Economic Relations between India and Japan

A specialist on Japan's economic relations with India analyzes the two countries' bilateral economic relations. The author begins by tracing the history of Indo-Japanese economic relations, dating from Japan's opening in the mid-19th century through India's economic liberalization in 1991. He then proceeds to examine the recent economic ties between the two countries, focusing on bilateral merchandise trade, capital movements, and migration of labor. Emphasized is the potential for economic partnerships and projects that are currently being implemented (e.g., the Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor) to transform the nature of the economic relationship between India and Japan. The paper concludes by noting the complementarity in population (aging in Japan and young labor in India), technology (hardware of Japan and software of India), and capital (abundant in Japan but scarce in India) that is conducive to strengthening the bilateral economic relationship in the future. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F140, F210, F220, O530. 2 figures, 7 tables, 37 references.