India and Japan: News and Discussion

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Surya
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Post by Surya »

ranganathan - ok I am insane

Hyundai has come a long way. Lets not lump it with Kia.

And in India they came in with lot more features early on-
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Post by ranganathan »

In which car? Hyundai cars are a long way off from reaching toyota or honda. Santro sells in india because maruti is crap and there was no other option in the beginning. Hyundai has nothing to touch corolla or camry. the elantra, accent, azera are nowhere near the Jap cars.
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Post by Paul »

Suraj wrote:Toyota India's product range and manufacturing policy is not optimized to the market. Hyundai not only has massive Indian manufacturing facilities in additions to billions being invested in ongoing further expansion, but they focussed on component indigenization early.

Toyota on the other hand imports completely built Camrys and SKD/CKD lower-mid size cars, and has no locally made sub/compact car to rival Hyundai. The CBUs and SKDs get hit with higher duties. Further, their local capacity is miniscule, barely a tenth of Hyundai's. They're changing though - there's incidently a news item about them just today:
Toyota to set up 2nd plant in Bangalore
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the Indian arm of Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s second largest automaker, on Friday said that it will invest Rs 1,400 crore to build its second car plant at Bidadi near Bangalore adjacent to the existing plant.

This new unit will also be the base for a new ‘strategic small car’. According to Toyota, the second plant, which will begin operations by 2010, will have an initial annual production capacity of around 100,000 vehicles, with plans to increase that over time.

Toyota, with 0.6 per cent of the Indian car market last year, has lagged behind rivals in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy. Automakers including General Motors Corp, Honda Motor Co and Volkswagen AG have already announced a combined $6 billion investment in the country.

Currrently, Toyota Kirloskar has a capacity of manufacturing 63,000 units per annum.
Need to take FTAs into account when discussing the Japanese automotive investments in India. toyota had made sizeable investments in SEZ type zones in Thailand from where they hope to make cars and sell them in India. I have been to some of these Japanese plants in SEZs in N Thailand where several of these plants can be seen on the highway drive north of Bangkok. This is the reason why ASEAN signed FTA with India. In return they were offering non existent strategic reach/security benefits to India. While this FTA has brought significant benefits in CPG, automotive has not benefitted. On anecdotal evidence, walk into a superbazaar in BGL and look for head and shoulders shampoos....moving back to automotives, if India infrastructure was on par with ASEAN or China, the Japanese (again read Toyota) strategy to supply the Indian market with wares made in SEAsia and assembled in a indian plant would have succeeded. However the emergence of India post 2005 has made them sit up and look at India with differently. Witness Japanese PMs and other cabinet members regularly visiting India now contrasting with Nakasone's visit in 1980 or their condescending behaviour post POKII. All said and done, they have very deep pockets (FYI..Sony is a $80 BILLION company) and the grit to make things succeed. It is just that they don't strut their stuff around unlike their Wall street counterparts.

The Koreans made investments in Pakistan as well during NS's time. but their indian investments appear to have paid off big time.

However what is puzzling to me as I write this post is why have these investments not been accompanied by visits of Korean presidents and PMs as the Japanese or even the Americans have been doing.
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Post by Gerard »

Question marks over future of U.S.-Japan alliance
In addition, Tokyo could seek insurance against drift in the U.S.-Japan alliance by forging closer strategic ties with other like-minded nations. Over the past few years, Japan has signed new security partnerships with India and Australia. Although not meant to detract from the U.S.-Japan alliance, these agreements could over time form the basis of deeper defense ties in the event of further strategic divergence with Washington.
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Post by Karan Dixit »

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Japan will review its defense policy to take into account the expansion of China's military, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on its Web site, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the situation.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... HbAYQ0AU4w

(I feel there is a growing sense among Japanese that they need more than just the US as a military partner.)
Sanjay M
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Post by Sanjay M »

That still doesn't translate into the Japanese falling in love with India.

I find that some Japanese are Indophiles, while others turn their noses up at India's poverty, filth and squalour.
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Post by Karan Dixit »

What love got to do with it?
Neshant
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Post by Neshant »

Japan and Russia: Common Interests Drive Them Together

Philip Bowring
29 April 2008

A thaw in relations makes sense for both countries as a way to balance China


There have been so many false starts in Russia-Japan relations that it is
understandable that last week’s visit of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to
Moscow attracted little international attention. He was there in part to prepare
the way not for the post-1945 peace treaty which the two countries have yet to
sign, but merely as part of preparations for Japan’s hosting in July of the G8
Summit.


Nonetheless, add this visit to a few other small but significant news items and
one can see signs of a shift in attitudes on both sides. These stem not so much
from positive decisions to reject the sense of rivalry for power in northeast
Asia that began almost 150 years ago when post-Meiji Restoration Japan sought to
counter Russian imperial designs on Manchuria and Korea. It is more that Russia,
recovering from the humiliations of the Soviet collapse, again sees itself
playing a significant role in Asia and has a common interest with Japan in
balancing the rapid growth of Chinese power at a time when US power is seen to
be in slow decline.


Japan has yet to show any sign of softening its stand on the main issue of
contention with Russia – the four Kurile Islands occupied by Russia in 1945. In
the past, Russia has offered to return two of them but even in the post-Cold war
environment Japan has not budged, reflecting the inability of its weak
leadership to shrug off nationalistic popular sentiment. However, after the
talks President Putin said that the two were moving “in the right directionâ€
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Post by svinayak »

Paul wrote:
However what is puzzling to me as I write this post is why have these investments not been accompanied by visits of Korean presidents and PMs as the Japanese or even the Americans have been doing.
Because these investment are part of a global group and not about Korea alone. These Korean companies are part of the global group - probably such as Trilateral Commission. Hence they have global reach.


