Japan, where one-third of its population is over 65, needs a workforce, academics for research and a market for its goods. Image for representation. | Photo credit: AFP
Since 1981, when Suzuki Motor Corporation established a factory in India to produce the “Maruti” car, the Japanese company has been synonymous with bilateral relations, says Kenichi Ayukawa, executive vice president and chief global marketing officer, who led Maruti Suzuki’s India operations from 2013 to 2022.
Suzuki was among the first to bring Japanese engineers to India to streamline processes and train Indian workers to build the car. As both Delhi and Tokyo look to address Japan’s aging population and India’s growing youth population, the company is now reversing that trend.
“Suzuki is now trying to invite a lot of Indians to Japan, train them and help them develop technology in Japan,” said Mr Ayukawa, accompanied by Indian scientist and Suzuki executive Chandrali Sarkar. Ms. Sarkar first came to Japan to study at Keio University and has been working in India operations since 2022 at Suzuki’s headquarters in Hamamatsu, about 250 km from Tokyo. She noted that while some hesitation among Indians stems from limited Japanese language skills, the broader challenge is ignorance of Japan.
“Japan should know more about India and vice versa. Especially the next generation needs to connect and we need more Indian students, engineers and professionals to come to Japan,” said Kenji Hiramatsu, chairman of the Institute for International Strategy at the Japan Research Institute (JRI) and Japan’s ambassador to India from 2015 to 2019. The current number of Indians studying in Japan is far below its potential.
According to last year’s parliamentary response by India’s Ministry of Education, Japan ranks 34th among the countries where Indian students pursue higher education. Only about 1,500 Indian students are currently registered in Japan, a small fraction of the more than 3,30,000 foreign students in the country. Employment figures are similarly modest: about 54,000 Indians work in Japan, one-quarter of the 2,33,000 Nepalese nationals out of a total of 2.3 million foreign workers.
To address the shortage, Japan is preparing to open its doors to thousands like Ms Sarkar as part of an “action plan” launched in August by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. The plan aims to enable 500,000 labor exchanges over the next five years, including moving 50,000 skilled workers from India to Japan.
Officials at the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs point to the “perfect complementarity” between the two countries. Japan, where one-third of its population is over 65, needs a workforce, academics for research and a market for its goods. India, where 65% of its 1.4 billion people are under the age of 35, faces increasing pressure to create opportunities for its youth due to tighter immigration policies in the US, Canada and Europe and China’s restrictions on high-tech and semiconductor exports.
Despite decades of growing government-to-government and business-to-business ties, officials said, people-to-people relations between India and Japan continue to lag.
Published – 26 Oct 2025 21:20 IST
