Volume 10 Issue 4

July - August 2024

President’s Message
Dear Friends,
War and civil strife continues totake its toll on humanity. The
conflict in the Ukraine started in
February 2022 which was
followed by the devastation ofGaza following a terror attack
on Israel on October 7, 2023.
And now South Asia has been
tormented by the goings on in Bangladesh and closer
home has seen the devastating landslides of Wayanad,
Kerala that has claimed many lives.
At the Indo Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
our hearts go out to all those who have been impacted bythese natural disasters and those devastated by decision
makers under one pretext or another. In the midst of all
this there is the hope in democratic societies that thepolitical leadership will muster the courage to chart a
course for a better tomorrow.
India - Japan relations have been growing steadily in an
orchestrated manner in a way that countries around theworld pay greater attention. The recently concluded
QUAD meeting in Japan participated by the Foreign
Ministers of India, Japan, Australia and the United Stateson July 29, 2024 have committed to geographically
expand the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime
Domain Awareness (IPMDA) to the Indian Ocean region
and work for early operationalization of the South Asia
program. The Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean
Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram, India, is a welcome plan.
On the economic front , Japan's has recovered moderately,
although some weakness has been seen. Corporate profits
have been at record-high levels; private consumption has
been resilient; various surveys indicate that this year's
summer bonus payments are likely to exceed those of lastyear are positive indicators.
India’s economy carried forward the momentum built lastyear into the current financial year, despite a gamut of
external challenges. India’s inflation continues to be low,stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target. Under
the Prime Ministership of Mr. Narendra Modi, GDP grewby 8.2 per cent exceeding 8 per cent mark in three out offour quarters of Financial year 2024.
No doubt our two countries are performing well, but much
more remains to be done for a better tomorrow!
Regards,
T.P. Imbichammad

Ehime Prefecture Assembly Delegationin Chennai on 20th August 2024

Leader Mr. Junnosuke Kainou was given a traditional welcome
by Mr. TP. Imbichammad, President, IJCCI.

Delegation members : Mr. Kainou Junnosuke; Mr. Takayama
Yasuhito; Mr. Kakata Kotaro; Mr. Taichi Yamamoto; Mr. Okada
Norihito; Ms. Norimatsu Sachiko; Mr. Kenta Kawamoto interactedwith Mr. T. P. Imbichammad; Mr. S. Padmanabhan; Ms. Suguna
Ramamoorthy & Ms. Matengi Suresh from IJCCI.

QUAD Ministerial Meet to improve maritime security
Top diplomats from Japan, the U.S., Australia and India had ajoint meeting on July 29, 2024 in Tokyo compiled a set ofmeasures to reinforce maritime safety and cybersecurity andto support other Asia-Pacific countries in improving theirdefenses during growing tensions in the regional seas.Afterthe meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa,
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Australian Foreign
Minister Penny Wong and Indian External Affairs Minister
Subrahmayam Jaishankar said they were “seriously
concerned” about the tensions and expressed “strong
opposition” to unilateral changes to the status quo by
coercion. They noted “the militarization of disputed features,and coercive and intimidating manoeuvres in the South
China Sea” as examples. Several regional governments dispute China's sweeping territorial claims over the South China
Sea, which has crucial maritime trade routes and potential energy reserves. Beijing also claims self-governing Taiwan as its
territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. At what are known as the Quad talks, the four ministers agreed on a number of
initiatives to counter cyber-attacks, ensure maritime security and deal with disinformation. They also announced expanded
support for other countries, including in Southeast Asia and Pacific islands, to bolster their abilities in those areas as the
Quad seeks to expand its partnerships. The ministers plan to launch a maritime legal dialogue to focus on the internationallaw of the sea. They said they were determined to contribute to maintaining and developing free-and-open maritime orderconsistent with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans and to enhance cooperationand coordination on it. The four countries are expanding their partnership to include the Indian Ocean to enhance maritime
domain awareness, Kamikawa said. Their initiatives included support for installing a secure telecommunications network
in Palau and building cybersecurity capacity in the Philippines and India, according to the joint statement. The ministers
reaffirmed their commitment to improving the region’s connectivity through the development of resilient infrastructuresuch as undersea cables. “We are committed to putting our collective resources, our collective strength to work to benefit
people across the region that we share,” Blinken told a joint news conference after the talks. “We continue to work withpartners to ensure that freedom of navigation, overflight, the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce that thesecontinue to go forward. They are critical to the region’s security. They’re critical to its ongoing prosperity.”Australia’s
Wong said the Quad nations were working to achieve “a world in which disputes are managed by rules, by talking, bycooperation, not by force or by power. But most importantly we understand that this does not happen on its own. We have to
make this happen.”
Japan Eyes 2+2 Meeting with Australia, India by Early September to Strengthen Security Ties
Many defense-related officials in Japan have raised concerns over the feasibility of the Self-Defense Forces shooting
down spy balloons flying above the country. A U.S. fighter’s downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier thismonth turned the spotlight on similar objects that had been spotted floating above Japan in the past few years. Japan’s
Defense Ministry has adopted a position that it will not rule out the possibility of shooting such objects down, sayingthat airspace intrusions by a foreign balloon will be dealt with accordingly. Many within the defense community,
however, have said that it would actually be difficult for Japan to shoot down spy balloons due to the hard-to-obtain
permission for the SDF to use weapons and also in terms of skills. Similar flying objects were spotted floating above the
Tohoku northeastern Japan region in June 2020 and in September 2021. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada revealed
that an SDF patrol aircraft had witnessed an unidentified balloon floating above the open sea’s west of the Kyushu
south-western Japan region in January last year. The SDF law stipulates that when foreign aircraft intrude into Japanese
airspace, the SDF can take measures necessary to make the aircraft land or leave the airspace. The use of force isallowed in cases of legitimate self-defense or emergency evacuation. The Air SDF has been engaging in warning andsurveillance activities by scrambling fighter jets, based on the law. In fiscal 2021, the SDF scrambled jets 1,004 times,
with the majority of such cases against Chinese and Russian military jets and drones.