COnnect the north Korea agreement in 1994 with US, Japan
Connect the NK missle transfer to TSP in 1994
Connect the Korean company investment in India
Neshant
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Post by Neshant »

regardless of what group, the guy should pay his repects in India.
Nayak
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Post by Nayak »

After 460 tests, Japan says ‘yes’ to mangoes from India

[quote]
Pune, May 10 Decks have been cleared for the export of Indian Alphonso and Kesar to Japan with the mango varieties testing negative and clearing at least 460 chemical tests. “Japan has approved of the quality of Alphonso sent from the state and has demanded more mangoes from Maharashtra,â€
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Post by Sanjay M »

Brando
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Post by Brando »

Mangoes ?? Is that what we are selling Japan despite all that we produce!

We should corner their market for essential commodities like Rice, wheat, sugar etc instead of China.

Most Japanese would rather buy Indian rice than Chinese rice. Not to mention the marked quality difference between the filth Chinese call Rice and our Sona Masori etc.

Like Thailand etc, we should sign a FTA with Japan and get their products here and give Japanese companies an advantage in India instead of allowing substandard Chinese companies to make profits here especially in the consumer electronics department.

Besides companies like Mitsubishi and other big engineering companies in Japan are way ahead of even firms in Europe etc with respect to skill and abilty. Those kind of traits are valuable to a country like India which should try to spur investment by these companies.
svinayak
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Post by svinayak »

Brando wrote:Mangoes ?? Is that what we are selling Japan despite all that we produce!

Besides companies like Mitsubishi and other big engineering companies in Japan are way ahead of even firms in Europe etc with respect to skill and abilty. Those kind of traits are valuable to a country like India which should try to spur investment by these companies.
I am opening new customers form Japan and now they are insisting their work being done in India. They are suprised by the iphone success
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Post by Sanjay M »

bart
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Post by bart »

Acharya wrote:
Brando wrote:Mangoes ?? Is that what we are selling Japan despite all that we produce!

Besides companies like Mitsubishi and other big engineering companies in Japan are way ahead of even firms in Europe etc with respect to skill and abilty. Those kind of traits are valuable to a country like India which should try to spur investment by these companies.
I am opening new customers form Japan and now they are insisting their work being done in India. They are suprised by the iphone success
Can you clarify on what the iphone has to do with it? IIRC the iphone is neither Japanese nor Indian, nor has Indian SW dev input on it.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Karan Dixit »

http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jun/12ran.htm

I personally think GOI should have blocked this merger. When we start selling research based companies like Ranbaxy to foreign companies then we run into danger of loosing our hard earned knowledge. We have to be more careful about letting others take advantage of our technical gains.
Raju

Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Raju »

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=84561

Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan
(01:21) Report
Email Video | Share Video | Embed Video:
Jun. 13 - Japanese company Genepax presents its eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water.

The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car's tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.

SOUNDBITE: Kiyoshi Hirasawa, CEO, Genepax.

Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri reports.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Karan Dixit »

Japan and India signed a bilateral currency swap arrangement Monday in which they will provide up to $6 billion in total to prevent a financial crisis, the Finance Ministry said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nb20080701a6.html
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by G Subramaniam »

http://www.asahi.com/english/asianet/ha ... 80502.html

India as an Emerging "Brain Power"

By Masanori Kondo Senior Associate Professor (Development Economics, Indian Economy)International Christian University, Tokyo

2008/05/02

PHOTO:Jansinee Kankaew

A friend of mine who lives in Koto Ward, Tokyo, told me, “We have so many Indians living in our condominium that our notices come with English translations these days.” The number of Indian residents in Japan is now up to 17,500, and over sixty percent of them are IT engineers and their families. Among the Japanese community, they enjoy a favorable reputation as being polite and courteous neighbors.

The Japan-India economic relationship, which had stagnated for a while, is finally infused with new energy. Companies such as Suzuki and Honda that have done well in India are doubling their production capacities, with several more Japanese companies following suit. The trade volume between the two countries has doubled in the past few years, and negotiations being held under the Japan-India Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) are expected to be completed by the end of this year. From the global perspective, India is expected to play a significant role in the prevention of global warming. In our overall relationship, India is becoming more important for Japan.

In politics, up until a little while ago, there was a trend to attach a strategic importance on India with a view to “contain China.” But the arrival of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda brought about a change in Japan’s China policy, resulting in a seemingly more moderate diplomatic approach toward India.

Trying to forge closer ties with India in an effort to balance and contain China was a relationship that was doomed to be short-lived in the first place. Now that the hype has settled and we are actually seeing stronger economic ties emerging between the two countries, this is the right time to objectively reflect upon the relationship between Japan and India. Most important is how to incorporate India’s strength, which is its “human resources,” and make it part of Japan’s future plans, thus building a stronger “people-to-people contact”.

There is a difference between Japan and other developed nations in terms of attitude toward India. Being the largest bilateral donor in India, Japan has always looked upon India as a country with future market potential. On the other hand, the United States and European nations are attracted more by the brains of the Indian people.

These days many American companies have substantial research and development (R&D) activities in India. They are aggressively recruiting the best Indians as part of their global human resource strategy. This trend is backed by the emergence of India-born CEOs in major multinational corporations, including McKinsey, Citigroup, Vodafone and PepsiCo.

How are things in Japan, then? The total value of IT software exported by India to Japan was an insignificant three percent of its total IT exports. Though some Japanese companies hire Chinese employees, there are almost none that hire Indians to work at their company headquarters.

Besides, the number of Indian students in Japan is only five hundred. This is no match for the seventy thousand Chinese students that are in Japan, and it is even less than half the number of students from far smaller countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka. Interchange with Indians living in Japan is also limited.

Traditionally, Indians have always held a good image of Japan. Most of the Indian students who come to study in Japan develop a strong affinity to the country by the time they return home. However, as there are not many successful career patterns for “Japan experts,” Japan has become a less attractive destination for Indians to study. It leads to the vicious cycle of Japanese companies finding it difficult to enter the Indian market with little knowledge of India, and fewer Indians getting hired by Japanese companies. This was what the present Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, told me seven years ago, and not much has changed much since then.

