Introduction
->Historical connections prior to independence through Ghadar party and INA
->War reconstruction sympathy by Nehru through iron and steel
->Cold war politics : Korean war, formation of communist China(1949)
->During this period no meaningful cooperation between Japan and India
->Japan criticized nuclear testing of india
->Japan – India relationship limited to Official Development Assistance (ODA)
->Things started to change because of end of cold war and LPG reforms of India
Why Japan ?
- Major economic partner
- Interest and stakes in East Asia its increasing importance in the form of Look East Policy
- A transition of power is to begin in Asian continent
- Civil Nuclear engagement
Cooperation
1)Strategic cooperation
- Signiing Civil Nuclear agreement (CNA) : India is the first country to have CNA with Japan and is not a signatory to NPT
- Strategic Diamond initiative (2014) : It is a maritime cooperation between India – Japan – Australia and USA to contain China’s growing influence in Asia – Pacific region
- Quality Infrastructure Partnership (QIP) : India try to synchronise QIP with Act East Policy
- Export of High Quality infrastructure and construction of win win situation for both domestic as well as external growth of the country
- Japan is investing in Civilian Infrastructure in Andaman and Nicobar island – Previously no other country have invested in A & N island which is a strategic area of India
2)Economic Partnershiip
- Japanese FDI into India grew exponentially from US$ 139 million in 2004 to all time high of US$ 5551 million in 2008. Currently FDI from Japan to India was US$ 1.7 billion during January-December 2014. Japanese FDI has mainly been in automobile, electrical equipment, telecommunications, chemical and pharmaceutical sectors.
- Japan is the largest bilateral donor to India.
- Japanese ODA supports India’s efforts for accelerated economic development particularly in priority areas like power, transportation, environmental projects and projects related to basic human needs. For example New Delhi metro network. The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor with eight new industrial townships, The Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) India’s primary exports to Japan have been petroleus ores & scrap, clothing & accessories, iron & steel products, textile yarn, fabrics and machinery etc
- 13 big infrastructure projects to be financed by ODA loans such as Metro projects both in Chennai and Ahmedabad and road network connectivity in our Northeastern states.
- JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) provides soft loan for India
- Japan plus : Exclusive platform under DIPP to deal with investments coming from Japan – this is like ease of doing business for Comapanies