RESOURCE PAPER - 15

An Epigrammatic Note on
Japan-India relations yesterday, today and tomorrowby
Suguna Ramamoorthy

RESOURCE PAPER - 15

An Epigrammatic Note on
Japan-India relations yesterday, today and tomorrowby
Suguna Ramamoorthy

Dear Reader,
For modern readers and followers of Industry and specially of
India and Japan, there is always a question "Why is Indo-Japan
Friendship at a high now and is it only the Modi touch?"
A bit of history would help !
The Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry therefore
thought it best to research and bring out the history of therelationship and for readers to understand the context of this great
partnership.
Ms. Suguna Ramamoorthy with her first hand experience hasbrought out the essence of the reasons and the potential. I'm sure
this will serve you as a 'ready reckoner' and help in your journey.

09.11.2017

N. KumarPresident

An Epigrammatic Note on Japan-India relations yesterday, today and tomorrow

Introduction
India-Japan relations in modern times can be well understood in
two phases - after World War II and after the year 2000. A brief
understanding of the Constitution of Japan is very much
important to understand and appreciate the dynamic shift in ourbilateral relations.
The Constitution of the Land of the Rising Sun
The Japanese system is based on Japan's Constitution drafted
after the end of World War II, enacted on May 3, 1947. It firmly
established a Democracy in the form of a Constitutional
Monarchy, like the U.K., with the long-standing imperial family5as the honorary figurehead of the country. The governmental
power is distributed between the National Diet (the Legislativebody), the Cabinet (the Executive body), and the Judiciary (theJudicial body).
The Emperor is above all
The Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unityof the people" and exercises a purely ceremonial role without thepossession of sovereignty and carries out ceremonial duties, suchas appointing the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of theSupreme Court into office, and presenting distinguished awards
from the government of Japan. Internationally, imperial family
members serve as Ambassadors of Japan, hosting high profile
diplomats and guests from abroad, and visiting foreign nations on
diplomatic missions. The Emperor is never referred to by his
given name, he is referred to as "His Majesty the Emperor"
Tennō Heika. The current reigning Emperor, His Majesty Akihito,rdthborn on 23 December 1933 is the 125 Emperor of Japan,
succeeded to the throne after the demise of his father Emperor His
Majesty Hirohito. The ‘Heisei Era’ started on 8 January 1989 andhas for long, embraced a message of prolonged peace for Japanand the world. Thirty two times a year, Emperor Akihito puts on
the robes of a ‘Shinto’ priest and pays his respects to the sun
Goddess Amaterasu Omikami at the shrine. The Imperial
Majesties Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited India in
December 2013 after their visit to India in 1960 as crown prince
and princess. It was a proud moment for everyone in India.
Judiciary
The Supreme Court (Saikō Saibansho) is the highest and the final
court, located adjacent to the National Diet Building. The "Grand
Bench" (Daihōtei) of the Supreme Court has associate justices,6

who are appointed by the Cabinet with the Emperor's attestation.
The Chief Justice is nominated by the Cabinet and appointed to
office by the Emperor. The Grand Bench is subdivided into three"Petty Benches" (Shōhōtei) of five justices each, who hear
incoming appeals and recommend them for an audience before
the Grand Bench. An appeal to the Supreme Court is calledJōkoku, and requires either an error in the interpretation of theConstitution, or an error in the interpretation of case law from theSupreme Court or High Court. There is also a Family Court(Katei-saiban-sho) tied to each District Court, as well as in over
200 branch offices throughout Japan.
The Executive Branch: The Prime Minister and the Cabinet
The Prime Minister of Japan is the face of Japan's government,
driving domestic policy and guiding foreign diplomacy. To be a
Prime Minister of Japan, one must be a Japanese national, andalso a standing member of the current National Diet. The National
Diet ‘Kokkai’ is composed of a lower house called the House ofRepresentatives (Shūgi in), and an upper house called the Houseof Councillors (Sangi in). The members of both the houses are
directly elected under parallel voting systems. The political party
that holds control in the DIET is likely to appoint the party leader
to be the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister of Japan is called“Naikaku-sōri-daijin, or Shushō ”.
Japan-India relations - post-Independence period
The first milestone in Japan-India relations in modern times was
set at the historic ‘Tokyo Trials’ that took place between 1946 &1948, with the revolutionary judgement of the Indian JusticeRabindranad Pal who thundered his opinion in favour of theJapanese. Grateful Japan always remembers with pride the worthof the Indian Judge. Several books have been published on this7

