Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen described economic opportunities abroad from his current trade mission to Japan and the Philippines during a virtual press callback Tuesday. It’s a trip taking place about three weeks after he directed state agencies to cut spending amid a state budget shortfall.
Pillen spoke to reporters from Manila, the capital of the Philippines, Tuesday morning as the delegation neared the end of a four-day trip set to conclude Wednesday. Pillen began the trip Sunday in Osaka, Japan, and traveled to Manila Monday night.
The governor's office said the delegation includes Nebraska farmers and ranchers, leaders from the state's ethanol industry, and representatives of the state's advanced manufacturing sector, alongside Nebraska Department of Economic Development officials. State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue and Chief Industries President DJ Eihusen, joining from Manila, also spoke on the call.
What the delegation says it accomplished
Pillen and other delegation members described a mix of agricultural, energy and diplomatic engagements over the course of the trip.
In Japan, the group met with representatives of the U.S. Meat Export Federation and Japanese flour-milling companies to discuss expanding beef, pork and wheat exports. Japan remains one of Nebraska's most important overseas markets for agricultural products, state officials said.
Ethanol was a recurring topic across both countries. Pillen said Japan has committed to a 10% ethanol blend in its gasoline supply by 2030, which he said could translate to roughly 1.2 billion gallons of ethanol demand in that market. Pillen said Japanese officials have repeatedly asked him how soon Nebraska could begin producing aviation fuel from ethanol, calling clean energy "a very, very high priority" for Japan.
The Philippines, Eihusen said, has moved directly to a voluntary 20% ethanol blend, skipping intermediate blend levels used elsewhere.
"If they skipped right from E10 and bypassed E15 and went straight to E20, that's quite an injection," Eihusen said, calling it encouraging for future Nebraska ethanol sales.
Eihusen, whose Grand Island-based manufacturing company has operated a Philippines facility since 2018, said the country is also grappling with fuel costs and inflation above 6% — a dynamic he argued creates an opening for Nebraska ethanol to help lower prices.
In Manila, delegation members met with newly arrived U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton and held a roundtable with Philippine agriculture officials. The delegation also spent two hours at the Manila American Cemetery, the final resting place of roughly 17,000 American service members killed in the Pacific theater during World War II.
Pillen described the visit as "sobering," saying the grounds were a near "replica" of Arlington National Cemetery. "I didn't ever think I'd see anything like Arlington Cemetery in the cemetery here in Manila," Pillen said.
Sanders, who sponsored the 2024 legislation that created the state's Commission on Asian American Affairs, said the trade mission followed naturally from that work. She framed the trip in both economic and strategic terms, saying deepening ties with the Philippines carries security significance given regional tensions near the China Sea.
"Building relationships for deterrence is important ... and another way to do that and express that is through trade," Sanders said.
Pillen and delegation members characterized the trip's value largely in terms of relationships and long-term positioning rather than signed agreements — a distinction with legal weight, since governors do not have authority to sign binding international trade agreements on the state's behalf.
"We do business with like-minded people, and develop relationships," Pillen said. "Those are two real key things about being on this trade mission."
The budget backdrop
The trip comes about three weeks after Pillen directed state agencies on July 8 to limit travel, hiring, dues and technology spending, and to submit fiscal restraint plans by July 31. The directive followed a year in which the state paid out $307 million more in tax refunds than expected.
Former state Sen. Julie Slama, who left office in January 2025, criticized the trip on social media Monday. "Glad to hear Nebraska's budget crisis still isn't interfering with your taxpayer-funded boondoggles to Asia," she wrote.
When Pillen was asked whether he had a response to that criticism, and whether he had an estimated cost for the mission, he said industry groups cover most of the trip's expenses.
"We have industries such as corn board and so forth that cover most of the expenses that take place within a trade mission trip. The actual expenses from the state is very, very minimal," he said. "Trade missions are industries — corn board, pork board, wheat board, ethanol industry. Those are folks that, because we are here promoting, I guess my view is, what we're doing is investing in Nebraska. We're not spending a dollar."
Pillen did not provide an estimated cost or percentage breakdown for the trip.
The commodity boards Pillen named are themselves state agencies, subject to state audit, though not funded by general tax dollars — instead, they're financed through mandatory per-bushel or per-unit checkoff assessments paid by producers each time a crop is sold, according to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
Nebraska Public Media News followed up with the governor's office in writing after the call, asking for a dollar figure or percentage for the state's share of costs, whether that includes the governor's own travel and security detail, confirmation of the checkoff funding mechanism, and whether the office plans to release an itemized cost breakdown once the trip concludes. As of publication, the governor's office had not answered those questions.