Japan wants increased ties with India, said Japan's consul general in Kolkata Masauki Taga. He was speaking at a seminar on
"Strengthening Indo-Japan Relations in Free and Open Indo-Pacific" organised by Merchant Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) on Wednesday.
Taga said, "We need more people-to-people interaction between the two nations. Currently, just 1,34,000 Indians visit Japan annually which is not enough." For better bilateral ties the diplomat wants better connectivity and more flights between the two countries. Though there are daily flights from New Delhi and Mumbai to Japan, there is no proposal for a flight from Kolkata to Japan.
Taga stressed the need for a free, open and prosperous Indo- Pacific ties as the two nations have a duty to safeguard this region. It might be recalled that Japanese PM
Shinzo Abe and Indian PM
Narendra Modi share excellent relations as in Gujarat they went on an open jeep for a roadshow. However, India's exports to Japan is just 1% of Japan's total trade. Similarly exports from Japan is also low.
Taga said Japan's relationship with north-eastern states and West Bengal will become more important when India improves its connectivity with the far east. However, Taga said that Japanese investors will select from states such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat that are offering a wide range of incentives, but Bengal is not in the priority list of the investors.
Ramesh Agarwal, president, MCCI in his welcome note said that India has a wide trade deficit with Japan. While India's exports stood at $3.93 billion during April 2017 to January 2018, imports from Japan were as high as $9.00 billion during this period.
Bilateral trade in services between India and Japan also remains subdued and India's exports of IT and IT enabled services to Japan account for less than 1 % of Japan's IT services market.