Japan-India Relations: From Weak Links to Stronger Ties

Abstract

This chapter broadly examines the rather uneven development of Japan-India postwar relations, analyzing factors behind the almost half-century of low-intensity and at times mutual neglect and rocky engagement that followed the smooth takeoff in relations at the end of World War II, with re-ignition over the past two decades. It considers various push-and-pull factors, including changes in the two nations’ domestic and external circumstances that explain Japan’s transformation from neglecting India during the Cold War period to recognizing India as one of its key strategic partners today. This analysis recognizes that a realist perspective most usefully explains Japan’s response to the power structure in place during the Cold War that set the two nations apart, and to the subsequent transition in power relations regionally and globally that has brought about a convergence of the nations’ strategic interests. Both nations today uphold belief in the value of economic interdependence, international institutions, and democratic process, yet their primary concern with each other has remained strategic in the Indo-Pacific era. National leaders have been instrumental in steering these responses, as is especially evident in the diplomatic postures of former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and his Indian counterpart and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.