India and Japan: Entering a New Era of Economic Relationship

In recent years, India’s image at the popular level in Japan has changed considerably — from that of a poverty-stricken third world country to a modernizing nation with world class IT-enabled services and strength in many other commercial areas from biotechnology and medical science to financial services and pharmaceuticals. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori’s visit to India in August 2000 was the beginning of a new era of India-Japan relations, which set the precedent for visits to India by his successors Mr. Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe. Since then, the two countries sought to strengthen bilateral ties through new initiatives and programmes ranging from economic and cultural linkages to defence and security. The year 2007 was celebrated as the Year of Friendship between India and Japan, which marked the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Agreement, concluded between them in 1957.