Milestone of India - Milestone in Indo - Japan ties.

TOKYO: India and Japan on Monday decided to extend their cooperation to areas such as joint ventures in rare earth minerals, some hitherto unexplored areas in defence, and transport and industrial corridors in south India.

These will build on a recently finalised economic pact, more intimate security ties, two mega infrastructure projects in north-western India and ongoing talks on a nuclear agreement.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan, during restricted and delegation-level talks, resolved to continue the talks on a civil nuclear agreement. They instructed officials to ensure the smooth implementation of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and accelerate discussions on the reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to which both countries are aspirants as permanent members.

“In the discussions, the point consistently emphasised was that both India and Japan believe they need to develop a strong, vigorous and an all-encompassing relationship in political, economic and security spheres,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told newspersons after the meeting. She termed the economic pact an alliance between Japanese technology and capital and a young Indian labour force.

Dr. Singh and Mr. Naoto Kan also discussed China.

Ms. Rao said: “Both discussed the need for open and transparent dialogue with China… they agreed that engaging China in more productive dialogue and developing structures of cooperation is the way forward. It requires deep analysis, close engagement and lots of patience… the reality is that both will have to develop in-depth ties with China.”

Both India and Japan would move towards long-term cooperation — including the implementation of joint ventures in rare earth minerals — and denied that this was directed against a third country (China recently halted the export of rare earth minerals to Japan).

On civil nuclear cooperation, India and Japan will hold the third round of talks here in November third week. While Japan is keen on some sort of Indian political commitment on moving closer to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty regime, India has pointed out that its civil nuclear agreement with Japan cannot be materially different from the agreements signed with other countries.

They also touched on trade in high technology, with Dr. Singh hoping that Japan will make its norms in this area “easier and predictable.” India appreciated Japan's paring down of the list of Indian companies on the export control list early this year.

The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on simplifying visa procedures that would supplement the CEPA by catering for India's areas of strength in pharmaceuticals, healthcare personnel and information technology.

Dr. Singh earlier had an audience with the Emperor of Japan and Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.

Milestone of India - Milestone in Indo - Japan ties.

CHENNAI: The future of Indo-Japan relations look bright and the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the two countries would further deepen bilateral ties, Toshihiko Kinoshita, special researcher, Industrial Management Institute, Waseda University, Japan said on Thursday.

Delivering a lecture on “Lessons and outlook learned from economic development of Japan and Asia” under the auspices of the Consulate-General of Japan and the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IJCCI), Prof. Kinoshita said the Indo-Japan relationship has been optimistic over the long-term and it was just that the countries have been “mentally afar.”
The EPA between the two countries which was expected to be signed soon would widen the opportunities for closer cooperation, Prof. Kinoshita said.

India, on its part, needed to develop closer relations with East Asia, improve its business climate and raise its productivity levels, he said.

According to Prof. Kinoshita, one of the major concerns in recent times has been Japan's failure to establish its own concrete vision for the future, especially in relation to co-prospering with Asia. “Japan has to develop a vision in this regard using its superior technology and soft power and reforming its domestic system to meet the demands of a new world order,” he said.

A rapidly ageing society, abnormally high yen rate, or the “yen-daka,” and lowering of Total Factor Productivity were among the other pressing worries of the sea-grit nation, Prof. Kinoshita said.

It is also important for the young population in Japan who had increasingly turned “inward-looking” to step outside and learn to collaborate with counterparts in other Asian countries.
The ideal way forward would be to expand foreign investments while sustaining domestic growth, he said.

According to Prof. Kinoshita, some of the unique aspects of the Japanese business ethics were the importance attached to “middle-up” decision-making (where middle level managers guided the growth of a company), the principle of total quality control and on-the-job training, the ability to add homespun values to ideas absorbed from the outside world and value attached to customer satisfaction.

Kazuo Minagawa, Consul General of Japan in Chennai, said India and Japan shared a lot of ground for collaboration in terms of funding, capital, technology and transfer of know-how.
N. Krishnaswami, IJCCI president, said closer collaboration between India and Japan for the next 25 years could work wonders for both countries and the Asian economy as a whole.

He called for removing the mental blocks that stood in the way of realising bilateral potential.