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Biman Mukherji

India’s largest-ever business delegation, 200 executives strong, touched down in Japan late last month in search of money, machinery and manufacturing know-how.
At its head was Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, whose four-day tour from August 24 to 27 not only laid the groundwork for next year’s 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties but also worked to solidify an economic partnership now expanding into shipbuilding and defence.
“We believe in the principle of continuous improvement and we are looking at Japan being our partner in this journey as we progress from a US$4 trillion economy today to a US$30 trillion economy by 2047,” Goyal told a joint gathering on August 24 that included representatives of Keidanren, a Japanese business federation representing more than 1,500 companies.
The talks spanned a range of sectors, from semiconductors to artificial intelligence, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Goyal later told reporters that Japanese firms had already invested about 14 per cent of a 10-trillion-yen (US$63.9 billion) pledge announced last August. At the current pace, he said the 10-year foreign direct investment goal would be reached within three to four years.
The delegation’s India tour built on a flurry of recent high-level exchanges. Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited India from August 19 to 20, hot on the heels of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s trip in July.
India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has been conducting its own parallel courtship, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath pitching Japanese companies on a proposed 500-acre “Japan City” near the new Noida International Airport, serving the capital region.
“What makes the partnership especially interesting is the complementarity,” said Arijit Chatterjee, a professor of management at ESSEC Business School.
What makes the partnership especially interesting is the complementarity
Arijit Chatterjee, business management professor
“Japan has technology, capital and an ageing workforce, while India … has scale, labour and a huge market, so the objective is increasingly to combine Japanese know-how with Indian people and production capacity rather than simply attract Japanese FDI.”
For a “young, populous state” like Uttar Pradesh looking to build its industrial capacity, Japan was “particularly attractive”, Chatterjee said, “because it brings not just capital but decades of expertise in precision manufacturing, automobiles, robotics, skills and industrial supply chains”.
This “complementarity” is visible in India’s Haryana state, which has been working with Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture since June to train and place up to 50,000 young workers and technical professionals over five years in critical industries such as semiconductors and vehicle production – a direct response to the acute labour shortages afflicting many of Fukuoka’s major companies as Japan’s workforce rapidly ages.

“Japan can provide training, work experience and exposure to advanced manufacturing practices, while India provides talent,” Chatterjee said.
“I see youth mobility as an important complement to Japanese investment and technology transfer: India gains skills, jobs and human-capital development, while Japan gains access to a young, trained workforce it increasingly needs.”
Goyal offered another vivid example: the Indian subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, which first invested in the country in 1989, is now worth more than its Japanese parent company – surpassing it in market valuation as far back as 2015.
US$10 billion surge
Historical precedents showed the Japan-India relationship was already primed to strengthen, but analysts told This Week in Asia that rising US tariffs and the push to diversify supply chains away from China had accelerated the shift.
Last year, the two countries set an aspirational target of exchanging more than 500,000 personnel, in both directions, by the end of the decade.
Capital has followed a similar trajectory. “We were sub-US$2 million in assets under management, I think until 2020. Now fast forward to 2026, and we’re close to US$300 million,” said Rajeev Ranka, a partner at Incubate Fund Asia, a Japanese venture capital firm focused on Indian start-ups.

He estimates that Japanese firms have completed roughly US$10 billion in Indian mergers and acquisitions over the past five years.
“There is a lot of interest and action which is supported by on-the-ground travel and people visiting [India] from Japan,” he said.
Dattesh Parulekar, an assistant professor of international relations at Goa University who specialises in India’s foreign policy and diplomacy, said the bilateral relationship was undergoing a “seminal transformation” – moving from what he characterised as a “donor-recipient fiscal equation” to a partnership built on joint innovation, including on defence systems.
Partners in arms
Earlier this summer, Japan and India agreed to jointly develop stealth technology for Indian warships, fitting them with the Japanese-developed Unified Complex Radio Antenna (Unicorn) system, which reduces a vessel’s radar profile by combining cluttered antenna arrays into a single, compact structure.
Talks have also turned to naval shipbuilding and design – an area where India has long lagged behind China, Japan and South Korea, which together controlled more than 90 per cent of the global shipbuilding industry in 2024.
Japan had been exploring the possibility of a joint shipbuilding venture with India for a long time, said Vivek Mishra, deputy director of strategic studies at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi. “Japan would be a perfect partner [for India],” he said.

Uttar Pradesh recognised as much, according to Parulekar, who said part of the state’s appeal to Japanese industry was its “surging ambition to spearhead defence manufacturing” through six dedicated industrial corridors, anchored around Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi and Chitrakoot.
“I think cooperation is likely to increase on both the civilian and military sides, with shipbuilding becoming an important part of the broader industrial relationship,” said Chatterjee, noting that India was seeking Japanese investment and design expertise in equal measure.
A robust domestic shipbuilding industry was the surest foundation for naval expansion, he added – especially relevant as India races to build a 200-ship navy within the next decade.


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India and Japan swap young workers for expertise to meet each other’s needs

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi before their meeting in New Delhi on July 2. Photo: AFP

A group shot of the Indian business delegation that accompanied Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to Japan from August 24-27. Photo: X/PiyushGoyal 

An robotic assembly line at Maruti Suzuki’s factory in Manesar, Haryana state. The Indian subsidiary of Suzuki is now worth more than its Japanese parent company. Photo: Reuters

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh shakes hands with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi in New Delhi on August 20. Photo: AFP

Japanese students meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (centre) as the governor of Japan’s Yamanashi prefecture looks on during an Uttar Pradesh-Japan economic summit on August 21. Photo: AP

Japanese students take a group selfie at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, during an Uttar Pradesh-Japan investment summit on August 20. Photo: AP

Passengers gather to board a crowded train at a railway station in Mumbai. India’s Haryana state aims to train and place up to 50,000 young workers and technical professionals for placements in Japan. Photo: AFP

Passengers disembark from a train in Tokyo. Japan’s workforce is rapidly ageing. Photo: AFP

Japanese students pose in front of Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath Varanasi during an Uttar Pradesh-Japan investment meet in India on August 22. Photo: AP

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in New Delhi, India, on Thursday. Photo: AP

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From stealth warship tech to a 500,000-strong talent exchange, Tokyo and New Delhi are pairing Japanese precision with Indian scale


From stealth warship tech to a 500,000-strong talent exchange, Tokyo and New Delhi are pairing Japanese precision with Indian scale.


India and Japan swap young workers for expertise to meet each other’s needs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From stealth warship tech to a 500,000-strong talent exchange, Tokyo and New Delhi are pairing Japanese precision with Indian scale

From stealth warship tech to a 500,000-strong talent exchange, Tokyo and New Delhi are pairing Japanese precision with Indian scale