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Riordan in Asia
Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan met with Japanese and South Korean officials last week as part of his Asian trade mission.
Riordan said he was surprised to see how much Japanese business leaders were looking to him for some answers on how to get out of their prolonged economic slump.
“The biggest problem that I saw with the economies in Japan and Korea was a lack of confidence among the people,” Riordan told the Business Journal in a telephone interview. “The economic problems in Japan are actually worse than I expected. The business leaders I met with in Japan lacked confidence in themselves and their ability to recover. They were not seeing any moves from their government to instill a sense of renewed confidence. They saw how Los Angeles rebounded from its downturn and wanted me to tell them how to solve their problems.”
Riordan is scheduled to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong this week before returning to Los Angeles on Saturday.