Many Japanese companies tend to look upon India much in the same way as they viewed Southeast Asia that brought much success two decades ago. In other words, Japanese companies see India as a source of “labor” rather than “brains.” A former high-ranking Indian official, who is a Japanophile, pointed out: “Whereas Japanese people tend to measure the intellectual level of the people of a nation by per-capita income, Indian elites assess the abilities of their opponents based on their English prowess. And that is what causes a psychological gap between the Japanese and the Indians.”

Since only Japanese people are involved, accumulated information on India tends to become one-sided in Japan. There are plenty of cases where failures and setbacks in business and ODA all get blamed on the catch-all, “It’s the fault of the Indians.” That is quite different from what I heard from a South Korean business organization that has proved successful in India. An official claimed, “In dealing with India, we have nothing to complain about. We simply stick to doing what the Romans do.”

According to Prof. K. Momaya, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi welcomes some fifty delegations from Japan every year. But alas, there are precious few cases where these visits actually lead to some concrete project getting implemented. Delegations from the United States, Europe and South Korea are much less in number, but they constantly leave their mark and bear fruit in such forms as new labs, joint research and recruitment.

Unfortunately Japan has a reputation across India as a country that keeps on dispatching large delegations with no follow-ups. It has to be reminded that there are two hundred IIT graduates working in Japan. Most of them work for non-Japanese companies, Including the top official of Citibank in Japan. It makes more sense to meet these graduates here in Japan for information exchange before sending fruitless delegations to India.

Japan has had its share of “India booms” in the past, including the time ten years ago when Indian films created a stir in Japan. But all these booms tended to be short-lived. Though fueled by curiosity for the “unknown,” the booms never had the backup of human interchange.

Recently, we have been hearing about projects springing up to promote nascent two-way people-to-people exchanges. When then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan visited India last August, there was a meeting for university collaboration, held with vice chancellors/presidents of prominent universities of India and Japan. In September, Namaste India, a festival program to promote Japan-India friendship, was held in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park, followed by a successful IIT Alumni Conference in Tokyo in November. Fukuoka and Okayama have joined Yokohama in establishing sister city relationships with Indian municipalities. In the corporate sector, a new program to promote internships between Japanese and Indian companies has started. It is most imperative that these movements be brought together so as to create a huge wave that can surge ahead.

Promoting people-to-people exchanges is far healthier than over-strategic approaches toward India to contain China. And the effort is more sustainable. Already India is a nation that wields great power in the world’s IT industry. By 2030, India’s total population is expected to be the world’s largest. Japan must not lead itself down the wrong course.

(Carried by The Asahi Shimbun on March 10, 2008)
G Subramaniam
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by G Subramaniam »

http://www.boloji.com/opinion/0398.htm

Japanese Universities Wooing Indian Students
by Mukesh Williams, PhD

Japanese higher education was once instrumental in transforming Japan and creating a uniform enlightened citizenry, which shared the ethics of a common work culture. But after sixty years it has become a “happy play ground” for students to pursue their favorite hobby through university clubs and friendship groups. The pre-war German model and the postwar American model have now outlived their purpose. The development of a global knowledge-based international society is now questioning the rubrics of the Japanese model of higher education.

Like any other postindustrial society, Japan too faces many structural problems in higher education related to resource allocation, university hierarchies, hiring processes, ethnic diversity and formulating curricula that leave both the faculty and graduates dissatisfied. The traditional purpose for which these universities were created has become so eroded that most universities find it difficult to distinguish the means from the ends. Instead of a serious debate on overhauling the educational system completely, Japan hopes that its outmoded system would still work with a little bit of tinkering.

Even the pretentious few universities which claim to pursue sound scholarship adopt a highly protectionist employment system where international competition is shunned. Most foreign teachers at Japanese universities are forced into language sections where they conduct English conversation or writing classes without the hope of entering mainstream teaching or participating in its decision-making processes. The woefully low academic standards at Japanese universities have forced most of its faculty and students out of international competition into a parochial and nationalistic vision of a “beautiful Japan”. Wanting to improve the standards of Japanese higher education and make it internationally competitive, Tokyo University plans to recruit bright young students from India to come and study in Japan.

In recent years India has created a lot of hype in Japan. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India from August 20th to 23rd of August 2007 has further augmented this hype. Both the Japanese media and intelligentsia believe that in the last decade India has excelled in many areas from information technology and medicine to overseas investment and academic cooperation. Japan therefore wants the very best talent from India. It desires the top companies to invest in Japan. It wishes IIT students to come to its universities. It seeks top Indian politicians and CEOs to lecture in Japan. This tendency is termed in Japan as ‘brand hunting’. The fetish for brand names does not necessarily ensure quality or benefit, though brands are hard to get. By and large Japan assumes that its status as an advanced nation should be enough to attract the crème da la crème from India.

To further this goal, on August 21, 2007, The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (or MEXT, the precursor to the erstwhile Monbusho) conducted its first joint meeting with representatives of Indian universities. Most Japanese universities like Tokyo University are keen to invite the very best students from India to study at their prestigious campuses as they feel the urgency to compete effectively with other universities in Asia like Peking University or Jawaharlal Nehru University According to The Times, London, Tokyo University, the premier university in Japan, is fast losing its edge in Asia. In just three years it has slipped from the twelfth position in the world to the nineteenth because of its tardiness or even reluctance to become more international. It is quite worried by the fact that Peking University has become the top-ranking university in Asia. It is also quite concerned that the information technology departments at Indian universities have ten times more students than departments at Japanese universities. It is somewhat troubled that over the decades Indian universities have forged important academic links both with Britain and the United States, which have given them an edge, which it does not have.

