Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani, co-chairing the 12th Japan-India Business Leaders Forum in Tokyo, outlined areas of strategic collaboration between the two countries in sectors ranging from technology and manufacturing to energy and skill development. The forum, held after a gap of seven years, brought together business leaders from both nations to discuss investment priorities and joint initiatives.
Kalyani said the India-Japan economic partnership has gained importance in the context of global trade uncertainties. “Both sides reaffirmed our continued commitment to deepen strategic cooperation and forge new business tie-ups and collaborate in futuristic domains such as green energy, electric vehicles, space technology, artificial intelligence and digital technology, semiconductors and electronics, data centres, healthcare amongst others,” he said.
He identified five focus areas for medium-term cooperation: strengthening global value chains, expanding Japanese investment in banking and financial services in India, setting up global capability centres, co-developing solutions for Society 5.0, and promoting skill mobility through workforce exchange between the two countries.
More than 1,400 Japanese companies currently operate in India. Japanese investment in the country has exceeded USD 40 billion, including USD 13 billion of private investment in the past two years. According to a survey presented at the forum, over 80 percent of Japanese companies in India plan to expand operations, while about 75 percent are already profitable.
The forum adopted over 100 agreements across areas such as semiconductors, space, aviation, energy, finance, and automobiles. Discussions also covered expanding collaboration in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, clean energy and semiconductors, as well as next-generation infrastructure and supply chain resilience.
Bilateral cooperation between India and Japan spans a wide range of areas. Civil nuclear collaboration was formalised with the Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, signed in 2016 and effective since 2017, with the latest joint working group meeting held in India in July 2025. Defence ties are anchored in the 2008 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, further strengthened through agreements on defence exchanges, equipment transfer and supply arrangements. In November 2024, the two countries signed a memorandum of intent to co-develop the UNICORN mast for Indian Navy ships.
Economic relations have expanded under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which came into force in 2011 and phases out tariffs on more than 94 percent of traded items. Bilateral trade reached USD 22.85 billion in FY 2023–24, with Japanese exports at USD 17.69 billion and imports from India at USD 5.15 billion. In FY 2024–25, trade between the two countries had already touched USD 21 billion by January. Japan remains among India’s largest investors, with cumulative FDI of USD 44.4 billion since 2000, concentrated in sectors such as automobiles, electronics, chemicals, finance and pharmaceuticals.
Around 1,400 Japanese companies operate in India with nearly 5,000 establishments, while over 100 Indian companies have a presence in Japan. The two governments, along with Australia, launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative in 2021 to promote diversification and strengthen regional trade networks. Japan is also India’s largest source of official development assistance, providing JPY 580 billion in FY 2023–24 for infrastructure, energy, environmental and human development projects.
Sectoral partnerships continue to grow across energy, steel, textiles, digital technology and semiconductors. In clean energy, the India-Japan Energy Dialogue and the Clean Energy Partnership guide cooperation, while the steel sector is covered by a memorandum of cooperation signed in 2020. Engagement also extends to skills, with initiatives such as Japan-India Institutes of Manufacturing, Japanese Endowed Courses and India-Japan Skill Connect. A plan to transfer 50,000 skilled Indian workers to Japan by 2030 is under discussion.
The Mumbai–Ahmedabad high-speed rail project remains a flagship of infrastructure collaboration, while science and technology cooperation has been marked by joint projects between Indian institutions and Japanese universities, as well as the Indian Beam Line at KEK Tsukuba. Space cooperation between ISRO and JAXA covers lunar exploration, astronomy and Earth observation, with the third space dialogue held in March 2025. Both sides also continue to collaborate on environmental challenges, including climate change, waste management and clean energy technologies.
