As Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai prepares to leave office next month, he is wrapping up a $40,000 trip to Japan—his third visit to the country since taking office. The trip follows an October visit to the Czech Republic that cost up to $25,000. Precinct 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, who traveled with Sakai to Japan, is expected to continue to South Korea at an additional cost of up to $10,000.
The travel was approved by Bexar County commissioners on the consent agenda without discussion at a meeting in October, according to News 4 San Antonio. Commissioner Grant Moody pushed back on that process, saying staff changes to the item came at the last possible moment. “Staff amended the consent item literally 10 seconds before we voted on it,” Moody said, according to the station's reporting. Sakai, for his part, said the court's approval was broad, telling reporters “the majority, if not unanimous, consent of the court approved those measures.”
Sakai Defends the Spending as Economic Strategy
Sakai has described the Japan trips as a way to maintain business relationships, rather than make a one-time pitch, according to FOX San Antonio. He has credited the travel with helping Toyota expand on the Southside and with attracting manufacturers including Sanko Plastics and American Katerra. Sakai has also argued that the trips fit his broader fiscal approach and his commitment to an austere county budget with no property tax increase.
Sakai has attributed $5.7 billion in investment and nearly 8,000 jobs to the county’s efforts, and has argued that his visits helped establish the county’s reputation and position to attract investment, according to the same report. Those figures do not, on their own, establish how much investment or how many jobs resulted specifically from the trips. The material cited here does not detail a method for measuring that connection or what limits govern official travel.
A Recent County Deal
In February, Bexar County announced that Commissioners Court had approved a 10-year, 75% tax abatement agreement for Sanko Texas Corporation. The agreement is tied to a planned $39.8 million manufacturing facility in southern Bexar County, expected to create 50 jobs averaging $60,000 a year in salary.
San Antonio's economic-development ties to Japan have deep roots. The San Antonio Report has reported that a 1974 trip to Japan made by Henry Cisneros, before he became mayor, led to a relationship that helped bring Toyota to San Antonio a decade later in 1984. The same outlet has also noted that a prior county effort to market the Texas-Mexico automotive cluster to Chinese companies fell far short of its goals, underscoring that not every overseas courtship pays off the way boosters hope.
What Oversight Exists for County Travel Spending
Under Texas law, the authority to set travel spending for county officers rests with the commissioners court itself. Texas Local Government Code Chapter 152 specifies that the commissioners court shall set the amount of compensation, office and travel expenses, and other allowances for county and precinct officers and employees paid from county funds — meaning the same body that approved Sakai's trips on the consent agenda is also the one empowered to set the rules governing them. Bexar County says Commissioners Court minutes dating back to October 2001 are available for public search through its Vanguard records system, offering a paper trail for residents who want to track how such votes unfold.
How to Track the Sanko Abatement—and Japanese Business Trends
Texas requires cities and counties to report new and amended Chapter 312 tax abatement agreements to the Comptroller’s office in a timely manner, providing another public-records avenue for tracking the Sanko agreement, according to the Texas Comptroller’s office. The office cautions that abatement-report fields may be blank or marked “Not Reported” when lead taxing units do not provide appraisal districts with complete information, so the reports may not contain every detail. In statewide context, JETRO reported that its 2023 survey found 67% of Japanese companies in Texas were considering expansion over the next one to two years. The survey does not measure the effect of Bexar County officials’ travel.
What remains unresolved is how, exactly, the dollar figures and job numbers Sakai has cited will be verified or tied specifically to his travel, and whether Clay-Flores's South Korea trip will ultimately happen and at what final cost. For now, the Japan trip marks a notable bookend to Sakai's tenure as he prepares to leave office next month, even as questions about process and payoff continue to follow the spending.