In order to gain lost ground Tokyo University plans to woo Indian students, whose numbers are abysmally low in Japan, by opening a representative office in New Delhi next year. Last year itself only ten Indian students were enrolled in different course at Tokyo University, while at the same time 679 Chinese students and 502 South Korean students studied here. The new plan envisaged by the University for India involves joint research projects and admissions in its various faculties. Most Japanese universities hope that these spectacular superficial plans would undoubtedly attract exceptional Indian students from elite institutions from India to come and study in Japan.

Well, easier said than done. The haunting question is why these supposedly brilliant Indian students do not want to come to Japan, even when Japanese universities are inviting them with open arms? This question is not so difficult for Indian students to answer but incomprehensible to government planners. As Indian students gradating from prestigious institutions like the IITs, IIMs or St. Stephen’s College would tell you, that even before they graduate they have secured admissions to equally prestigious institutions in the U.S. or Britain with full scholarships. Such students not only aspire to do well at American universities but actually do well and then find a job, get a green card, buy a house within a few years and settle down with equal rights as any other native born American citizens. They can then decide to retain their Indian citizenship or become a U.S. citizen. These students would like to know if Japan could do better.

The Japanese system of university employment is heavily biased against foreign academics. There is no transparency in the salary structure. It is virtually impossible for Indian academics to find tenured professorship; and the immigration laws do not make things easy. The chances of Indian students getting absorbed as tenured faculty after completing their doctoral program are minimal or nonexistent. To add to all this Indian students would have to invest a couple of years learning the Japanese language and bear with the high cost of living and studying in Japan. After they procure a degree what are they expected to do? Go back to India and become an interpreter! Or join a Japanese company in India as an executive on an Indian salary! You must be kidding!

This does not mean that Indian students will not come to Japan even when they are wooed. India is a vast country with 369 universities and 18064 colleges. Over eleven million students are enrolled at these universities and colleges where English is largely the medium of instruction.* There are thousands of students who do not belong to the prestigious institutions named earlier. They come from middle-level universities and see Japan as a possible destination to secure a future. Such students may not have found a good American or European university to go to and they would be most willing to try their hand at a Japanese university. The bind however is that Japanese universities do not want such students; they want the very best.

Some of the good academic institutions in India like St. Xavier’s College Bombay, Loyola College Madras and St. Stephen’s College Delhi have developed through the sustained and dedicated effort of early educators both Indian and English. One of the most prestigious colleges like St. Stephen’s College was set up in 1881 in a rented room in Chandni Chowk by members of the Cambridge Brotherhood to educate the poor and underprivileged sections of Indian society. Over a century ago English missionaries like Samuel Scott Allnutt, John Wright and Rev. G. Hibbet Ware made sustained efforts to develop quality education in India, and groomed brilliant native teachers like Sushi Kumar Rudra and S. N. Mukarji who carried the college forward through their sagacity and scholarship. Only now after a century it is possible to see the fruits of their labors. The United States and Britain employ brilliant South Asian teachers not only in their social sciences and history departments but also in English departments—teachers such as Dipesh Chakravarty, late A. K. Ramanujan and Braj Kachru. Unless Japan provides equal opportunity to Indian educators, at par with Japanese educators, it cannot become international in the true sense, nor develop academic institutions, par excellence.

It must be remembered that excellence in higher education and proficiency in the English language at universities and colleges in India came at a price. The Anglicization of Indian education gave an edge to the educated classes, and after independence some of these universities and college turned elitist and produced bureaucrats, politicians and educators that transformed India. However, most Indians by gaining a predominantly western education lost their own unique cultural heritage.

Japan wants to retain its cultural heritage and still gain an edge in English and western education. It now wants to bring about sweeping “education reforms” by introducing “traditional values” which would instill a greater sense of patriotism amongst its young people. It is not possible to eat your cake and have it too! Japan is the only country where the money spent on English learning is highest and the results lowest. In this prickly situation it is rather difficult to evolve a truly egalitarian and international education.

September 9, 2007
G Subramaniam
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by G Subramaniam »

http://www.kamalsinha.com/mitsubishi/

Mitsubishi Japan Employment Discrimination Case

Hi, I had the misfortune of working for Mitsubishi Electric in Japan, a few years ago. This is my story of a rare employment-related racial discrimination lawsuit I filed against them in their home country. This story is somewhat different. Media's version of it (below) will let you know some facts regarding this case and for those with patience and open minds to explore the truth, a different story will emerge after reading my account.

First, let me introduce you briefly to my relevant background. I am a GMAT Score graduate of IIT Bombay (an IITian) and we are used commonly in the IT industry for developed countries like the USA and Japan. I am a permanent resident ("Green Card" holder) of the USA and it took me five years to get it. Normally, it used to take about 2 years. Moreover, as you can see from my GMAT scores that I have high verbal aptitude (left scores). (GRE scores were similar.)

I was preparing for a career in financial sector. MBA + Actuarial exams with high scores + CFA and CFP exams. Was expecting to pursue that career after getting my Green Card. I didn't want to work for in the IT industry and most definitely didn't want to work for notorious Mitsubishi but I landed up in their Computer Works in Japan. Mitsubishi went on an aggressive recruitment process to hire me, apparently at the orders of its highest executives. The purpose - you will find out soon. By the way, as most of us very well know, Japanese executives in places like Mitsubishi have racial-superiority complex towards the rest of us, especially the non-Caucasians, and even though they try hard, most of them are unable to master a foreign language like English. Now you are all set to begin your journey.

Note: Am adding more material to the other pages.
A Case of Racial Discrimination?
An Indian Worker Sues His Japanese Employer

by Robert Guest

From the credit - Robert Guest is a British free-lance writer based in Hiroshima who contributes business and other articles to The Far Eastern Economic Review and The Independent.

