India-Japan trade ties outpacing China engagement: Report

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Japan’s business engagement with India is steadily accelerating and now outpaces the growth of Japan-China business engagement, a new report has said, highlighting the importance of Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s recent visit to India.

The report from Japanese news site Nippon.com said Tokyo is stepping up investment, defence cooperation and technology partnerships.

Tokyo and New Delhi also committed to greater energy security cooperation and strengthening critical mineral supply chain resilience, the report said, saying the visit “turned out to be a meaningful one for the bilateral relationship.”

“The cumulative total of direct Japanese investment in India between April 2000 and March 2026 came to $48.1 billion, putting Japan in fifth place,” the report said, adding that Japanese investment in 2025 alone was $3.74 billion and bilateral trade crossed $25 billion in the same fiscal year.

“Japan continues to maintain a substantial trade surplus with India, but India is redoubling efforts to diversify its own export sectors (including seafood, textiles, and jewellery) and destinations,” the report noted.

India took the top spot in JBIC’s Report on Overseas Business Operations by Japanese Companies in 2025 for the fourth consecutive year, as the ‘most promising’ business expansion destination over the next three years. Another popular survey found over 75 per cent of Japanese companies operating in India expect a profit in the current financial year.

Japan’s public and private sectors, facing a shortage of science and technology talent, have intensified their efforts to recruit Indian engineers and technical experts through internships and corporate partnerships, the report said.

“As a nation facing a declining birthrate and a shortage of skilled workers, we must push forward with India in developing new markets, strengthening supply chains, and forging new people-to-people relations,” the report noted.

—IANS

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