In the present global scenario, India’s closest strategic partner is Japan and this bond between the two has flourished even more in the last decade. The evolution of this relationship started from strong historical and cultural ties which went on to developing economic relations and further gained value with help of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) from Japan to India. This aimed at stronger economic ties with a greater focus on the manufacturing sector, building of world class infrastructure like the Delhi Metro and the Mumbai Ahmedabad bullet train project, supporting industrial corridors in Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, working on supply chain resilience and more investment and development measures in the states of the seven sisters.

In the domain of security and defence relations, it resulted in the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation between Japan and India to the Annual 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue where they focused on institutional defence cooperation to the reciprocal provision of supplies and services, to defence exercises and joint military drills like JIMEX and Dharma Guardian and finally, strengthening naval platforms through the Unified Complex Radio (UNICORN). In the recent visit of the Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani to India, he proposed a new framework for defence cooperation calling it the ‘Japan-India Defence Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region’. Both the countries are looking at working towards maritime security which continuous to be essential in the Indian Ocean, the East China Sea and the South China Sea and they have been hosting naval exercises like the Malabar Exercise which would help in dealing with China’s aggressiveness and working to secure the sea lanes of communication as there has been a tussle for the sea routes.

This year is celebrated as the India and Japan Science, Technology and Innovation year and several efforts have been made between the two countries like working on digital partnership which helps to encourage aspects of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence and help startups and fintech companies to invest in the area. Another domain which has been growing significantly has been the arena of space security and technology and has paved the way for joint missions between ISRO and JAXA. Furthermore, the people to people ties between India and Japan can be seen through the various academic exchanges, student interactions and scholarships like MEXT, JENESYS and JASSO. Japan Foundation has been continuously working on Japanese language classes and regularly organising teacher training programmes along with promoting Japanese festivals like tanabata and making sure people explore ikebana, tea making ceremonies, Japanese food, anime and events like comic con take place in a yearly fashion. Both India and Japan have been working in the domain of sister cities like Kobe-Ahmedabad and Varanasi-Kyoto and paving the way for greater tourism opportunities for citizens and have been promoting Buddhist sites among the other tourist sites.

Globally, there is a trend where countries are looking at multilateralism and trilateral partnerships and India and Japan have been actively involved in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue(QUAD) which has been working with likeminded countries and recently, the Foreign Ministers of the QUAD countries had their meeting where they discussed about terrorism, Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission, Quad Ports of the Future Partnership and the Quad Partnership on Cable Connectivity and Resilience to name a few. In the United Nations, both the countries have supported each other in the move to attain a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Both the countries have been working on the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) and supporting the Global South and the ASEAN countries where their focus have been on working towards digitalisation, climate change efforts, healthcare and different types of capacity development programmes.

For cybersecurity, India and Japan can create a joint centre for training and development for cybersecurity strategies and create a playbook on cybercrime cases which have taken place globally and share that with like-minded countries. There is a need to create a pool of talent for cyber security experts globally and India and Japan can help create that much needed skilled and trained pool of experts who can further train others in different countries.

In the area of healthcare and medicines, there is need to cooperate for production of generic medicines and vaccine development and also create greater scope for digital health technologies which would make healthcare accessible to all in all parts of the world and also help create a database of patients which would help identity the types of medical issues that people are facing.

There is a need to work on defence production, defence companies in India and Japan can co-develop and collaborate and work on licensed production on sectors of aircraft manufacturing, radar equipment, advancement in ship building technologies and submarines and work on defence systems and technologies with special focus on optical fibre cable, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and support the different types of innovations.

Japan and India can collaborate and cooperate with one another and work towards lithium batteries as these are vital for the electric vehicles and both the countries are looking to integrate them for energy storage within their power grids. At present, China dominates the lithium cell manufacturing and mineral processing globally and so, it isn’t feasible for either India or Japan to be overdependent on any one specific country. Thereby, India and Japan should try and work on research and development and learn to share knowledge with each other.

One of the key components which still need to be developed is the people to people tie, there is a need to look at areas of research and development which would help create a pool of experts who would help work on cultural interlinkages and diplomacy and support Buddhism and related studies.

It is important to remember that India and Japan’s relationship has evolved over a period of time and given the current geopolitical scenario, these ties are bound to expand and grow and create opportunities for greater interactions, support and development.