The Journal - Issues in Bilateral Relations, November 1992 page 37-39 (A monthly publication of American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ).) Permission pending.
Employment Discrimination Case

You are a foreign executive working for a major Japanese firm and you are sure that the company is giving you a raw deal simply because you are a foreigner. What can you do? "Nothing" has long been the answer. There's no point in suing, continues this logic, because this is Japan, the famous non-litigious society, and your chances of beating a large Japanese company in a Japanese court are virtually nil. You shrug it off and go have a drink at your favorite watering hole.

But all this could be changing now because of a lawsuit filed by an Indian exec against his Japanese employer - Mitsubishi Electric. A software engineer from India named [name removed] has sued his employer for racial discrimination and harassment, marking the first such lawsuit ever filed in a Japanese court. If the Japanese company loses, the fallout may be felt in workplaces from Sendai to Shikoku.

The plaintiff is alleging that whereas Japanese employees at Mitsubishi are given English-language lessons at company expense, and Caucasian staff are provided with the best Japanese-language teaching available, he has been given no assistance whatsoever in his efforts to learn the Japanese language.

Sinha understood that his contract with the Japanese company was for "life" and that it specifically stated that he was to be treated equally with his Japanese colleagues. Since he has not been, [name removed] claims that this is a clear case of racial discrimination.

The implications of this case are enormous, according to [name removed]'s lawyer, Satoshi Murata. "If we win," he claims, "Japanese companies are going to have to take the issue of racism in the workplace more seriously than has been usual up to now." If they lose, on the other hand, "It is going to make it much less attractive for foreigners, especially Asians, to come to Japan looking for work. Given the gaping labor shortage, and the desperate need for foreign labor to fill the manpower gap, this is a very serious lawsuit indeed."

The story started in the Summer of 1989 when [name removed] was headhunted by Mitsubishi Electric while teaching systems analysis at the University of Tennessee. The Japanese firm wanted him for his financial training and for his long experience in handling database systems. They offered him a job for life.

Although [name removed]'s American green card had just come through, and he had received a number of higher paying job offers from firms in the United States, he decided to join Mitsubishi Electric because, he says, he was fascinated by what he had read about Japanese companies, and liked the idea of working for a firm that treated its employees like a "family."

His contract stated that he would be treated in all ways the same as a Japanese lifetime employee and that he would be promoted in step with his age group. He was assured, he claims, that his lack of Japanese-language skills would not be an obstacle.

Once he arrived in Japan, [name removed] wanted to start to work right away on getting to grips with the lingo, but rather than asking his boss directly, he waited for an offer of Japanese-language training to be made to him by his supervisors, as he felt this would be more polite.

No such offer ever came. Since, by this time, he was having to attend departmental meetings each week whose contents left him completely baffled, he was determined to start asking for linguistic help.

He pointed out that he would not be able to do his job properly until he had achieved at least a reasonable level of fluency in Japanese, and asked if the company might be able to help him with the expenses, or at least recommend him a good school.

His boss refused to help him financially, and said he had no idea where to find a language school, or which ones were any good. So Sinha started looking around himself, only to find that all the schools near where he lived in Kamakura were prohibitively expensive.

The only course he could afford was the daytime program at the YMCA school, but his boss would not allow him to work flextime to attend the lessons, so he ended up commuting two hours each way to a college in Yotsuya, and paying the tuition out of his own pocket.

This would not have irked him so much, he says, if it were not for the fact that Japanese employees of the firm, whose perks he was supposed to share, were receiving English lessons paid for almost entirely by Mitsubishi Electric. What is more, a dozen Caucasians, who joined the company on temporary contracts after [name removed] had arrived, were given a series of Japanese lessons at the most prestigious schools all at company expense.

[name removed] was sent to a separate building, where the company housed its foreign-made computers, and was given an IBM to test. The manuals they provided him were all written in Japanese, which he could not read, so he asked his boss for some materials in English. He was refused.

After four months in the company, [name removed] says he was told to understand departmental meetings. After seven months he was asked to start submitting reports in Japanese.

When he protested that this was impossible without some kind of help with the cost of language training, he claims his boss told him to "go and learn Japanese by watching television, like the other Pakistanis and Indians do."

[name removed] began to complain that he was not being treated fairly, and this was when, he alleges, his co-workers began to harass him.

He had managed to squeeze one small concession out of his section chief. By pointing out that some of the Caucasian staff at Mitsubishi Electric were getting 100 hours paid study time during office hours, he managed to convince his boss that he needed an hour a day to pore over his Kanji (Chinese characters) books, at his desk.

Shortly after he began studying in the office, he says, the department head started to take a detour every time he left the room so that he walked right past Sinha's desk, and was able to peer over his shoulder.

One day he stopped, pointed at the kanji for shigoto on one of [name removed]'s vocabulary lists, and asked him what it meant. Sinha didn't know that Kanji yet, so the boss informed him that it meant "work."

After a meaningful glance, he then went on to add in a low voice that when Japanese workers are transferred to the United States, they do not pursue their own private studies during office hours.

"After that, things started getting really serious," explained [name removed]. "There was suddenly enormous pressure to understand Japanese perfectly, co-workers started dressing me down for not being fluent, and a labor union official threatened me to my face that he was going to force me to quit."

The harassment carried on, [name removed] alleges. The deputy chief of the section asked him to vacate his company-provided apartment, on the grounds that unmarried Japanese employees did not enjoy such perks. This was despite an agreement made before Sinha came to Japan, that he would be provided with a flat at company expense.

After several months of negotiations with the firm, [name removed] finally gave up on the concilitary approach, and decided to sue. On July 21st, he filed a claim for 5.9 million yen in damages, at the Tokyo District Court.

