Lt. Governor Sheehy met with Shizuoka Governor Ishikawa. They discussed working together in areas such as food-science, food product development, biotech partnerships and co-research, and also medical exchanges.

Shizuoka has a couple of main programs that are of interest to us. Their Fuji Pharma initiative is focused on developing a medical
science/biotech cluster. They also have a Food Science Hills initiative that will focus on advanced foods. These foods would be advanced health foods, referred to as Functional Foods or "Nutraceuticals" (vs. chemical-based Pharmaceuticals).

There is also great opportunity in regular food exports from Nebraska to Shizuoka food companies. In general, Japan has to import most of its food, Shizuoka has some of the major food companies in Japan, and Nebraska has companies that can provide product.

Related to this involves the University of Nebraska Food Processing Center (FPC). Rolando Flores, its Director, presented to food companies in Shizuoka, as well as food researchers. The FPC is looking to work with Shizuoka companies on a variety of issues related to food production, including product development, marketing strategies, safety ssues, etc. We want to work with Shizuoka on using the FPC as a go-between entity for Nebraska food producers and Shizuoka food importers/processors.