Indo-Japan Bilateral Relationship - 1 | UPSC Mains: International Relations PDF Download

Brief Note on India-Japan Bilateral Relations 

• The friendship between India and Japan has a long history rooted in spiritual affinity and strong cultural and civilization ties dating back to the visit of Indian monk Bodhisena in 752 AD. In contemporary times, prominent Indians associated with Japan were Swami Vivekananda, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, entrepreneur JRD Tata, freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Judge Radha Binod Pal. Post Second World War, India did not attend the San Francisco Conference but decided to conclude a separate peace treaty with Japan in 1952 after its sovereignty was fully restored marking a defining moment in the bilateral relations and setting the tone for the future. The sole dissenting voice of Judge Radha Binod Pal at the War Crimes Tribunal struck a deep chord among the Japanese public that continues to reverberate to this day.
• India and Japan established diplomatic relations on 28 April 1952. In the first decade after diplomatic ties were established, several high-level exchanges took place, including Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi’s visit to India in 1957, Prime Minister Nehru’s return visit to Tokyo the same year and President Rajendra Prasad’s visit in 1958. Japan started providing yen loans to India in 1958. The visit of their Highnesses, the then Japanese Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko in 1960 elevated the relations to a new level. A test of the reliability of Japan as a friend was witnessed in 1991, when Japan was among the few countries that bailed India out of the balance of payment crisis.
• The visit to India of the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in 2000 led to a significant and qualitative shift in India-Japan relations with the establishment of the ‘Global Partnership’ between the two sides. The transformation of our ties with Japan were provided further fillip by the decision to have Annual Summits between the Prime Ministers commencing 2006 when both sides established ‘Strategic and Global Partnership’. India's rapidly growing economy and the new economic opportunities created have caught the attention of the Japanese corporate sector, which is a driving force behind closer bilateral relations.
• The year 2013 was a monumental year that saw the first ever visit of then Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko (30 November-6 December 2013) to India. Within a couple of months after the landmark visit of the Imperial Couple, PM Abe paid an official visit to India in January 2014 during which he was the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations (first ever Japanese PM to be honoured so). PM Narendra Modi’s official visit to Japan in AugustSeptember 2014 for the Annual Summit meeting (his first bilateral visit outside India’s neighbourhood) upgraded bilateral relations to ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’. The India-Japan Annual Summits are being held regularly.
• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s visit, for the 13^th Annual Summit, to Japan on 28-29 October 2018 provided further impetus to bilateral ties, building upon the momentum creating by his visits to Japan in 2014 and 2016 as well as the visits of PM Abe to India in 2015 and 2017. During the Summit, both PMs outlined the shared vision for the future India-Japan relations. In a special gesture, our PM was hosted by PM Abe for a private dinner at his ancestral home in Yamanashi, the first such reception to be extended to a foreign leader. Japan’s announcement of joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Exchange of Notes concerning the provision of seven Yen loan projects including the Project for the Construction of MAHSR (total loan provision of up to 316.458 billion yen), Currency Swap Agreement of US$ 75 billion, India-Japan Digital Partnership and Implementing Arrangement for deeper cooperation between Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force and Indian Navy, MOC on Healthcare, Food Processing Sector were among the 32 MoUs/Agreements signed during the Annual Summit. During the visit, 57 Japanese companies announced to make investments in India worth US$ 2.5 billion and 15 Indian companies announced to make investments in Japan.
• PM Shri Narendra Modi visited Japan on 27-29 June 2019 to participate in G20 Summit held in Osaka. On the sidelines, he held a bilateral meeting with PM Abe and discussed broad range of topics of mutual interest, such as Japan’s assistance to India for the coalition on disaster resilience infrastructure, fugitive economic offenders and anti-corruption measures, and infrastructure works of Japanese companies in the North East. PM Abe and PM Modi also met on the sidelines of G7 Summit in Biarritz (August 2019), and Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok (5 September 2019). PM Modi and PM Abe also met on 4 November 2019 in Bangkok during their visit to Bangkok to attend ASEAN-related summit meetings. They exchanged views regarding measures for strengthening Japan-India relations, including defense cooperation, bilateral cooperation in third countries, and collaboration on investment promotion.
• Apart from the Annual Summits, the annual Foreign Minister level Strategic Dialogue, Defense Ministers Meeting, NSA-level Dialogue, Ministerial level 2+2 and FOC Consultations and other bilateral dialogue mechanisms ensure regular high level and functional engagements. Foreign Affairs Minister of Japan, Mr. Motegi Toshimitsu, and Minister of Defense of Japan, Mr. Kono Taro, visited India for the first India-Japan 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting on 30 November 2019 in New Delhi. During his visit to Japan for the G20 Foreign Minister’s Meeting in Nagoya during November 22-23, 2019, EAM met  the Foreign Affairs Minister of Japan. Earlier, Bilateral Strategic Dialogue led by Foreign Ministers was held on 29 June 2019 on the sidelines of G20 Summit in Osaka, and Defense Ministerial Meeting was held on 2-3 September 2019 in Tokyo. India-Japan Foreign Ministers’ meeting was also held on 26th September  2019 on the sidelines of 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Shigeru Kitamura, Secretary General of National Security Secretariat (NSS) of Japan visited India in November 2019 and called on PM Modi and held discussions with EAM and NSA. On 7 November 2019, MoS for External Affairs Shri V Muraleedharan met Nakatania Shinichi, Parliamentary Vice Minister for External Affairs of Japan on the sidelines of IORA in Abu Dhabi. Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Om Birla attended the 6th Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit of G20 countries in Tokyo.
• Other MEA led-bilateral dialogues: The Act East Forum, established in 2017, aims to provide a platform for India-Japan collaboration under the rubric of India’s “Act East Policy” and Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision”.  At the Second meeting of the Act East forum on 8 October 2018, both sides agreed to focus on expanding of Japanese language in North East, training of caregivers under TITP, capacity building in area of bamboo value chain development and Disaster Management. The inaugural India-Japan Space Dialogue was held in Delhi on 8 March 2019 for enhancing bilateral cooperation in outer space and information exchange on the respective space policies. Both sides also held consultations on civil nuclear cooperation in March and September 2018. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Science, Technology and Earth Sciences, visited Tokyo from 17-18 October 2019 for bilateral meetings before going to attend the G 20 Health Ministers Meeting in Okayama from 19-20 October. He had a bilateral meeting on 17 October with Koichi Hagiuda, MEXT Minister of Japan and discussed various bilateral issues in the S&T and Health sectors.
• Hon’ble President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind visited Japan from October 21-23, 2019 to attend the Enthronement Ceremony of the Emperor of Japan, His Majesty Naruhito.  During his visit, Hon’ble President attended various ceremonies related to the Emperor's enthronement and also a banquet hosted by Prime Minister Abe.

