Japanese companies employ more than 35,000 people in Michigan, up 6 percent over 2011, with half in the manufacturing sector.
Of total jobs of Japanese firms in the state, 95 percent are held by Michigan residents — or 33,815 — and 1,739 are Japanese citizens working in the state.
"Japanese automakers and their suppliers continue to boost investments in their R&D, sales, as well as manufacturing operations in the great state of Michigan," said Kuninori Matsuda, Japan's top diplomat in Detroit. "These companies have rebounded admirably from the challenges of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, and as Michigan's economy and business climate continues to strengthen, so too does their commitment to producing, employing and investing locally."
Most of the facilities are manufacturing related — 262 — and 167 are auto-sector related. The auto sector accounts for 43 percent of total employment.
Workers reject deal to keep Opel's Germany plant open
Workers at General Motors Co .'s Bochum, Germany, assembly plant rejected a proposal to keep the Opel facility making vehicles through 2016, setting the stage for the first German auto factory to be closed since World War II.
More than 76 percent of the votes cast by workers at the factory rejected the reorganization agreement, the plant's chapter of the IG Metall union said Thursday.
While Bochum rejected the pact, the rest of GM's German factories have approved a wider measure and it will be implemented at those locations, where about 20,000 jobs will be saved and wages frozen, the company said Thursday.
The Detroit Medical Center has cancelled plans to build a $50 million outpatient medical center in Royal Oak, saying the parcel is too small, the health system said Thursday.
A spokesman for the DMC said it decided the 4-acre property would not accommodate the estimated 100,000-square-foot facility. The medical center is envisioned to serve pediatric patients and would be run by DMC Children's Hospital.
Staff and wire reports
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