Japanese prime minister joins Gov. Cooper for lunch at Executive Mansion [Video]

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife on Friday joined Gov. Roy Cooper for a luncheon and celebration at the Executive Mansion.

Kishida landed in North Carolina late Thursday, facing a jam-packed schedule of meetings with executives, state officials and, of course, some barbecue in what is believed to be the only such visit by a sitting head of government to North Carolina in decades.

On Friday morning, the prime minister and governor toured the Toyota electric battery plant in Randolph County, a $13.2 billion investment by Japan’s largest automaker. They also toured the HondaJet facility in Greensboro.

The tour came a day after Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a unit of Tokyo-based conglomerate Fujifilm, said it would add 680 high-paying jobs and spend an additional $1.2 billion at a biomanufacturing campus in Holly Springs.

Six months ago, Cooper met with Fujifilm executives in Tokyo. Cooper also visited Tokyo in 2017.

On Thursday, Cooper said Kishiba picked North Carolina over other states likely due …