PM Narendra Modi And His Decades Old Japan Connection

The arrival of Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi will further strengthen Indo-Japanese partnership. But for PM Modi, this relationship began long before he entered office in 2014. His connect with Japan, its culture and its technological excellence stretches back decades.

One of PM Narendra Modi’s earliest connections with Japan dates back to the early 1980s, when as a young RSS pracharak, he made a Japanese friend from Nagoya during a visit to Nepal. The friendship continued as a pen-pal for years through letters. The Japanese friend would send him gifts, including shoes from renowned Japanese brands and T-shirts. In return, Modi once sent him a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. Even at a young age, he saw international friendships not merely as personal

relationships, but as opportunities for cultural exchange.

His fascination with Japan only deepened over time. When Narendra Modi visited Japan as CM of Gujarat in 2007, he approached the trip not simply as a diplomatic engagement but as a learning mission. Leading a 40-member delegation of bureaucrats and industry leaders, he travelled across Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kobe, meeting major corporations including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Marubeni, Suzuki, Toshiba, Nippon Steel and Nissan Steel. The visit resulted in important agreements between the Japanese investment body JETRO and the Gujarat government.

During this visit, Modi also met Shinzo Abe, then emerging as one of Japan’s most influential political leaders. Their first interaction laid the foundation for what would later become one of the closest relationships between two world leaders. According to those who witnessed it, both leaders immediately developed mutual admiration. Years later, even during Abe’s illness, Narendra Modi remained in regular touch to enquire about his health.

Travelling aboard Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train, he imagined India having its own bullet train network. He was given the rare opportunity to sit inside the driver’s cockpit, where he enquired engineers about earthquake safety systems, time management and so on. These conversations later influenced India’s own high-speed rail ambitions. During the Shinkansen journey, he also struck up a conversation with Japanese children despite the language barrier, eventually spending much of the journey playing with them.

His curiosity was visible everywhere. At Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple, Modi carefully studied crowd management systems, urban planning and staff training, exploring how similar ideas could improve the management of India’s own pilgrimage centres. At a Japanese university, when asked how India and Japan should respond to China’s growing influence, Modi offered a memorable metaphor: “Darkness cannot be defeated with a sword; a small lamp can remove it.” He explained that India and Japan, through their shared democratic values, could together become that light.

Modi also believed diplomacy was as much about people as governments. During Gujarat’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, he appealed to Gujaratis living in Japan to contribute soil and water for the construction of Mahatma Mandir, making them active participants in Gujarat’s development. He encouraged members of the diaspora to invite Japanese friends to India.

During the rehabilitation of Kutch after the earthquake, he adopted earthquake-resilient construction and reconstruction models inspired by Kobe of Japan, which had also experienced a devastating earthquake. He encouraged officials to study Japanese mid-day meal models while designing schemes to address malnutrition among children in Gujarat.

When Modi returned to Japan in 2012, he was welcomed with honours rarely accorded to a state chief minister. Invited formally by the Government of Japan during the 60th anniversary of India-Japan diplomatic relations, he attended more than 40 programmes across five cities in just five days. Japanese media took note, with ‘Nikkei’ describing him as a business-friendly leader from India. Despite an exhausting schedule and observing a fast during Navratri, Modi spent hours interacting with investors.

During a visit to Osamu Suzuki’s residence, he experienced traditional Japanese culture before unexpectedly requesting a tour of the Suzuki manufacturing plant. Explaining that Gujarat would require Japanese investment through the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit, he spent over three hours studying every stage of automobile manufacturing and interacting with Indian engineers working there.

At the JETRO Business Forum, Modi articulated a vision that would later define India-Japan economic relations: “Japan has the strength of experience, Gujarat has the power of enterprise. Japan has technology, Gujarat has the talent to absorb it.” His learning extended to Kobe Port, where he insisted on touring the operational bay by boat instead of viewing it from afar. Looking at the port’s world-class infrastructure, he remarked, “One day, I will build Dholera like this.” The development of the Dholera SIR in subsequent years reflected many of the ideas he absorbed during that visit.

Years later, as the Prime Minister, these early experiences translated into one of India’s strongest strategic partnerships. From the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor to expanding defence cooperation, supply chain resilience and technology partnerships, the foundations had been laid decades back.