Japanese Loans Support About 371 km of the 463 km Delhi Metro, About 1,500 Japanese Companies Are Registered in India, and the Two Partners Set a 10 Trillion Yen Private Investment Target in August 2025

India and Japan held their 16th Annual Summit in New Delhi on 2 July 2026, and the joint statement records “progress made towards the realization of the target of 10 trillion Yen” that the two governments set in August 2025 for Japanese private investment in India. India’s External Affairs Ministry counts about 1,500 Japanese companies registered in India, with nearly 5,000 business establishments between them. JICA, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, says its yen loans support about 371 km of the 463 km Delhi Metro network.

The two governments call the relationship a Special Strategic and Global Partnership. The ministry’s brief, current to 30 June 2026, says ties were raised to a Global Partnership in 2000, a Strategic and Global Partnership in 2006 and the Special version in 2014. Tuput uses the word partner throughout, which is the word both governments use.

What the 2 July 2026 summit agreed

Japan’s Prime Minister made her first official visit to India from 1 to 3 July 2026. The joint statement names three priority areas: defence and security, economic partnership (including economic security, energy resilience, technology and innovation), and exchanges between people.

It sets dates for what follows. The fourth round of the foreign and defence ministers’ “2+2” meeting is to be held in Tokyo by the end of 2026. Both sides will mark 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2027 as the India-Japan Year of Shared Horizons, with year-long programmes.

Delhi’s metro lines run on yen loans

Japan has given loans and grants to India since 1958 and is its largest bilateral donor, according to the External Affairs Ministry. Its aid disbursement to India in 2024-25 was about 440 billion yen.

The Delhi Metro is the longest-running example. JICA’s release of 8 March 2026 says Japan has been a partner of the Delhi Metro from the start, that JICA supports about 371 km of the 463 km network, and that its cumulative loans exceed one lakh crore yen (JICA gives about 582 billion rupees, or roughly Rs 58,200 crore). The same release covers two newly finished Phase 4 sections: 12.3 km of Line 7 between Majlis Park and Maujpur-Babarpur, and 9.9 km of Line 8 between Majlis Park and Deepali Chawk.

On 24 March 2026 JICA signed four more loans in New Delhi. Two are for metros: 92,400 million yen for Mumbai Metro Line 11 and 102,480 million yen for Bengaluru Metro Phase 3. The others are for tertiary healthcare and education in Maharashtra (62,294 million yen) and sustainable horticulture in Punjab (18,684 million yen). Adding the four gives 275,858 million yen. JICA lists a 30-year repayment period and a 10-year grace period for all four. The country-wide picture of how fast Indian cities are adding lines is in tuput’s piece on India’s metro networks.

The bullet train and its loan terms

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad line is built with Japanese Shinkansen technology and is the project that both governments describe as their flagship. JICA’s agreement of 25 July 2022, announced the next day, covers the third loan tranche: up to 100,000 million yen at 0.1 per cent a year, repaid over 50 years with a 15-year grace period. The executing agency is the National High Speed Rail Corporation.

The Ministry of Railways told the Lok Sabha on 1 April 2026 that all 1,389.5 hectares of land for the 508 km line had been acquired, that 430 km of piers were built, and that on the 97 km Surat to Vapi section all civil works were complete and 80 per cent of the track bed was laid. Swarajya, reporting the National High Speed Rail Corporation’s September 2026 update on 15 October 2026, gives 456 km of piers and 371 km of viaduct. PIB’s note of 3 July 2026 says the first service, from Surat to Vapi, is expected in August 2027, with a design speed of 350 km an hour and an operating speed of 320.

Swarajya’s report gives December 2029 for the full corridor. The July 2026 joint statement says Japan fully understands India’s target of commercial operations on priority sections in 2027, and that both sides will explore cooperation on future corridors toward a national network of 7,000 km. Tuput’s article on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train has the line’s construction counts in detail.

Cars built in India and sold in Japan

Maruti Suzuki’s release of 14 September 2026 says cumulative exports of its India-built Jimny 5-door, FRONX and e VITARA to Japan have passed 1 lakh (100,000). FRONX shipments began in August 2024, the Jimny 5-door in December 2024 and the e VITARA in September 2025. The company says Japan was its second-largest export market by volume in 2025-26 and still was in April to August 2026. Citing Japan Automobile Importers Association data, it says Suzuki Motor Corporation became Japan’s largest vehicle importer in 2025-26, with Maruti-built vehicles making up nearly all of Suzuki’s imports.

