport. They flew American Airlines all the way.

Three staffers accompanied Levine Cava: Johanna Cervone, chief of staff; Francesca de Quesada Covey, chief economic development and innovation officer; and Maria Dreyfus-Ulvert, trade specialist for Miami-Dade County, according to an email from Natalia Jaramillo, deputy communications director for the mayor. Levine Cava said that she did not take her sergeant at arms for security.

Preliminary cost of the trip

The trip for the mayor and her three aides cost taxpayers slightly over $32,000.

Breaking that down, Levine Cava and her chief of staff Cervone’s travels cost a combined a total of $17,884.11 and came from the office of the mayor, wrote Jaramillo. Covey and Dreyfus-Ulvert cost a combined $14,325.24 and was from the economic development’s budget.

The Herald also requested the cost of any gifts taken or received through an open records request. Jaramillo responded that “these expenses will be shared as soon as the delegation submits their gift disclosures.”

The Herald has made a records request for the trip’s cost for the four county commissioners.

Hazardous waste link-up

In addition to the airline executives, the group also visited the Sakura Environmental Center and the Suginami Incineration Plant, both cutting edge waste management facilities.

“We deepened our knowledge of best practices of waste management,” said Levine Cava.

Hitachi is the Japanese company that constructed that incinerator, and it is already in the mix of companies competing to replace the county’s waste facility in Doral that caught fire earlier this year and was subsequently closed, said the mayor.

Now the county is looking to award a contract to a consultant to guide it through the next phases of selecting bidders.

It is too soon to handicap Hitachi’s chances, the mayor said. They would bring valuable Japanese experience but likely have to partner with a U.S. company, she noted. Also, a site still has to be chosen.

The group also visited the Port of Yokohama, where the mayor signed an agreement to establish a formal framework for collaboration in areas including port development, infrastructure, port security and environmental initiatives.

The delegation also promoted Miami as a growing tech hub. It sought to sell the city as a place Japanese companies could use as a foothold to enter the U.S. market as well as grow their businesses for the Latin America and Caribbean markets.

“Our goal was to make it clear they needed to have a larger presence in our market,” Levine Cava said. “And not just from a company perspective but from an investor perspective.”

An insurance company

They met with Sompo, Japan’s second largest property insurance company. The firm already said it would open an office in Miami next June. While it is not yet active in the region’s home insurance market, it is a large provider of crop insurance to farmers in the U.S.

Sanchez of the Greater Miami Chamber said Sompo shared an idea, developing a private-public partnership for property insurance, that could help reduce the risk of home insurance. While it was a preliminary discussion, “what struck me is their creativity,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mayor thinks Sompo may be part of the housing solution in South Florida.

“They have a lot of capital to invest,” she noted, and “they might invest in the housing market, in affordable workforce housing.”