“We are in tough times — we have to make cuts, but we also have to generate revenue,” said Secretary of Commerce Maurice Jones, who is on the trade mission. “These trips generate revenue. The state will get revenue from these trips.”

VEDP chairman Martin Briley said having the governor literally and figuratively on board, and in the boardrooms, of foreign companies makes a huge difference in opening doors, accelerating and closing deals.

“A governor-led mission gives us opportunities to get into offices we couldn’t do otherwise,” he said. “Our governor has contacts all over the planet that have been extraordinarily useful to us, and Japan, China and Korea are no exceptions to that.”

McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee with a reputation as a political fundraiser and deal maker, quipped that his overall strategy is to “try to convince everybody that there really is only one state in the United States of America — that it’s the commonwealth of Virginia.

“I think for a lot of the Asian countries, historically they’ve thought about California, they have thought of New York, they have thought of Texas, they have thought of Florida,” he added, noting that he had been the third governor to visit Japan this year.