India and Japan Relations

The relationship between India and Japan is centuries old. During the reign of emperor Kemmei,

Japan first came into contact with India. According to one source, Korea in the year 552 AD

paid tribute to Japan in the form of an image of Buddha and a copy of Buddhist scriptures.

Buddhism was thus introduced in Japan. Several Indian Buddhist monks subsequently visited

Japan and brought the two countries together. Although India was under the colonial rule of Britain, Japan viewed with importance India’s role in accelerating the process of its industrialisation. In the meantime, Japanese people developed deep appreciation for Indian nationalism and the Indian leaders

came to value Japan’s industrial progress as a source of inspiration for the colonial peoples of

Asia. During the Indian freedom struggle, the Indian National Congress was critical of several Japanese

policies, including aggression against Manchuria Province of China. But when the Japanese forces

defeated the Western colonial powers during the Second World War, it brought cheers to many

subject colonial peoples, including Indians. However, the Japanese connection of some Indian

nationalist groups, especially the members of Ghadar Party and the Indian National Army under

Subhash Chandra Bose were meant to help India achieve independence. A real watershed in the

 relations between Japan and India came after the end of the Second World War. Japan was a defeated

nation. It was under American military occupation and several Japanese were to be tried for their war

crimes. Jawaharlal Nehru looked with warmth to the post-war Japan devastated by the atom

bombs and under foreign occupation at a time when India itself was able to overthrow the  

foreign rule. At the moment of Japan’s struggle for survival in the immediate postwar period, 

India offered to supply Japan with iron ore, which was so vital in the reconstruction of Japan. 

Nehru also refused to participate in the San Francisco Conference to sign a US-sponsored Peace 

Treaty with Japan and decided to forego claiming reparation against Japan. The emergence of the 

Communist China in 1949, the onset of the Korean War in 1950 and the Communist/Nationalist 

 upsurge in Indochina brought Cold War into Asia. As Japan’s foreign policy came to be 

influenced by its alliance relations with the US and the 1954 US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, India followed a policy of non-alignment. The political divergences of an aligned Japan and non-aligned India were rather too many. To

cite a few examples, India and Japan held different views on the Korean and Vietnam wars; and

to India’s utter surprise, Japan did not even support liberation of Goa from the Portuguese

colonial rule.

The growing Indo-US political differences and strategic divergences affected India’s relations

with Japan, since the latter’s foreign policy was conditioned by the western, especially American,

views on world affairs. Even then some Japanese appeared to have appreciated and regarded

India’s non-aligned foreign policy postures and its role in the developing world, since Japan

could have followed such a policy but for the compulsion generated by the US influence over

post-war Japan.

Japan, in fact, viewed India as a rising Asian power and a better alternative

model of a developing country than China, despite the political differences on international affairs.

The 1962 military humiliation by China of India, however, seemed to have brought some

disappointment to Japan and India fell low in the Japanese foreign policy priorities. What was worrisome is the fact that Japan maintained neutrality during the Sino-Indian War of 1962, although the US positively responded to the Indian requests for help. Moreover, at the time of 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, Japan cut off aid and credits to India. As geopolitical developments in the early 1970s culminated in India’s political proximity to the erstwhile Soviet Union in strategic matters, Japan’s political distance from India got widened further. Japan did not support the liberation of Bangladesh nor did it endorse India’s peaceful nuclear explosion.

While political differences persisted, there was not much of a meaningful interaction between the

two countries in the economic field. Post-war Japan soon began to focus on its economic

reconstruction and development and was increasingly successful. This was a time when the Indian

economy was stagnating. The economic policy of India focusing on the import substitution strategy

disillusioned and discouraged the Japanese from engaging in more positive economic relations

with India. The trade relations were minimal. Although India became one of the first and the largest recipient of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), the assistance was suspended for years until the mid-1980s when prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Japan in the midst of a global political transformation. The end of the Cold War brought some positive movement in the interactions between

the Indian and the Japanese leaders, but the Pokharan II nuclear tests created tremendous tension

between Japan and India. By the time India emerged as a declared nuclear weapon power in

May 1998, Japan and India were on the verge of reshaping their political, security and economic

relations. The improved performance in the economic area was viewed as miniscule compared

to the potentialities. After all, if viewed from the Japanese side, the share of Indo-Japanese trade

remained less than 1 per cent of its total trade activities

But the harsh and strong Japanese reaction to the Indian nuclear tests in 1998 almost froze the

bilateral relationship for quite some time. However, by early 1999, Taro Nakayama, former

foreign minister visited India and handed over letter from the Japanese prime minister to the

Indian prime minister. It heralded a new period of relationship between the two countries with the

resumption of high-level exchanges. The visit of the Indian defence minister to Japan in 2000 was

path-breaking. The conduct of joint exercises by the Indian and the Japanese Navy indicates that

the two countries have decided to forge closer political, security and economic ties deep into the

21th Century.

As India and the US are increasingly coming together, the likelihood of closer Japan-India relations

also rises. The importance of the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and the stability in the Asia Pacific

region to both Japan and India is increasingly being realised. Japan today views India as a rising

power of Asia. The nature and intensity of Japan-India relations in the 21st Century will be

crucial to the maintenance of peace and stability in the world in general and Asia in particular.