At the end of the war, Judge Radha Binod Pal expressed a dissenting opinion in the Far East War Tribunal and India concluded a separate Peace Treaty with Japan in 1952.

    To me, it is still vivid in my memory that I saw an elephant called “Indira” when I was a kid. As I saw the photos exhibiting the recent 140 years of Indo-Japanese relations, memories came back to me in black and white like the photos, of how all of Japanese were excited by this friendship gift by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

    Today we are opening a new Chapter for the 21st century. Prime Minister Mori’s visit to India in 2000 paved a new ground. Since then, we have seen frequent reciprocal visits by prime ministers, cabinet ministers and political leaders of both countries. At the time Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited India last August, both countries agreed to form a “Strategic Global Partnership”.

    Our economic relations are also expanding. Our trade and investments are on the rise. India is growing rapidly and is expected to be one of the largest economies in the world in not so distant a future. By the pure size of the economy, which is presently almost as large as the ASEAN economy, India’s rapid growth year by year will create a huge market. Parallel to the active interactions of the private sectors, both of our Governments are cooperating closely to create a more attractive environment for the private sectors to operate. Negotiations on our bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement started last year. The Japanese Government is extending a huge amount of ODA finance to help build infrastructures in India. Both of our Governments are involved in promoting the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. As a result, in 2006, the total amount of trade between both countries increased by 2 times, the amount of Japanese direct investment to India by 4 times, and the number of Japanese companies operating in India by 2 times, compared to the year 2003.

    Japan and India celebrated the Japan-India Friendship Year in 2007, commemorating the 50th anniversary of concluding cultural agreement between the two countries. Nearly 400 events were arranged in both countries.

    It was a surprise as well as joy to have met so many Indian people who have been associated with Japan. They are either businessmen who formed the AOTS Alumni Association, Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Chennai, the JICA Alumni Association, MOSAI, Indo-Japanese Cultural Centre in Kolkata, Indo-Japanese Association in Mumbai, the India-Japan Partnership Forum in New Delhi, or those who are engaged in Ikebana, Bonsai, Karate, and so on. I was very much moved to hear how long they have continued their activities and try to pass on their experience with Japan to the younger generations of India, including Japanese language teaching. On this occasion, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to those Indian friends and to my fellow countrymen who developed friendship with those Indians.

    Now that we have entered a new chapter of our relationship, it is pretty much desired that we will introduce a scheme to enlarge the opportunity to visit Japan for more Indian friends. With this in mind, during the Friendship Year, the Government of Japan introduced the so-called JENESYS Program, through which we will invite 550 Indian youths to Japan every year for five years, until 2012. In the academic field as well, a Vice-Chancellors’ meeting between prominent Japanese and Indian universities was initiated, and new cooperation agreements were signed between the universities and colleges of both countries.

    Thus Japan-India relations have been comprehensively expanding in the recent years. However, I wish to point out that the level of our relations still remains only 3 percent that of the Japan-China relations in terms of trade and investments, and when it comes to the level of people-to-people exchanges, lower than 3 percent. It is my ambition to raise Japan-India relations up to the level of Japan-China relations. I believe Japan and India have a huge potential for further development which needs to be tapped fully.

    As Ambassador of Japan to India, I would make my best possible efforts towards this purpose, and would highly appreciate your support in this regard.

Hideaki Domichi
Ambassador of Japan to India