Asia-Pacific

Ishiba, Modi Issue ‘Joint Vision’ Setting New Target of ¥10 Trillion for Japan’s Investment in India

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:39 JST, August 30, 2025

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Friday issued a “joint vision” that sets a ¥10 trillion goal for Japanese private investment in India as well as aiming for a mutual exchange of 500,000 people over the next five years.

After meeting for about 90 minutes at the Prime Minister’s Office, the two leaders also issued a joint statement that affirms their countries’ commitment to creating frameworks to cooperate in economic security and artificial intelligence.

“The relationship between Japan and India has made tremendous progress over the past decade,” Ishiba said during the meeting. “We want to use this opportunity to communicate the direction of cooperation in order to take the relationship to new heights.”

In response, Modi stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries given the current global situation.

The joint vision outlines concrete cooperation measures for Japan and India over the next decade by specifying eight pillars such as the economy, economic security, mobility, technological innovation and exchanges of people.

The joint statement describes defense and security cooperation as a priority area, with the two leaders expressing “serious concern” over the situation in the East and South China Seas where China has pushed forward an aggressive expansion.

Japan and India also revised the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, which they originally signed in 2008. The revised declaration calls for cooperation between the Self-Defense Forces and the Indian military in such areas as joint exercises and intelligence sharing.

Referring to the Quad framework involving Japan, India, the United States and Australia, Ishiba and Modi affirmed in the joint statement their “commitment to advancing cooperation among like-minded countries through multilateral frameworks … to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region.”

The two sides also agreed to work together to introduce the latest Shinkansen bullet train technology to India. They confirmed the intention to introduce new Shinkansen models in India in the early 2030s.

Under the newly launched Economic Security Initiative, Japan and India place priority on key sectors such as information and communication technology, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, semiconductors and clean energy. The two countries will aim to deepen cooperation in building resilient supply chains, among other matters. To protect critical technologies, they will also advance intergovernmental cooperation while supporting collaboration across their industries and academic communities.

Amid intensifying global competition in AI development among countries and regions such as the United States and China, Ishiba and Modi agreed to launch the “Japan-India AI Cooperation Initiative” to advance bilateral cooperation in this field. Under the initiative, the two countries will work together to develop large language models, a type of technology based on generative AI that learns vast amounts of text data to predict the next word in a given context.

PMs make Shinkansen trip

On Saturday morning, Ishiba and Modi left JR Tokyo Station for Sendai aboard a Hayabusa bullet train on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line. This trip is aimed to showcase the technology and safety of the Japanese bullet trains.

Ishiba posted a photo on his account on X showing him seated next to Modi on the Shinkansen train with text that reads: “Heading to Sendai with Prime Minister Modi. Following on from last night, I continue to accompany him on the train.”

During his visit to Japan in 2016, Modi also made a train trip on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.