India-Japan relations

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Context: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be coming to India on Saturday, his first such visit in his new role.

Focus of the summit will be to strengthen bilateral ties in diverse areas and advancing cooperation for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

Overview of India - Japan bilateral Relations

Historical relations:

The people of India and Japan have engaged in cultural exchanges, primarily as a result of Buddhism, which spread indirectly from India to Japan, via China and Korea.
The Japan-India Association was set up in 1903, and is today the oldest international friendship body in Japan.
Bilateral ties have been singularly free of any kind of dispute – ideological, cultural or territorial.

Political relations:

Positive legacy of the old association was further strengthened by shared values of belief in democracy, individual freedom and the rule of law.
India conducts 2+2 Dialogue (at the level of Foreign and Defense Secretaries) with Japan.

Economic and Commercial Cooperation:

The India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that came into force in August 2011 is the most comprehensive of all such agreements concluded by India and covers not only trade in goods but also Services, Movement of Natural Persons, Investments, Intellectual Property Rights, Custom Procedures and other trade related issues.
The CEPA envisages abolition of tariffs over 94% of items traded between India and Japan over a period of 10 years.
A ―Japan-India Make in India Special Finance Facility‖ of JPY 1.3 trillion was also established.
Mega projects like Ahmedabad-Mumbai High Speed Rail, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor with twelve new industrial townships, and the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) will transform India-Japan relations in the next decade.

Science & Technology and Cultural Cooperation:

The India-Japan Science Council (IJSC) was established to support joint projects, exchange visits of scientists, joint seminars/workshops etc.
Annually, Japan-Asia Youth Exchange Program in Science also known as the SAKURA Exchange Program implemented by DST and JST.

2016 nuclear deal:

The deal took six years to negotiate, delayed in part by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
This is the first time that Japan signed such a deal with a non-signatory of Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The deal gives Japan the right to supply nuclear reactors, fuel and technology to India.
This deal aimed to help India build the six nuclear reactors in southern India, increasing nuclear energy capacity ten-fold by 2032 Cultural relations.

India-Japan Digital Partnership (IJDP) and Start-up Hub:

In view of synergies and complementarities between the two nations India-Japan Digital Partnership (IJDP) was launched in 2018.
Both sides signed a Joint Statement on Japan-India Startup Initiative setting up the first Startup Hub in Bangalore to identify selected Indian start-ups for Japanese market and for potential Japanese investors.
Startup-India (under Invest India) and Japan Innovation Network (JIN) have signed a MoU on innovation collaboration with a focus on SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) connecting two start-up ecosystems