At home, the Kharkhoda plant in Haryana was opened by video link on 2 July 2026 during the India-Japan Joint Economic Forum. The company puts its capacity at 0.5 million cars a year now and 1 million planned, with projected investment of Rs 35,000 crore and more than 21,000 jobs. On 30 July 2026 it started production at a fourth plant at Hansalpur in Gujarat, which lifts that site to 1 million cars a year and the company’s total to 2.9 million.

Maruti Suzuki also runs four Japan-India Institutes for Manufacturing, set up as a joint initiative of the two governments, and says 2,600 students have trained at them. On 21 September 2026 it set a target of 30 per cent women among new admissions at the Manesar institute by 2028-29, up from about 5 per cent in 2025-26.

Companies, money and trade

The ministry’s brief says manufacturers make up half of the roughly 1,500 Japanese companies registered in India, and more than 100 Indian companies work in Japan. It adds that India ranked first in a 2025 survey by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) of countries where Japanese companies want to expand over the next one to two years.

Japan is the fifth-largest source of foreign direct investment into India, with about US$48.14 billion in equity inflows from April 2000 to March 2026, or 6 per cent of the total. Its outward investment to India was US$3.7 billion in 2025-26, up from US$2.48 billion the year before.

The targets run in two stages. At the 14th Annual Summit on 19 and 20 March 2022 the sides set 5 trillion yen of public and private investment and financing over five years. Japan’s Prime Minister’s Office says that target was reached in three years. On 29 August 2025 they set a new one of 10 trillion yen (about US$67 billion, in the External Affairs Ministry’s conversion) in Japanese private investment over the next decade.

Trade stood at US$27.48 billion in 2025-26, up from US$15.33 billion in 2020-21. India’s exports to Japan were US$6.04 billion and its imports US$21.44 billion. The July 2026 statement commits both sides to speed up a review of the 2011 trade agreement so that trade can grow and diversify.

Chips and clean energy

The July 2026 joint declaration on economic security names five sectors for project-based work: semiconductors, critical minerals, information and communication technology, clean energy and pharmaceuticals. During the August 2025 summit the two Prime Ministers visited a Tokyo Electron factory in Sendai, the External Affairs Ministry’s brief says.

One Japanese stake in an Indian chip plant is Renesas Electronics in the Sanand unit built by CG Power, with Stars Microelectronics. The three signed their joint venture agreement for the plant on 1 March 2024, after the Union Cabinet approved it on 29 February 2024. Renesas says the venture will invest Rs 7,600 crore over five years and ramp up to 15 million units a day, with CG Power holding about 92.3 per cent. Tuput’s piece on India’s chip plants tracks which of the approved plants are producing.

On energy, the July 2026 statement launches the India-Japan Cooperative Biogas for Growth Initiative, which supports India’s target of 1,000 biogas and organic fertiliser plants. It also reaffirms support for a clean ammonia project in Odisha and lists green hydrogen, solar and nuclear energy among areas to promote. India’s own programme is covered in the piece on the National Green Hydrogen Mission.

Navies, radar masts and the Quad

The ministry’s brief says the two countries are co-developing UNICORN radar antenna masts for the Indian Navy, the first joint development of defence equipment between them. A memorandum of implementation was signed in November 2024, and the July 2026 statement records an agreement in principle on the remaining technical details.

The navies exercise together often. JIMEX 24 took place at Yokosuka in June 2024 with INS Shivalik and the destroyer JS Yugiri. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force says JAIMEX25 ran from 16 to 18 October 2025 west of Kyushu, with INS Sahyadri, JS Asahi, JS Oumi and a submarine, covering anti-surface, anti-submarine and anti-air drills and refuelling at sea. INS Sahyadri and the helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga then joined Malabar 2025 near Guam from 10 to 18 November 2025, the 29th edition, with Australian and US forces. The US Navy says it was the sixth time all four navies took part. Tuput covers the Indian ships joining the fleet in the Navy’s nine commissionings of 2026.

The Quad, which also includes Australia and the United States, held its 11th foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on 26 May 2026, according to the ministry’s factsheet, and announced a critical minerals framework and a statement on Indo-Pacific energy security. Its last leaders’ summit was on 21 September 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware, and the July 2026 joint statement commits India and Japan to work for an early next one.

People between the two countries

About 59,000 Indians live in Japan, the ministry’s brief says, with a growing number of IT professionals and engineers and a long-established community of jewellery merchants from Gujarat and Maharashtra in Kobe. The August 2025 action plan aims at two-way exchange of 500,000 people over five years, including 50,000 skilled and semi-skilled workers from India to Japan. Visitors between the two countries passed 540,000 in 2025, the July 2026 statement says, and Japan’s Prime Minister invited India’s Prime Minister to Japan for the 17th Annual Summit in 2027.