Interaction Session on Japanese Business culture and ethos by IJCCIRRD Donnelley: A sensitization programme on Japanese Management
Practices, Business Ethos and Etiquettes was conducted by IJCCI on 25th
July 2024 for Business Heads of RR Donnelly Group. Mr. N. Kumar,
Chairman Sanmar Group Corporate Board; Mr. Bharat Jhaver, President,
Tablets India; Mr. R. Balakrishnan, President, Rane Group, Mr. P.S.
Suman, Managing Partner, PSS Legal Advisors LLP; Mr. Kaoru Shiraishi,
Director-General, JETRO, Chennai, Ms. Matengi Suresh and Ms. Suguna
Ramamoorthy shared their knowledge at the session.
Importance of Japanese language

Dr. P. Rathna, Director, Center for Intl. Relations, B S Abdur Rahman Crescent Inst. of Science & Tech. organised aninteraction session for students with Ms. Matengi Suresh, Course Director, IJCCI Language School on 7th August.
Japanese Anime
Japanese Anime on was screenedon 28th July at IJCCI Japanese
Language School, participated by
the students in big number
enthusiastically.
Indian economy surpasses expectations
Indian economy has exceeded growth expectations (averaging 8.3% annual growth over this period) despite global
uncertainties, driven by strong domestic demand and continuous government efforts toward reforms and capital
expenditure.Deloitte projects annual GDP growth to be between 7.0% and 7.2% in fiscal 2024 to 2025 and between
6.7% and 7.3% the following fiscal year as markets adapt to geopolitical uncertainties in their investment andconsumption decisions. The global economy is anticipated to rebound synchronously in 2025, as major election
uncertainties are resolved, and Western central banks possibly implement rate cuts as inflation concerns subside. India
is likely to experience improved capital flows, boosting private investment and exports. Though inflation concerns
remain, it is expected to ease in the latter half of the next fiscal year, barring any surprises from rising oil or food prices.
The robust growth in fiscal 2023 to 2024 and the continuity of the government at the center after the elections haveincreased confidence in the domestic economic fundamentals and buoyed India’s outlook. It is expected that India
would grow between 7.0% and 7.2% in the coming fiscal year (2024 to 2025)