Defense Relations

• India-Japan Defense and Security partnership has evolved over the years and today forms an integral pillar of the bilateral ties. Our exchanges have strengthened due to growing convergence on strategic matters; and its significance is growing from the common outlook on issues of peace, security and stability of the Indo-Pacific Region.  The Tri-Service Exchanges between Japan and India have been institutionalized completing the triad. Coast Guards have regular annual exchanges since 2006.
• The year 2019 has been an eventful year for bilateral defence and security cooperation with the highlights being the visit of Mr Nobuaki Miyama, Commissioner ATLA who attended the Aero India 2019 held at Bengaluru from 22-24 February 2019 and India-Japan Defence Industry Business Forum which was held on the sidelines of Aero India 2019 at Bengaluru on 23 February 2019. The event was also attended by Lt Gen Hirohide Inoue, Commander Air Development and Test Command. The General also called on CAS, IAF at AFS Station Yelahanka on 20 February on the sidelines of his visit and discussed the topics of mutual interest. Staff talks between the three services were also concluded in the current year starting with 5th Army to Army Staff Talks from 7-9 February 2019 at New Delhi followed by 3rd Air to Air Staff Talks from 27-29 May and 8th Navy to Navy Staff Talks from 9-11 July 2019 both held at Tokyo. DG Rajendra Singh, PTM, TM, DG ICG participated in the 18th ICG-JCG High Level Meeting held in Tokyo on 22 January 2019. The event also coincided with the visit of ICGS Shaunak to Japan for joint exercise with JCG which was held at Yokohama on 23 January 2019. The year was also significant in the commencement of negotiations for the Japan-India Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ASCA). The year 2019 saw the conduct of five Passage exercises, one Joint exercise between IN-JMSDF Ships and one joint Air ASW exercise between IN P8I and P-3C aircraft and the participation of the Indian Navy in the Mine Counter Measures/Explosive Disposal Ordinance Exercise (MINEX/EODEX) 2JA 2019. Malabar 2019 was conducted off Western Kyushu in the Sea of Japan in September 2019. INS Sahyadri and INS Kiltan participated in the exercise. This year Malabar exercise was also significant as for the first time IN P8I aircraft was deployed to Japan to participate in the exercise . INS Sahyadri and Kiltan visited Yokosuka port from 14-17 October 2019. The ships visit to Yokosuka was planned for JMSDF Fleet Review which was scheduled to be held on 14 October 2019. However due the impact of Super Typhoon ‘Hagibis’, which made land fall on 12 October 2019, JMSDF Fleet Review was cancelled at the last moment. Besides these exercises numerous SMEE were conducted between the services. From 15 to 25 October, JASDF conducted Japan-India bilateral exercise Shinyu Maitri 19 in India. This is the 2nd time for JASDF to conduct the bilateral exercise with IAF. The bilateral exercise between Indian Army (IA) and Japan Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF), ‘Dharma Guardian’ was conducted at CIJW School, Vairengte from 19 October-02 November 2019. This was the 2nd time for JGSDF to conduct the bilateral exercise with IA. The exercise was also significant as Gen Goro Yuasa, Chief of Staff, JGSDF visited India in Oct 19 to witness the closing ceremony of “Dharma Guardian 2019”. Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff visited Japan on an on official visit from 03-07 December 2019.