Five Lakh Talent Export from India to Japan
Contemplated to Ease Labour Shortage
From stealth warship tech to a 500,000-strong
talent exchange, Tokyo and New Delhi are pairing Japanese precision with Indian
scale
·
Largest
Indian business delegation: A 200-member
Indian business delegation, led by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, visited Japan
to seek investment, advanced machinery, manufacturing expertise and technology partnerships.
·
Complementary
strengths:
The partnership increasingly combines Japan's
technology, capital, precision manufacturing and expertise with
India's young workforce, large-scale
production capacity and huge domestic market.
·
India's
long-term growth vision:
India sees Japan as an important partner in its journey from a US$4 trillion economy towards a US$30 trillion
economy by 2047.
·
Focus
sectors:
Cooperation discussions covered semiconductors,
artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, automobiles, robotics and industrial
supply chains.
·
Major
Japanese investment commitment: Japanese firms have begun investing under a previously announced
10-trillion-yen (about US$63.9
billion) investment pledge, with India expecting the long-term target
to be achieved much faster than originally planned.
·
500,000-person
talent exchange:
India and Japan have set an ambitious goal of facilitating the exchange of more than 500,000 people in both directions
by the end of the decade.
·
Haryana–Fukuoka
workforce initiative:
Haryana and Japan's Fukuoka prefecture are working to train and place up to 50,000 Indian workers
and technical professionals over five years, particularly in semiconductors
and automobile manufacturing.
·
Addressing
Japan's labour shortage: India's young and growing workforce
can help address Japan's ageing
population and increasing shortage of skilled workers, while Indian
workers gain advanced training and international manufacturing experience.
·
Growing
Japanese investment in India: Japanese companies are expanding their financial presence,
with Japanese venture and corporate investment in India increasing sharply. Japanese
firms are estimated to have completed around US$10 billion in Indian mergers and acquisitions over the past
five years.
·
Supply-chain
diversification:
Rising US tariffs and global efforts to diversify
supply chains beyond China are accelerating India–Japan economic
cooperation.
·
Defence
and naval cooperation:
The partnership is expanding beyond economics into defence technology, naval shipbuilding and
warship design.
·
Stealth
warship technology:
India and Japan have agreed to cooperate on technology for Indian warships, including
Japan's Unified Complex Radio
Antenna (Unicorn) system, designed to reduce a vessel's radar signature.
·
Shipbuilding
opportunity:
Japan's expertise could help India strengthen its domestic shipbuilding industry
and support India's ambition to build a 200-ship
navy within the next decade.
·
Uttar
Pradesh's Japan City proposal: Uttar Pradesh is seeking Japanese industrial investment through
a proposed 500-acre “Japan
City” near Noida International Airport, alongside broader cooperation
in manufacturing and defence production.
·
Strategic
transformation:
Overall, India–Japan relations are shifting from a traditional investment and aid-oriented relationship
towards a deeper strategic partnership based on talent mobility, joint innovation,
advanced manufacturing and defence cooperation.
[ABS News Service/07.09.2026]
India’s largest-ever business delegation, 200 executives strong, touched
down in Japan late last month in search of money, machinery and manufacturing
know-how.
At its head was Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, whose four-day tour
from August 24 to 27 not only laid the groundwork for next year’s 75th anniversary
of diplomatic ties but also worked to solidify an economic partnership now expanding
into shipbuilding and defence.
“We believe in the principle of continuous improvement and we are
looking at Japan being our partner in this journey as we progress from a US$4 trillion
economy today to a US$30 trillion economy by 2047,” Goyal told a joint gathering
on August 24 that included representatives of Keidanren, a Japanese business federation
representing more than 1,500 companies.
The talks spanned a range of sectors, from semiconductors to artificial
intelligence, according to the Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Goyal later told reporters that Japanese firms had already invested
about 14 per cent of a 10-trillion-yen (US$63.9 billion) pledge announced last August. At the current pace, he said the 10-year foreign direct investment
goal would be reached within three to four years.