by Japanese authors symbolising the affection and regard ofJapan for India; also NHK (Japan's public broadcaster) released a
one-hour documentary based on Justice Pal's life. The famous
Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo has housed the monuments of Subhas
Chandra Bose and Justice Pal. The Emperor of Japan conferredJapan's greatest civilian award on Justice Pal in 1966 and thefrequent mention by Japanese diplomats and statesmen standtestimony for Japan-India friendship and solidarity.
In 1949, the Indian Prime Minister gifted two elephants to theTokyo zoo to cheer the spirits of the defeated Japanese empire.
India's iron ore helped Japan's recovery from World War II
devastation. Japan and India signed a Peace Treaty establishing
official diplomatic relations in 1952, in which India waived all
reparation claims against Japan. This treaty was one of the firsttreaties signed by Japan after World War II. Diplomatic, trade,
economic, and technical relations between India and Japan were
well established. The first visit of the Japanese Prime Minister
Nobusuke Kishi to India in 1957 opened the avenues for Japanese
Yen loan to India in 1958. However, the next few decades therelations between Japan and India became constrained. Japan's
foreign policy then was centered on Japan-US alliance, while
India pursued a non-alignment policy and then its alliance with
the Soviet Union, left Japan-India relations estranged. Also
India's pursuit of an insular economic system in contrary toJapan's open market economy thwarted the development ofIndia-Japan economic ties.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Japan in 1969 & 1982,
followed by the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone to
India in 1984 (after more than two decades). It is also said thatPrime Minister Nakasone's visit was the starting point for JapanIndia special and close relations. In 1986, India was considered8for a big yen loan from Japan and slowly the relationship started
growing again, the next few years.
Japan - a saviour in crisis
The event that led India to develop a more positive image of Japanoccurred in 1991, when Japan provided an emergency foreignexchange loan to India. In April 1991, partly because of the Gulfcrisis, India's foreign exchange reserves dropped down and while
the US and the Europe were busy dealing with the Gulf crisis, it
was Mr. Yoshio Sakurauchi, the Lower House Speaker (19901993 & Chairman Japan-India Association, Tokyo) who
responded to MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) calling forassistance to India, and the timely financial assistance from Japan
helped India overcome the crisis and this goodwill gesture is still
acknowledged and highly appreciated by the Indians.
India's Economic Liberalisation and Japan-India relations
In 1991, when the Indian Government announced the Economic
Liberalisation Policy, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao visited
Japan in 1992 with a high economic agenda on Japanese
investment, trade and technology participation with India,
coinciding with the 40thAnniversary of Japan-India Diplomatic
Relations, paving way for a closer Japan-India bilateral dialogue.
In 1997, the foreign direct investments to India (FDI) reached$531.5 million, with the establishment of Toyota, Honda, Sony,
Mitsubishi, Matsushita, Fujitsu, YKK in India. The Ministry ofIndustry, Trade and Investments (MITI) started taking a directinterest in fostering ties; the Keidanren (Japan Business
Federation) had begun to get directly involved; the largest
financial newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun was actively
promoting economic reforms; Japanese banks, insurance andsecurities companies were waking up to the Indian market, and9

