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Leading technology, finance, and media executives gathered at the White House Wednesday for a state dinner honoring Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as U.S. President Joe Biden looked to bolster security and economic ties between the two allies with the star-studded celebration.<\/p>\n
JPMorgan Chase<\/a> & Co.\u2019s Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink of Blackrock Inc., Apple<\/a> Inc.\u2019s Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos of Amazon<\/a>.com Inc. were among the business leaders attending the event, part of a guest list that highlighted the ties between the US and Asia\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n Jon Gray of Blackstone<\/a> Inc., Neil Bluhm, chairman of Rush Street Interactive Inc., International Business Machines Corp. CEO Arvind Krishna, SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son and former Mitsubishi<\/a> Corp. Chairman Ken Kobayashi are also attending.\u00a0<\/p>\n Attendees are feasting on a three-course meal that includes house-cured salmon and dry-aged ribeye steak, paired with wines from Washington state and Oregon. While Kishida\u2019s arrival missed the peak bloom of Washington\u2019s cherry trees, many originally\u00a0gifted to the US<\/a>\u00a0by Japan, celebrations of spring dominated the dinner with decorations of butterflies, Japanese gardens, and an artistic depiction of a koi pond. Guests will be entertained by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Many of the attendees nodded to the defense issues that largely dominated Kishida and Biden\u2019s meetings Wednesday \u2014 the first official visit by a Japanese leader since 2015 \u2014 as the leaders sought to cement their military ties in the Indo-Pacific with an eye to countering China\u2019s growing influence in the region and increasingly assertive behavior. But the visit also saw the leaders unveil a number of initiatives to strengthen partnerships and investment in technology.<\/p>\n Prominent executives from Silicon Valley along with Cook and Bezos included Microsoft<\/a> Corp. President Brad Smith, whose company announced Tuesday it will\u00a0invest $2.9 billion<\/a>\u00a0over the next two years to boost its hyperscale cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology<\/a> Inc. and Megan Myungwon Lee, chairwoman of Panasonic<\/a> Corp. of North America are also attending, alongside Los Angeles Dodgers chairman and CEO of Guggenheim Partners Mark Walter.<\/p>\n Biden also invited two prominent labor allies \u2014 David McCall, president of the United Steelworkers and Shawn Fain of the United Auto Workers Union. McCall\u2019s union is opposing a politically contentious deal for Japan\u2019s Nippon Steel Corp. to acquire United States Steel<\/a> Corp. The high-profile bid has sparked an election-year firestorm with Biden earlier Wednesday reiterating his support for US workers who seek greater concessions in a possible deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kishida has encouraged U.S. investment in Japan around key technologies such as semiconductors, AI and quantum computing, during a luncheon Tuesday in Washington with business executives including Gary Cohn, vice chairman at IBM<\/a>, and a onetime chief economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, Biden\u2019s general-election rival. Also at that lunch were Pfizer<\/a> Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla, Boeing<\/a> Co. defense chief Ted Colbert, and Western Digital<\/a> Corp. CEO David Goeckeler.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among the celebrities who scored coveted invitations to the state dinner are actor Robert De Niro and Olympic medalist Kristi Yamaguchi. Former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are also attending along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Also attending is Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s list also includes a number of prominent donors, including Fred Eychaner, Mindy Gray and Michael Sacks, chairman of Grosvenor Capital Management. Sacks hosted a fundraiser for Biden earlier this week in Chicago.<\/p>\n The state dinner for Kishida is the fifth of Biden\u2019s presidency, part of a grand White House tradition for honoring foreign leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSubscribe to CHRO Daily, our newsletter focusing on helping HR executive navigate the changing needs of the workplace. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n