[name removed]'s Japanese lawyer is remarkably confident about his client's chances in court. Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution forbids discrimination because of race in politics or society, and the Labor Standards Law admonishes employers not to treat workers differently because of their nationality. The company has clearly acted in breach of both of these, says Murata, but these are not the only grounds they have to stand on. The Labor Standards Law is more or less toothless, but in [name removed]'s case there is a contract which has clearly been broken, as well.

These factors combined, asserts Murata, will probably tip the scales in his client's favor.

Working against [name removed], however, is the notorious difficulty of suing any Japanese company, let alone a corporate giant like Mitsubishi. The plaintiff himself is aware that he is attempting something very few people have ever managed before, but this does not scare him.

[name removed] is in the fortunate position of having a green card and a number of job offers in America. This gives him the security he needs to pursue his case without worrying about being destitute if he gets fired.

Most other Asians are not so fortunate, which is probably why there never has been a suit like this brought against an employer before in Japan. According to Murata, most of the victims of discrimination come from relatively poor countries and are afraid to sue.

"They run the risk of losing their jobs," he explains, "and if they do, they probably lose their visas as well, and end up going back home to a country where it is impossible to earn the kind of money they were making in Japan." In fact, they may well be sending money home to support their entire family.

[name removed] pute it more bitterly: "When Japanese people see an Indian, they tend to think '$29 a month working on a tea plantation' and they assume you must be grateful for any kind of work at all in Japan, so you shouldn't complain."

People from the wealthier nations of Europe and America, who whould be less afraid to kiss up a fuss, tend not to suffer the same blatant racism in Japan as Asians do, especially if they are Caucasian. European and Americans are occasionally subjected to sexual discrimination, Murata suggests, and come to him with complaints about money, but never seem to experience the kind of treatment that his new client Sinha describes.

The case is being carefully watched by the foreign community in Japan, especially the Asian part. A Bangladeshi working for a Japanese computer firm, who preferred not to be named, said that the kind of problems [name removed] describes are "widespread" and that he was doing a valuable service to other foreign executives by taking this issue to court.

The press, too, has shown a great deal of interest, both in Japan and abroad. All the major Indian newspapers are reporting on the case, as the fortunes of India's thousands of migrant workers are a matter of great interest to the reading public there. The outcome of this case will naturally influence the decisions of numerous other Indian professionals coming to Japan to further their careers.

The case will probably take one or two years to reach a conclusion but Murata thinks its effects will last much longer.

Victory for [name removed], for example, would mean that Japanese companies would have to start taking concrete steps to educate their staff about racism and completely overhaul their training programs for foreign workers, not to mention instituting new sensitivity training courses for workers going abroad.

Mitsubishi Electric officials, meanwhile, are maintaining their innocence in this case, claiming that the whole affair was "an unfortunate misunderstanding."

"It was our intention to provide Mr. [name removed] with opportunities for training and a chance to make use of his abilities in the long term," said a spokesperson for the firm, "but he failed to understand this, and so, unfortunately, has brought this case against us."

The company would prefer to wait until the facts have been established before making any further comments, he added, but in the meanwhile, they are doing their best to make [name removed] understand their point of view.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by g.sarkar »

G Subramaniam wrote:http://www.kamalsinha.com/mitsubishi/

Mitsubishi Japan Employment Discrimination Case
Couple of anecdotes:
1. When I was learning German back in 1977 in Schwaebisch Hall, there were a number of Japanese students in my class. One of them told me how desendants of Korean immigrants are discriminated in Japan even today. My question was, do not the Koreans speak fluent Japanese now, as there are living in Japan since the Second World War or even earlier? Yes, they do. Have they not taken Japanese names to integrate into the Japanese society? Yes, they have. So, my question was how do the empoyers know that they have Korean ancestery, so they can discriminate? They answer that I got was amazing. My Japanese friend, an MD by the way, said that most reputable Japanese companies ask candidates wanting to join the company to submit a family tree, which will clearly show that s/he has Korean ancestory. The company will then find a polite way to refuse employment. In a similar way Burrakmin (sp?) are also eliminated.
2. Just recently, my co-worker, whose husband teaches in Fresno State told me that a colleague of his jot a job in Japan to teach English as a second language to Japanese students in a University. When he went there to join, he was told that they wanted a native American speaker to teach the English course, and he was not a native American Speaker. He tried to explain that while his grand parents came from Mexico, but he grew up in California and he was educated here. His accents were completely acceptable in the US. But it was clear that they expected a White American to teach the course, and he did not fit the bill. So, he had no recourse but to leave.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Brando »

The Japanese do have a problem with race . That has always been the case and I suppose it always will be a psychological obstacle for them. With regards to the article above about Mitsubishi electrical. In the 1980s Japan had just seen nearly 30 years of unparalleled economic boom, Japanese companies were "huge" and very wealthy. India was poverty ridden and the Indian Government impotent and backward. Today however, we live in a different world. Even in places like the Middle East; a traditional Indian labor magnet, the Arabs have slowly and grudgingly accepted Indians as to be more than mere labor to be exploited. This racial superiority thing is not only a Japanese problem, it is an asian problem. Any nation which is richer will consider itself and its citizens to be superior to other nations that are poorer that it. Too often there is a tendency to equate wealth with status. The Japanese do the same and many Indians do too.
In time as India becomes richer and Indian CEO's buy out Japanese companies they will come to respect us. Unlike America, equality is not just a god given right for these people.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Neshant »

> Mitsubishi Japan Employment Discrimination Case

That was an interesting read. Sounds like these Japanese are trying to create a sweat shop atmosphere for non-white educated foreigners in their companies. But who's going to hang around if that's the case especially if the person is educated and has other options. Their society is such where they use harsh dicipline to extract conformity. This just does not work for free thinking non-japanese. Nobody wants to be turned into a robot devoid of a personality or a life.

I recall during the world cup soccer of 2004 which was held in Japan, blacks who had gone there complained about being refused entry into restaraunts and other such places. No successful lawsuits there so what hope does this Indian engineer have. The laws are skewed in favor of the establishment.