India’s dynamic startup ecosystem is set to attract $1 billion in new venture funding in 2024NS
Bessemer Venture Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm, released its flagship “The Rise of SaaSin India 2024” report today, analyzing India’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market. The report highlights the burgeoning
growth potential of the Indian SaaS industry, driven by the rapid adoption of AI, increasing focus on cyber security, andincreasing cloud adoption in the BFSI and Manufacturing industries. As per the report, India’s dynamic startup ecosystem
is set to attract $1 billion in new venture funding in 2024, which is 25% higher compared to 2023. A significant portion ofthis investment will be directed towards AI-focused companies, which are offering significant growth opportunities. Indian
SaaS unicorns and centaurs have collectively added $5.9 billion in revenue during 2023 alone. Additionally, India’s SaaS
market is projected to reach $50 billion by 2030, with a possibility of an upward revision given the rapid advancements in
AI and its integration into SaaS solutions. The survey findings also reveal that 60% of startups, previously pure SaaS
companies, are now evolving into AI-enabled SaaS providers. India is rapidly growing in cybersecurity and the skilled andtalented professionals are abundantly available to serve a large domestic as well as global market.
(Deloitte)
Japan’s positive economic turnJapan posted a 12.68 trillion yen ($87 billion) current account surplus in the first half of 2024, lifted by record returns on
foreign investments amid a weak yen and a smaller trade deficit, according to the Finance Ministry. Increased dividends
and interest payments amid higher overseas bond yields pushed up Japan's primary income by around 10 percent from ayear earlier to 19.20 trillion yen, the highest for any half-year period since 1985.The surplus in the current account balance,
one of the widest gauges of international trade, expanded nearly 60 percent in the January-June period. Japan's trade deficit
nearly halved to 2.61 trillion yen as exports grew 6.7 percent to 50.61 trillion yen and imports rose 1.1 percent to 53.22
trillion yen. Despite fears of a U.S. recession that have been gripping investors in recent weeks, U.S.-bound auto shipments
were robust in June, giving the Japanese economy a boost. A persistently weak yen has become a headache for resourcescarce Japan because it inflates import prices for everything from energy and raw materials to food. But it also boosts thevalue of investment returns and serves as a positive for inbound tourism as traveling to and shopping in Japan becomescheaper for foreign visitors. The yen on average traded nearly 13 percent lower against both the dollar and the euro in thefirst half compared with a year earlier, in reflection of the wide interest rate differential between Japan and major
economies. As Japan took in a record 17.78 million foreign visitors in the first half, its travel surplus hit a record 2.6 trillion
yen, meaning the amount spent by foreign visitors in Japan exceeded what Japanese spent overseas. The services
trade deficit shrank 15.4 percent to 1.75 trillion yen. In June, Japan's current account surplus came to 1.53 trillion yen, rising
0.9 percent from the year before to the second-highest level for the month. Helped by continued export growth,
Japan's trade surplus expanded nearly 70 percent to 556.3 billion yen. Exports grew 5.9 percent to 9.17 trillion yen,
compared with imports that rose 3.4 percent to 8.61 trillion yen. The country's primary income surplus decreased
12.3 percent to 1.47 trillion yen.
(Kyodo)Japan chipmaker Renesas targets India for over 10% of sales
Japanese chipmaker, Renesas Electronics seeks to boost sales in India from less than 5% of the 2022 total to between 10%
and 15% by 2030, aiming to meet demand in the fast-growing economy's industrial equipment and tech sectors. The
company also plans to increase its staff in India to as many as 1,000 workers by 2025, compared with the roughly 50 people
employed there in 2019, says CEO Hidetoshi Shibata. Renesas will offer products that combine microcontroller
technology, one of the company's strengths, with analog semiconductors. It will target the growing small and mediumsized business sector, as well as big companies. Renesas' revenue for the year ended December 2023 was 1.46 trillion yen($9.4 billion), down 2% from the previous year. In 2022, the company announced a partnership with Indian conglomerate
Tata Group on chip design and development and opened a joint development center in India.It plans to start operating a chipassembly and testing plant through a joint venture with an Indian company as early as 2026. Overseas competitors like
U.S.-based Advanced Micro Devices are also focusing on acquiring talent and expanding their businesses in India. (Nikkei)
Japanese ‘craft cola’ hits the market
Takahide Kobayashi’s low tolerance for alcohol led in part to a journey that put his tiny food company in directcompetition with the world’s biggest beverage companies.He named his product Iyoshi Cola, after his grandfather
Ryotaro Ito. Kobayashi uses around 10 spices and citrus fruits, including cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander,
kola nuts, lemons and limes including ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine, such as ginseng, to differentiate
his product. His business, which started out with a food truck, has expanded so much that his cola is now sold at somehigh-end supermarket chains and at a convenience store chain. He has also been working to export his product overseas.
Kobayashi says “I hope people will one day be saying: ‘Coca, Pepsi and Iyoshi.’
Editors : Dr. Sridhar Krishnaswami, Member, IJCCI Governing Council & Ms. Suguna Ramamoorthy, Secretary-General;
Publisher : IJCCI; Designing & Printing : J.G.S. Johnson - 93845 93262
For Private Circulation only.
Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IJCCI), No. 21, Kavignar Barathidasan Road, Teynempet, Chennai - 600 018, Tamilnadu, India.
Phone : 044 - 4855 6140 Email : indo-Japan@ijcci.com Web : www.ijcci.com