The delegation’s India tour built on a flurry of recent high-level
exchanges. Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro
Koizumi visited India from August
19 to 20, hot on the heels of Prime Minister Sanae
Takaichi’s trip in July.
India’s
most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has been conducting its own parallel courtship,
with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath pitching Japanese companies on a proposed 500-acre
“Japan City” near the new Noida International Airport, serving the capital region.
“What
makes the partnership especially interesting is the complementarity,” said Arijit
Chatterjee, a professor of management at ESSEC Business School.
“Japan has technology, capital and an ageing workforce, while India
… has scale, labour and a huge market, so the objective
is increasingly to combine Japanese know-how with Indian people and production capacity
rather than simply attract Japanese FDI.”
For a “young, populous state” like Uttar Pradesh looking to build
its industrial capacity, Japan was “particularly attractive”, Chatterjee said, “because
it brings not just capital but decades of expertise in precision manufacturing,
automobiles, robotics, skills and industrial supply chains”.
This “complementarity” is visible in India’s Haryana state, which
has been working with Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture since June to train and place up
to 50,000 young workers and technical professionals over five years in critical
industries such as semiconductors and vehicle production – a direct response to
the acute labour shortages afflicting many of Fukuoka’s
major companies as Japan’s workforce rapidly ages.
“Japan can provide training, work experience and exposure to advanced
manufacturing practices, while India provides talent,” Chatterjee said.
“I see youth mobility as an important complement to Japanese investment
and technology transfer: India gains skills, jobs and human-capital development,
while Japan gains access to a young, trained workforce it increasingly needs.”
Goyal offered another vivid example: the Indian subsidiary of Suzuki
Motor Corporation, which first invested in the country in 1989, is now worth more
than its Japanese parent company – surpassing it in market valuation as far back
as 2015.
Historical precedents showed the Japan-India relationship was already
primed to strengthen, but analysts told This Week in Asia that rising US tariffs
and the push to diversify supply chains away from China had accelerated the shift.
Last year, the two countries set an aspirational target of exchanging
more than 500,000 personnel, in both directions, by the end of the decade.
Capital has followed a similar trajectory. “We were sub-US$2 million
in assets under management, I think until 2020. Now fast forward to 2026, and we’re
close to US$300 million,” said Rajeev Ranka, a partner at Incubate Fund Asia, a
Japanese venture capital firm focused on Indian start-ups.
He estimates that Japanese firms have completed roughly US$10 billion
in Indian mergers and acquisitions over the past five years.
“There is a lot of interest and action which is supported by on-the-ground
travel and people visiting [India] from Japan,” he said.
Dattesh Parulekar, an assistant professor of international relations at
Goa University who specialises in India’s foreign policy
and diplomacy, said the bilateral relationship was undergoing a “seminal transformation”
– moving from what he characterised as a “donor-recipient
fiscal equation” to a partnership built on joint innovation, including on defence
systems.
Earlier this summer, Japan and India agreed to jointly
develop stealth technology for
Indian
warships, fitting them with the Japanese-developed Unified Complex Radio Antenna
(Unicorn) system, which reduces a vessel’s radar profile by combining cluttered
antenna arrays into a single, compact structure.
Talks have also turned to naval shipbuilding and design – an area
where India
has long lagged behind China,
Japan and South Korea, which together controlled more than 90 per cent of the global shipbuilding
industry in 2024.
Japan had been exploring the possibility of a joint shipbuilding
venture with India for a long time, said Vivek Mishra, deputy director of strategic
studies at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi. “Japan would
be a perfect partner [for India],” he said.
Uttar Pradesh recognised as much, according
to Parulekar, who said part of the state’s appeal to Japanese industry was its “surging
ambition to spearhead defence manufacturing” through six dedicated industrial corridors,
anchored around Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi and Chitrakoot.
“I think cooperation is likely to increase on both the civilian and
military sides, with shipbuilding becoming an important part of the broader industrial
relationship,” said Chatterjee, noting that India was seeking Japanese investment
and design expertise in equal measure.
A robust domestic shipbuilding industry was the surest foundation
for naval expansion, he added – especially relevant as India races to build a 200-ship
navy within the next decade.