The reaction of foreign investors will have a big effect on jobs.
I would like to explain how Brexit would affect us at Hitachi, and why we think it’s important for Britain to remain in Europe.
Hitachi is a global company based in Japan, and a serious long-term investor in the UK.
We have invested over a billion pounds creating new jobs in the UK’s rail and energy sectors. [...]
For most global companies like Hitachi, the critical benefit of investing in the UK is that it is the best base for accessing the whole European market of 500m people.
There are other reasons like the size of the UK market, availability of local and international talent and the support of our local communities – which is why we take a positive view of the UK inside Europe.
Therefore we have our regional headquarters here and moved our global rail headquarters to London.
But take away the UK’s membership of the EU, and the future investment case looks very different.
We worry because those advocating Brexit have no answer to how the UK could negotiate cost-free access to this huge market from a position outside it.
It would take a long time and result in uncertain market conditions; during this renegotiation period, investors would probably be waiting to see the outcomes, hold back on investment, and jobs would be lost. [...]
This is not just a Japanese view. Many international investors in UK manufacturing and research, like Airbus, Siemens, GE and Microsoft have voiced the same concerns. [...]
Brexit would force us and similar companies to rethink, because we still have a European vision, and would be disadvantaged in pursuing it from the UK.
We understand the EU is not perfect, but we hope the UK can continue from inside to change it for the better.
Strong national policy and membership of Europe can go together.
From our viewpoint, attracting foreign investment and high-value job creation depends on staying in and continuing to create a competitive internal market, and in this we hope the UK will be the leading force it has always been.