Japanese airlines JAL (Japan Air Lines) and ANA (All Nippon
Airways) established direct flights to India.
In 1998, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, with
India's Pokran II blast, the relations became strained and Japan
imposed suspensions of all political exchanges and cut off
economic assistance to India.
The 2000 miracle
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited India for the first time in theyear 2000 and held discussions with Prime Minister Vajpayee andhad a Summit meeting. Prime Minister Mori expressed his keeninterest to build a multifaceted cooperative relationship with
India in a wide range of fields and named this relationship the"Global Partnership between Japan and India in the 21st Century."Prime Minister Mori reaffirmed Japan's commitment to working
with India toward the reduction and elimination of nuclear
weapons and to cooperate with India to ensure that theComprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) will go into
force as soon as possible and Prime Minister Vajpayee affirmedthat India had conducted nuclear tests for defensive purposes.
Truly, Prime Minister Mori opened the IT gates to India and IndoJapanese IT promotion and cooperation initiatives took shape a seed sown then for a revolution in Indo-Japanese IT
cooperation, thanks to Prime Minister Mori, and the trend has
been really growing manifold since then.
In October 2001, the yen loans suspended in response to India's
nuclear testing, were resumed and progressively increased. In
December 2001, Prime Minister Vajpayee visited Japan and had
successful discussions with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi,
followed by Koizumi's visit to India in April 2005 on an invitationfrom Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shared the commitment10

to a high degree of political, economic and strategic interests
through an eight-fold agenda to include : annual Prime
Ministerial level meetings ; increase in the quantum of tradevolume between the two countries ; establishment of Japan-India
Joint Study Group (JSG), focusing on measures required for acomprehensive expansion of trade in goods, trade in services,
investment flows and other areas of economic relations between
Japan and India ; encourage higher levels of investment by
Japanese companies in India ; strengthen technical cooperation to
improve the competitiveness of Indian manufacturing industries ;a Joint Task Force on ICT ; grant of Japanese Yen loan to India in
FY 2004 to the tune of 134.5 billion to accelerate economic
development, particularly in priority sectors like infrastructure,including transportation and power and environment ; annual
Japan-India Coast Guard talks, joint exercises against piracy,
Maritime Self Defence Force of Japan and the Indian Navy toenhance their cooperation etc.
In September 2006, for the first time, Shinzo Abe (President,
Liberal Democratic party & the current Prime Minister) who took
over as Prime Minister for a year, paid a lot of attention instrengthening Japan-India relations. At a reverberating speech in
the Indian Parliament, Abe made a historic shift which received athunderous applause “The Pacific and the Indian Oceans are now
bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and ofprosperity. A 'Broader Asia' that broke away geographicalboundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two
countries have the ability and the responsibility to ensure that it
broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas tobecome seas of clearest transparency. This is the message I wish
to deliver directly today to the one billion people of India. That is
why I stand before you now in the Central Hall of the highest
chamber, to speak with you, the people's representatives of11

India”, and the impact of this historic speech in August 2007 is amatter of great importance and significance today. Also, Prime
Minister Manmohan singh and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
launched the historic
Economic Partnership Agreement/
Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA/CEPA)
and also an MOU on Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor was
signed between the Minister of Commerce and Industry of India
and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan in New
Delhi, then. Abe Shinzo was elected Prime Minister for thesecond term in 2012, third term in 2014 and successfully for the
fourth term in 2017.
India and Japan launched joint naval exercises in the Indian
Ocean in 2011. Joint exercises between the Coast Guards of India
and Japan were also held in Chennai in January 2012, and inTokyo Bay in November 2012. Yet another milestone in thehistory of Japan-India relations in recent times worth mentioning
is “Despite the history of the atomic bombing, the government ofJapan accepted the US-India Nuclear Agreement, which affords
exceptional treatment for India, without even making an effort tominimize the blow to the NPT system.”
The ‘Abe-Modi’ era
Although Japan-India bilateral relations has been on an up-swing,
the two Prime Ministers have given in the last few years, anunprecedented momentum to it. The rapidly growing closenesshas caught the attention of all nations. Japan has been made apermanent participant in the Malabar Naval Exercises which also
involves the US; the India-Japan-US Trilateral has been upgradedto ministerial level ; a new trilateral at the foreign secretary levelhas been initiated with Australia as the third country etc. All thishas added a lot of value to the bilateral relations. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's visits to Japan and Prime Minister Abe's visits to12

