Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba visited the Tokyo Electron Factory (TEL Miyagi) in Sendai. This visit was significant because it marked a focus of India and Japan’s cooperation in advanced technologies, especially semiconductors. The two leaders also emphasised the importance of this industry by taking the bullet train from Tokyo to Sendai, which is more than 300 km.
During the visit, Modi engaged with TEL executives regarding their position in the global semiconductor ecosystem and future partnerships with India. He emphasized how India’s growing manufacturing ecosystem and Japan’s cutting-edge semiconductor machinery and technology work in tandem.
In his remarks at the India–Japan Economic Forum, Modi highlighted semiconductors, batteries, and robotics as focus areas for Make in India collaborations. Prime Minister Ishiba laid out three goals: building stronger people-to-people ties, fusing technology with green initiatives, and boosting cooperation in high-tech fields, especially semiconductors.
The visit to Sendai came as a follow-up of the bilateral agreements made under the India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership and the Economic Security Dialogue. Both these agreements cover fields like critical minerals, ICT, pharmaceuticals, and more. An understanding was made to speed up the projects in these fields alongside semiconductors.
Involvement from the private sector is increasing steadily. Japanese firms have entered into around 150 MOUs over the last two years in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, energy, and human resources, as per the Ministry of External Affairs of India. Modi also remarked that the Digital Partnership 2.0, AI collaboration, and work on rare earth minerals will continue to be the focus of partnership.
Modi and Ishiba reiterated their vision of developing strong and trusted supply chains and India and Japan’s roles as critical partners in the framework of global technology security by keeping semiconductors as the focus of this visit.