The best thing this Indian engineer can do is to publicise his plight in the media (especially western media) to as great an extent as possible. If there's one thing these japanese don't like, its being put under the spotlight.

I note the case dates back to 1990 when the Japanese economy was at its maximum strength. It has since faltered for 18 years while China and India have gained ground. One hates to think of it as a zero sum game but since these Japanese are of that mindset, then one would expect they have been humbled by the experience.

BTW Mitsubishi has tied up with L&T of India to sell into the Indian market.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

Japanese Embassy in India Receives Bomb Threat Email

I'm curious as to why they sent it to the Japanese embassy. Is it because they see Japan as a large aid donor and growing economic partner? Are the terrorists again going after the economic angle?
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Arun_S posted in the nuke thread...
---------------------
Philip wrote:Yes we must,but only after true global diarmament has taken place and the US apologises for Hiroshima and Nagasaki!
Philip saar: Very true.
Whatever pressure point Japanese foreign policy is driven from, in my interaction w/Japanese people, I know that they are not the people who forget history (and that is good and worthy of emulation).

Having said that, Japanese people don't say that overtly but they know that it was Indian Army that broke the back of Japanese army leading to its collapse and surrender in WW-II. They don't talk of that openly because that will be taken as revival of old Japan militarist expansionism, shame, and to be compatible with terms of surrender that is the foundation to the current political setup there. So there is confluence of two driving forces that shape their policy w.r.t nuclear India. Viz Defeat of militarist Japan by Indian Army in WW-II and being victim of American nuke attack thereafter being a champion of nuclear disarmament.
---------------------------------------------------

I would like more information about the Japanese attitude towards India especially the bolded part. the standard story told is that the US troops(Marines) fighting it out with the Japanese and bringing them to heel. Is the ref to Kohima where the Japanese were stopped in continental Asia?

Thanks, ramana
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by paramu »

Looks like Japan is in deep trouble, including psychological. Their performance in olympics looks very pathetic, not to mention their current economic situation.
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Japanese PM Resignation

Post by Sanjay M »

Unable to overcome political gridlock in his country, Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda has resigned.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/09/0 ... can01.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsN ... 5920080901

This paves the way for Taro Aso to come to power. Taro Aso would be even better for India than Shinzo Abe, as he has even tougher views on foreign policy. Unsurprisingly, the Atlanticist-led West doesn't like Aso. All the more reason for us to like him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro_Aso
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

Aso, Favorite to Lead Japan, May Promote More Public Spending

hopefully that will include military spending
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

The impending breakdown of Japanese society?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01720.html
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Sanjay M »

I'm posting in the India-Japan thread, because we don't really have an India-Korea thread. So what will happen to the region if Kim Jong Il dies or becomes incapacitated?

Will the regime collapse? If it doesn't, will it become more dangerous or erratic due to the loss of its personality cult?
If the regime does collapse, then will the "wall" tumble down with it and cause a speedy reunification, a la Germany?

What will happen to China and Japan if Korea reunifies?

I'm thinking that China might evacuate out certain key NKorean officials, and have them take with them any papers that might be incriminating towards China.
Other than that, China could have fairly good relations with a reunified Korea, and wouldn't necessarily feel threatened by it, as long as US troops leave instead of coming right upto Chinese borders. If US troops stay, then the situation could become China's biggest preoccupation.

I'm also thinking that Japan might have trouble dealing with a reunified Korean peninsula. Reunification would enable the pursuing Koreans to nip at Japan's heels even harder, as they strive to overtake them.
The Japanese seem to look at the Koreans the way that British look at Ireland.
Korean reunification and resultant pressure from economic competition could spark a rise in Japanese nationalism.

If there is a future India-Japan-Australia encirclement of China, how would a reunified Korea affect this? Would they join the encirclement, keeping their US bases? Or would they tell the Americans to leave?

North Korea After Kim Jong Il
Rumors of a stroke or illness have Korea watchers wondering what the nuclear-armed, communist country would look like after Dear Leader
ramana
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

I once wrote some stuff in the 90s about the impact of Korean unification. Its main impact will be on PRC as there is historical enemity from first Emperor Chin. All in all it will send some quakes in that region. But peaceful changes.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Avinash R »

'China set to take over North Korea'
Friday, September 12, 2008 09:13 [IST]
The best way forward would be for the two Koreas to unify, but China wont allow it, says analyst

HONG KONG: China will take control of North Korea directly or indirectly in a post-Kim Jong-il scenario, and while that may ward off a potential power struggle among military leaders in the nuclear weapon-armed state, it bodes ill for China and the region, says writer Gordon G. Chang.

In an interview to DNA from Toronto, Chang, author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World, noted that many of the military generals in North Korea had "very close ties with China" and would probably form a "collective military government" in the event of President Kim Jong-ils death.

"North Korea will nominally remain an independent state, but China will have a great influence on how it operates; it will very much determine what happens there."

While such an arrangement would enhance Chinas leverage in Asia, Chang believes China would be "buying a lot of problems." North Korea, he notes, "isnt exactly a strong state, so when China exercises dominion control, its going to have to reconstitute a lot of North Korea � the economy, civil society and infrastructure."

Which is why, he reckons, South Koreans "arent exactly dying to take over the North: its going to be troublesome for whoever takes over."

There are times, says Chang, when nations do things that are not in their best long-term interests. "It may well not be in Chinas long-term interest to take over North Korea either formally or informally, but China has always tried to exercise control over its borders, so I can see China doing something silly � like try to absorb North Korea or turn it into a vassal state."

He says North Korea could end up being Chinas Tar-Baby: a sticky situation that will only gets aggravated with further engagement. In his estimation, the best option is for the two Koreas to unify, "but China is certainly not going to want that." In the long term, it will be a source of instability for the two to remain separate.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by Avinash R »

Unidentified foreign submarine spotted near Japan
TOKYO - Japan was searching Sunday for an unidentified foreign submarine detected in its territorial waters earlier in the day, the Defense Ministry said.