India in the last few years, have great bearings on Japan-India
bilateral agenda.
Prime Minister Modi's innovative initiatives such as "Make inIndia," "Digital India," "Skill India," "Smart City," "Swachh
Bharat” and "Start-Up India" were assured full support by Prime
Minister Abe by sharing Japan's advanced skills and technologies,
through active mobilisation of Japanese public and private sector
investments, including through ODA. The two leaders haveinitiated establishment of the first four Japan-India Institutes for
Manufacturing (JIMs) in the States of Gujarat, Karnataka,
Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu in 2017, under the Manufacturing Skill
Transfer Promotion Program to start with and many more suchmodels will follow soon to help introduce Japanesemanufacturing practices and accelerate training of future shopfloor professionals and engineers. Japan has already committed
to train 30,000 Indian professionals under the programme, Also,
the Japanese Endowed Courses (JEC) in the Engineering
Colleges will be designated by the Japanese companies in India togive shape to the ‘Modi dynamics’.
A Joint Task Force comprising Japanese and Indians has been set
up to monitor the initiatives of Japan-India economic cooperation
under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. One-India-OneTax, GST initiative and implementation; establishment ofJapanese industrial townships in India etc. have all helped
contribute a conducive environment for Japanese businessmen.
The visit of Prime Minister Modi to Japan in 2016 concluded thehistoric agreement between Japan and India for peaceful use of
nuclear energy, setting a new chapter in clean energy and climate
management.
In addition to all this, the number of Japanese foreign direct
investment (FDI) is growing. Japan is now the third largest
investor in India.
13

Top three investing countries in India: (Rupees: crores)
Ranks Country

2015-16 FY

2016-17 FY

2017-18

Cumulative(April - June 2017)(April 2000 June 2017)

1

Mauritius

54,706

105,587

21,226607,1772

Singapore

89,51058,376

19,403

334,445

3

Japan

17,27531,5882,899

145,159

Japan-India Trade (Yen: billion)

Year

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

2013

2014

2015 2016

Trade from
India to Japan

352

472

491

544

348

499

543

559

690

739

589

509

Trade from388
Japan to India

518

723

819

591

792

882

845

839

861

981

889

Direct investment from Japan (Yen: billion)
Year

2005 2006

2007 200820092010 2011 2012

2013

2014

2015 201629.8 59.7

178

344

241

210

282

352

543

181

223

465

The Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to India havegreatly increased in recent years. The Delhi Metro Project is oneof the best projects realised through the Japanese cooperation.
Other than the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project,many other high-profile projects like the Delhi-Mumbai
Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link
Project are under different stages of execution.

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ODA from Japan: (Yen: billion)
Year

Disbursement

2005-06

68.68

2006-0755.47

2007-08

94.65

2008-09122.56

2009-10128.95

2010-11123.84

2011-12139.22

2012-13113.964

2013-14144.254

2014-15

74.36

2015-16390

2016-17371.345

The ‘Abenomics’ and the ‘Modinomics’ augurs well for JapanIndia cooperation not only in economic development but also incultural, scientific, strategic and human resource developments.
However, there are a couple sore points too that cannot beignored. The annual trade figures in the last two years do notreflect the economic ties between the third and the fourth largest(on purchasing power parity terms) economies in the world. The
sale of US-2 amphibious aircraft to India has not progressed muchas desired. However, these points cannot take away from thetremendous distance that has been covered elsewhere.
15

Japan-India Jidai (era)The two leaders have not only struck symbiotic relations for the
benefit of the two countries, but set a global vision to explore
development of industrial corridors and industrial network forthe growth of Asia and Africa, for the benefit of various
stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region including Africa. They
desire to further promote cooperation and collaboration in Africa
in line with the priority measures identified through the IndiaJapan dialogue on Africa and the processes of the India-Africa
Forum Summit (IAFS) and Tokyo International Conference on
African Development (TICAD). India and Japan are the only two
major forces of stability in the Indo-Pacific region and it isabsolutely appropriate to explore cooperation on infrastructureand human development projects beyond India and Japan.
Long Live Japan-India cooperation

16