Japan Is India’s Best Friend In The World

Japan and India are taking their friendship to a different level. The two democracies share a lot in common and Japan is the pivot around which the Indian policy of ‘Looking East’ is built. And in China, both have a shared threat perception.

The fields of co-operation between the two nations are many. For one, the powerful navies of India and Japan are working closely with each other on the high seas. The aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine capacity of India complements Japan’s missile destroyer-dominated navy that has recently added a giant helicopter carrier. Japan is also helping transform India’s economy with aid and investments on very generous terms. From the Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor to the possibility of bullet trains, from investment in manufacturing to intelligence sharing – Tokyo and New Delhi are locked in a real tango.

Japan is looking strategically at India for some time now and enhancing its role as a reliable partner. Over the years, India has received $36 billion of Japanese assistance. In fact, India has been the largest recipient of overseas Japanese aid since 1994.

Moreover, both countries face an assertive Chinese posture in territorial claims. Japan faces these on the sea while India has a land controversy. This mutual threat perception has acted as additional ‘glue’ for this bilateral relationship. Together, they have the most powerful navies in Asia. Also, both have an additional interest in expanding the permanent membership of the Security Council at the UN.

Japan has walked the friendship talk for over a generation now, first with the Maruti and now with the Metro rail.
The Indian middle class got their first affordable car in Maruti, which was from the Japanese firm Suzuki. And it transformed India’s urban outlook. Similarly, anyone who has taken a ride on the Delhi Metro knows what a radical change it is for urban commuting. Here again, a Japanese soft loan of $3 billion was helpful. Japan also provides the technical expertise, which has made smooth construction of the Metro possible.

Japan is helping construct the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which is set to turbo-charge the Indian economy and boost manufacturing.
The DMIC is going to transform not just India’s creaky infrastructure but potentially the entire Indian economy. This is a mega project costing over $90 billion. Japan has provided an initial loan of $4.5 billion for this project. DMIC is a 1,483 km long dedicated freight train corridor across six states and two Union Territories. On both sides of the corridor, an area of 150-200 km will be developed as industrial townships.

In sheer scale, the DMIC is awesome.
It aims at doubling the employment potential in 7 years while industrial output is projected to go up three times in 9 years. Exports from the project and its periphery are likely to quadruple in 8 years. As the Japanese expertise and money are combined with Indian capabilities for this project, the key impact will be in terms of industrial townships that will be developed around the corridor. Gujarat and Rajasthan will gain the maximum as 70% of the infrastructure will be developed in these two states. But the project will really boost India’s manufacturing sector as it will open many possibilities along the route.

Japan has also signalled that it is keen to bring its famous bullet train to India.
In a way, bullet trains symbolise Japan’s burgeoning ecosystem. They are also extremely expensive and require the kind of technology that India does not have. An investment of $10 billion will be required to introduce these trains here. As of now, India is looking at speeds of up to 350 km an hour while the government had admitted in the Parliament that Indian trains run on an average of 40 km/hour. The first bullet train will be connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad, reducing the travel time to about 2.5 hours, instead of the current 6.5 hours. With both countries moving forward on this proposal, India’s outdated train system will soon get a swanky new avatar.

Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe has a personal commitment to India.
The Japanese Prime Minister is an old friend of India. In his book Utsukushii Kuni E (Towards a Beautiful Country), he has elaborated his vision, saying that the Indo-Japanese relations could be as important as the Sino-Japanese relations. When Abe addressed the Indian Parliament way back in 2007, he termed this friendship as “…the confluence of the two seas.” He went further, saying India and Japan could be as important as Japan and the US. Thus Japan’s leadership has invested serious political capital in the future of its friendship with India.

Japan and India are coming very close in international security relations.
India and Japan are beefing up their security co-operation and coming closer in the field of defence. This is because both are faced with common threats and both nurture the common values of democracy. The countries also signed a path-breaking joint declaration on security back in 2008. The security co-operation has deepened over time and included joint exercises between the two navies on the high seas. Last year, 4 ships and 1,400 sailors from the Indian side took part in it but next year, it is set to get bigger. Japan is also entering the Indian defence market and has offered its multi-capability US-2 amphibious aircraft to India.

India and Japan share a lot of soft power.
Japan appreciates the fact that the Indian judge, Justice Radhagobind Pal, dissented from the verdict that sentenced Japanese leaders as war criminals in the 1946 trial after Japan’s defeat in WWII. Interestingly, his was the sole dissent in this case. Both countries have a common heritage in Buddhism and Japan has funded many Buddhist sites in India in terms of conservation and infrastructure development. On the entertainment front, Indian kids love Japanese characters such as Doremon, Shinchen and Ninja Hattori, which are by far the most popular cartoons here in India. Finally, you cannot miss Japanese food at any party thrown by the Indian elite. Indians have a yen for sushi.

This relationship is likely to grow.
It won’t be wrong to assume that India-Japan relations are entering a new era. For long, Japan took a cue from the US in its foreign policy. But this is changing fast and Japan is now far more assertive in its foreign affairs. The natural complements of the powerful maritime forces and a commitment to democracy are propelling the two countries on a new trajectory directly and not just via Washington. Both counties are seeing billions of dollars of new investments and trade between them. And both have much to gain by coming strategically together as China remains a common threat to Tokyo and New Delhi. India will do well to nurture this relationship carefully.