From Elephants to Joint Visions: 10 Key Moments in Indo-Japanese Relations

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Wednesday arrived in Delhi for a three-day visit.

Takaichi held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to enhance trade, investment, and strategic cooperation between the two countries under the Japan-India Joint Vision for the Next Decade, announced last year during PM Modi’s visit to Tokyo in August.

Takaichi will attend the 16th Japan-India Annual Summit Meeting in her first visit to India as Prime Minister.

Both leaders previously met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, last year.

This summit is the latest in a series of developments that have shaped Indo-Japanese relations, with consequences extending far beyond the two countries. As the two countries celebrate 75 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations next year, here are 10 key moments which shaped Japan-India relations.

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1. 1949: India’s Giant Gift to Japanese Children

On May 5 –celebrated as Children’s Day in Japan— then-Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in response to hundreds of letters received from Japanese students, sent an Indian elephant ‘Indira’ to Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, describing her as “a gift from the children of India to the children of Japan.”

The gift brought immense joy to the children of a country still recovering from the destruction caused by war.

The elephant’s death in 1983 was widely mourned, and scholarly accounts later described her as a “messenger of peace from India”.

India later sent two more elephants, Asha and Daya.

2. 1952: India-Japan Peace Treaty

India refused to attend the 1951 San Francisco Peace Conference, which aimed to re-establish peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers, due to limitations placed on Japanese sovereignty by the draft peace treaty. Nehru believed that the treaty should concede Japan a position of "honour, equality, and contentment" among free nations

India, instead, signed its own peace treaty with Japan on April 28, 1952, thereby establishing official diplomatic ties. Article 1 of the treaty declared "firm and perpetual peace and amity between India and Japan and their respective peoples".

The treaty established official diplomatic relations between the two nations and paved the way for cordial and friendly ties.

3. 1958: First Yen Loan

After Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi visited New Delhi in 1957, Japan started its process of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to India in the form of the Yen Loan, the first Yen loan aid extended by the Japanese government.

Japanese ODA to India has been crucial for projects in the development of economic infrastructure, poverty reduction, and environmental protection. Recent projects include the development of the Bengaluru Metro Rail Project (Phase 3), the Mumbai Metroline 11 Project (I), and the Project for Promoting Sustainable Horticulture in Punjab.

4. 2000: The Global Partnership

Relations between the two countries remained cordial but largely economic for decades. The breakthrough came in August 2000 during Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori’s visit to India when he and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee established the Global Partnership between Japan and India.

This served as a framework for multilateral cooperation that broadened the bilateral relationship beyond trade to include information technology, nuclear non-proliferation, and UN Security Council reform.

This marked a shift from primarily economic ties to more strategic cooperation.

5. 2005: The Beginning of Annual Summits

In April 2005, PM Junichiro Koizumi visited India. Koizumi and PM Manmohan Singh signed the ‘Japan-India Partnership in the New Asian Era’ joint statement and issued an ‘Eight-fold Initiative’ action plan.

They established the Japan-India Annual Summit meetings, which are held yearly in New Delhi and Tokyo.

Thursday marked the 16th Japan-India Annual Summit hosted in New Delhi, for which Takaichi is visiting the Indian capital.

6. 2006: The Strategic and Global Partnership

In December 2006, PM Singh paid a visit to Tokyo, where he met PM Shinzo Abe, and the two leaders agreed to establish a Strategic and Global Partnership. The two sides launched a Joint Task Force to negotiate a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, covering trade in goods, services, investment flows, and economic cooperation.

The year 2007 was designated as the India-Japan Tourism Exchange year, a joint statement was signed and set the target for increasing the number of visitors between the two countries to 3,00,000 by 2010 and 5,00,000 by 2015.

7. 2014: The Special Strategic and Global Partnership

In September 2014, PM Modi paid a visit to Japan- his first bilateral visit outside the Indian subcontinent- and met PM Abe, upgrading the bilateral partnership to its highest level under the ‘Tokyo Declaration for India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership’.

The two leaders also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of Defence and decided to upgrade and strengthen defence relations. Furthermore, they affirmed their intention to engage with other countries in the region and beyond to address regional challenges and deepen cooperation and integration.

PM Modi and PM Abe announced the Kyoto-Varanasi Partner City Agreement, which focuses on cooperation in art, culture, and academics.

PM Abe expressed his hopes for India to introduce a high-speed railway system between Ahmedabad and Mumbai using Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train technology. The project was later adopted in 2017 by both leaders.

8. 2016: Civil Nuclear Deal

In November 2016, during PM Modi’s bilateral visit to Japan, India and Japan signed a landmark nuclear deal, allowing Japan to export nuclear power technology and equipment to India and strengthen the country’s nuclear security.

The agreement also aimed to encourage cooperation between Japanese and Indian industries in the Civil Nuclear programme.

India became the first country that had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to make such a deal with Japan.

9. 2017: Re-establishment of the Quad

In November 2017, senior officials from India, Japan, the United States, and Australia met for the first time in nearly a decade. The four countries agreed that "a free, open, prosperous and inclusive" Indo-Pacific served long-term global interests. The meeting, conducted on the sidelines of the ASEAN and East Asia Summit, marked the revival of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad).

The Quad was established in December 2004 in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami when the four nations formed a Core Group to provide support. In 2007, the Quad had its first foreign ministers’ Meeting, but the grouping collapsed in 2008 after Australia withdrew.

Since the regrouping, senior officials have held meetings regularly. The Quad is seen as an important grouping to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

10. 2025: Joint Vision for the Next Decade

During PM Modi’s visit to Tokyo in August 2025 for the 15th Japan-India Annual Summit, the two countries adopted the ‘India-Japan Joint Vision for the Next Decade’. The Vision lays out eight all-nation lines of effort with goals and targets for both nations to realise in the next decade. These include:

Prime Minister Takaichi’s visit is not just another summit; it is the next chapter for the Indo-Japanese relationship that was built from years of mutual trust, support, international collaboration, and shared visions for humanity. In nearly 75 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, ties between the two countries have become one of the most consequential in the Asia-Pacific.