Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Rides a Bullet Train into Asia Trade Mission

The Washington Post

13:06 JST, April 13, 2025

TOKYO – Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Saturday launched a week-long mission to sell the state of Maryland as a destination to do business to executives in Japan and South Korea, even amid economic turmoil in the state and an increasingly tense international trade war.

Despite the challenge ahead, Moore was all smiles as he boarded a mindbogglingly fast bullet train in the Yamanashi Prefecture near Mount Fuji on the first day of his trip in Japan.

“I am obsessed with a few things,” Moore told executives from the Central Japan Railway Company, which is constructing a high-speed train line that aims to eventually connect Tokyo to Osaka, about 300 miles away.

“I’m obsessed with making sure we’re enhancing transportation because people have to get from where they live to where they work,” Moore said, echoing a line he often uses to promote Baltimore’s Red Line light-rail project that has been stalled for years. “I’m obsessed with making sure that we can focus on moving things into the future. And I’m obsessed with going fast.”

On Saturday, Moore got to go pretty fast – 311 mph, to be precise.

Moore and his delegation of 25 Maryland officials including representatives from the state’s Transportation, State and Commerce departments took an exhibition ride on the superconducting magnetic levitation – or maglev – train over a distance equal to the journey between D.C. and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport Airport. The trip of about 27 miles took less than 10 minutes.

The ride kicked off a trade and cultural mission that has Moore arguing that Maryland is open to working with foreign business leaders even as they face President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats. After the bullet train ride, the Maryland delegation ventured to Mount Fuji for a cultural visit and received a commercial services briefing from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. In the coming days, Moore will meet with university administrators, business leaders and government officials in Japan and Korea.

The trade mission will be a test of the governor’s charms and influence, particularly as he eyes reelection in 2026 and is rumored to be a potential contender for the Democratic presidential primary in 2028.

Just over a week before Moore left for Tokyo, the president announced double-digit tariffs on goods from Japan and South Korea, among other countries, in addition to a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made vehicles that will hit Japanese and South Korean automakers. Trump has since paused those plans for 90 days, after yields on U.S. Treasurys jumped unexpectedly in one of the starkest signs of economic volatility yet amid the president’s trade war. However, blanket tariffs of 10 percent remain in effect.

Japan and South Korea are key foreign trade partners for Maryland. In 2023, Maryland and Japan did more than $6 billion in business together, and the state imported $4.9 billion in Japanese goods like oil and gas, chemicals, and computer software, according to data provided by the governor’s office. Bilateral trade between Maryland and South Korea reached more than $1.7 billion that same year.

Moore may also face questions about Maryland’s stagnant economy, which spawned a $3 billion deficit that required deep cuts to state spending and new taxes, including a sales tax on technology services, passed this month.

The governor is aiming to bolster the state’s economy by incentivizing private sector growth, particularly in sectors like aerospace, life sciences and quantum computing – areas he has identified as “lighthouse industries.” In a briefing with reporters on Thursday, Moore emphasized that Japan and South Korea are vital partners in those key industries.

While Moore will surely have to contend with the uncertainty plaguing the U.S. and Maryland economies while he courts Japanese and South Korean business over the next week, Saturday’s bullet train ride was focused on the promise of high-speed rail.

“If the United States were to embark on the construction of the maglev system, we would be very, very happy to support you with all of the technologies that we have,” JR Central Chairman Shin Kaneko told the Maryland delegation through an interpreter.

The maglev train rolls on wheels as it initially gains speed, but once it reaches about 93 mph the train lifts 10 centimeters off the ground and rapidly accelerates. Superconducting magnets levitate the surprisingly quiet train, eliminating limitations from friction and heat and propelling the vessel forward at up to 375 mph. When the train reaches its destination and begins to slow, the wheels meet the tracks again, and the cars “land” like an airplane touching down on the tarmac.

A departures board prepared for the Maryland delegation showed three mock train routes that could exist if a bullet train line was constructed between D.C. and New York, creating a “super mega-region” along the East Coast. One suggested a train that boarded in D.C. with a stop in Baltimore in 11 minutes and a stop in New York less than an hour later. Another would shuttle passengers from the District to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport in 10 minutes or less. A third also ran to New York in just over an hour, with stops along the way in Baltimore, Wilmington and Philadelphia.

A one-hour train connecting the Mid-Atlantic region with New York has obvious appeal, but the idea faces major obstacles, including an astronomical price tag and the logistical challenge of building an interstate transit project that crosses through D.C., Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York – and that would require federal buy-in.

Still, the officials gathered on Saturday refused to be deterred from musing about the economic boon that could come from making Baltimore a short jaunt from larger cities to its north and south.

“It could dramatically change the state,” said Wayne Rogers, chairman and CEO of Northeast Maglev, which advocates for bringing the maglev to the United States.

Moore, a self-declared nerd, oozed enthusiasm as he listened to a technical presentation on how the super fast passenger train works.

Most of the journey was spent in a tunnel, but clusters of homes and bustling business districts flashed by as the train surfaced for brief stretches. The delegation of Maryland officials traveling with the governor looked out the windows to see the blur of mountains, coppices of cherry blossom trees, and – for just one moment – Mount Fuji. Blink, and you’d miss it.

After stepping off the train and watching it speed back through the station one more time, Moore summed up the experience in a single word: “Wow!”