The Aegis destroyer Atago of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force spotted what it determined to be a periscope of an unknown submarine between Kyushu and Shikoku islands in western Japan, the ministry said.

By the time officials confirmed that the submarine was not a U.S. or Japanese vessel, it had left the area, it said.

Officials dispatched the Atago as well as P-3C patrol airplanes to look for the submarine, the ministry said in a statement.

"We need to do our utmost to track down the submarine and get to the bottom of the incident," Defense Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi was quoted by Kyodo News agency as saying.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, foreign submarines and other underwater vehicles are "required to navigate on the surface and to show their flag" in territorial waters during peacetime.

In November 2004, a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine entered Japanese territorial waters near the southern island of Okinawa and ignored Japanese orders for it to surface. The incident escalated already stormy relations with China at the time, stirring up fear in Japan over China's military.

That submarine's presence prompted the Maritime Self-Defense Force to go on alert for the second time since World War II.

Hayashi said Sunday's incident was not serious enough to call for similar security operations, according to Kyodo.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by RajeshA »

Indian PM to visit Japan for nuclear talks: official: AFP
TOKYO (AFP) — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Japan this month for talks on nuclear energy cooperation and a free-trade deal as the two countries expand ties, officials said Friday.

Singh will meet with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso and have an audience with Emperor Akihito during his October 21-23 visit, a Japanese foreign ministry statement said.

Aso, a former foreign minister who became Prime Minister last week, is a strong supporter of cementing Japan's relationship with fellow democracy India, partly to balance Tokyo's often uneasy ties with China.

Singh is expected to discuss nuclear energy issues in Japan, which reluctantly backed a nuclear technology deal between India and the United States despite New Delhi's refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Japan has a major nuclear power industry but strongly opposes nuclear weapons - a legacy of falling victim to the world's only atomic attacks.

Singh and Aso are also set to discuss efforts to forge a free-trade deal. Tokyo announced that Japanese and Indian negotiators would hold a 10th round of talks starting Monday in the capital.

The two countries missed a deadline to reach an outline of the deal by mid-2008 as they struggled to reach an agreement on tariff reductions and investment goals.

Singh also travelled this week to France to sign another atomic energy deal, part of India's efforts to make up for a critical power shortage holding back its booming economy.
Manmohan Singh is striking while the iron is hot. Taro Aso has just been appointed Prime Minister, so he has the popularity to take bold actions, i.e. before even his popularity goes down-hill as is the rule in Japan.

However, PM should take care, that Indo-US Nuclear Deal and its accompanying conditionalities should become the exception rather than the norm. With other countries, India should have clear and non-conditional deals with no return of materials BS or that the agreement will be terminated on India conducting nuclear tests. One would not be able to avoid clauses pertaining to "subject to NSG Waiver" etc, but please no conditions related to nuclear tests directly.

With USA, we had to succumb to Hyde, simply because USA was doing the heavy international lifting, but no reason to accede to Japan.

I guess, the PM would be meeting Lavrov before he leaves for Japan.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by RajeshA »

Who is going to be our chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations on January 26th, 2009?

Something tells me, it could be Japanese PM Taro Aso.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

Japan's $1 bn for Chennai metro PDF Print E-mail
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Tokyo, Oct. 22: The first beneficiary of the coming together of the "samurai" and the "swami" will be the Chennai metro, for which Japan will give a $1 billion loan. The move to invest in the southern city as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here Tuesday on a three-day visit to Japan is certain to give a fillip to bilateral relations. Indian officials openly acknowledge they owe the Taro Aso government in Japan a "debt of gratitude" for unreservedly backing the NSG waiver for India in Vienna.

Chennai�s connection to Japan stems not just from superstar Rajnikanth, whose films are dubbed in Japanese and hugely popular here. This country is also the major donor to war-torn Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, where New Delhi has huge stakes. It also avidly promotes the Indian Navy�s presence as premier watchdog in the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean. The two leaders are expected to find more areas of commonality to promote growth as the two Asian democracies transform their emerging alliance into a more enduring economic and strategic partnership. One, that must outlive the often shaky political fortunes of unabashed Indophile Aso and, to a lesser extent, the Indian Prime Minister.

Dr Singh, received on arrival by Japan�s foreign minister Hirofumi Nakasone, begins his official engagements on Wednesday with an audience with Emperor Akihito at the Imperial Palace. But it�s soon afterwards that the real thrust of the visit will become apparent.Hours after Dr Singh landed at the Narita international airport here, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani arrived on his private aircraft, accompanied by commerce minister Kamal Nath and a high-level Indian business delegation, which included Infosys head honcho Nandan Nilekani and Tarun Das of the CII, which is eager to convert the Japanese interest in investment into reality.

Both countries are keen to set up an Indian Institute of Technology together, for which a joint working group has been set up. The second of two meetings was held in Delhi in May 2008.
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Re: India and Japan: News and Discussion

Post by renukb »

Tokyo's nexus with India deepens
By Purnendra Jain


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JJ25Dh01.html
ADELAIDE, Australia - Tokyo-Delhi ties reached a new height this week with the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Tokyo - his third since he became prime minister in 2004. During his three-day official visit, Manmohan and Japanese counterpart Taro Aso issued a joint statement on the advancement of the strategic and global partnership, but more significantly signed a joint declaration on security cooperation.

It is remarkable that Tokyo has signed such a declaration with New Delhi with which it fell out badly only 10 years ago when it condemned India's nuclear testing in 1998 and imposed severe economic sanctions. The declaration is hugely significant, as India is only the second country after Australia with which Japan has signed such a declaration outside its security ties with the United States.
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