NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Tokyo on Friday for the India-Japan Financial Discussion board, Modi Archive, which narrates his life via archival information, recalled his first go to to the nation in 2007, when he was Gujarat chief minister.In April 2007, PM Modi had launched into a six-day go to to Japan, main a 40-member delegation of bureaucrats and trade leaders. His mission: to showcase Gujarat as India’s gateway for funding in trade, infrastructure, and innovation.
Touring via Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kobe, PM Modi courted company heavyweights together with Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Suzuki, Toshiba, Nippon Metal, and Tsuneshi Shipbuilding. The journey resulted in MoUs between JETRO (Japan Exterior Commerce Group) and Gujarat’s Industries Division.“Ports, logistics, infrastructure and human useful resource growth have been on the desk on the Japan Chambers of Commerce and Industries and Indo-Japan Friendship Discussion board, with Gujarat pitching itself because the pure entry level for Japan into India’s progress story,” wrote Modi Archives on X.A key spotlight was PM Modi’s assembly with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the place the 2 leaders mentioned the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Hall (DMIC). PM Modi offered Abe with a CD on Gujarat’s Buddhist heritage and a handwoven tribal scarf, inviting him to go to the state. In return, Abe assured Japan’s full assist for Gujarat’s phase of the DMIC, cementing a basis for deeper Indo-Japan financial and cultural ties.“Maybe probably the most iconic second of the go to got here when he stepped into the cockpit of a Japanese Bullet Prepare. What if such high-speed rail reworked Indian connectivity? That seed of an thought in 2007 would blossom years later into the Mumbai–Ahmedabad Bullet Prepare undertaking, the flagship of Indo-Japanese cooperation.In April 2007, PM Modi walked via Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, pausing on the Prayer of the Fountain and the Suzuki Miekichi Literary Monument. Later in Kobe, he joined a cultural programme at The India Membership, a historic hub for the Indian diaspora since 1904. That go to planted the seeds of deeper enterprise and cultural ties between Gujarat and Japan. By July 2012, PM Modi returned on a a lot bigger stage. Invited formally by the Authorities of Japan for a five-day tour (22–27 July), he was accorded a Cupboard-rank reception — an honour not often prolonged to a state chief. It was the sixtieth anniversary of India–Japan diplomatic ties, and PM Modi’s packed itinerary lined 44 engagements throughout Tokyo, Hamamatsu, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. PM Modi had met key Japanese ministers — Koichiro Gemba (International Affairs), Yukio Edano (Commerce & Trade), Yuchiro Hata (Infrastructure & Transport), and Deputy PM Katsuya Okada — together with governors Hideaki Omura of Aichi and Toshizo Ido of Hyogo. At JETRO’s funding seminars, he pitched Gujarat as an investor-friendly, power-surplus state, emphasizing ports, logistics, and industrial corridors. Enterprise diplomacy was central: PM Modi had held in depth conferences with company leaders, together with a landmark session with Osamu Suzuki, Chairman of Suzuki Motors. Touring amenities and sharing lunch with him, Modi pitched Gujarat as Asia’s subsequent automotive hub. Spherical-tables at Mizuho Company Financial institution and the Imperial Lodge deepened company ties additional. Infrastructure was one other spotlight. Using the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Hamamatsu, PM Modi explored prospects for high-speed rail and metro tasks in Gujarat, specializing in Japan’s mannequin of pace, effectivity, and security. At Kobe Port, he studied maritime methods that would information Gujarat’s personal port enlargement, reaffirming the state’s centrality within the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Hall (DMIC). Cultural outreach balanced the diplomacy. PM Modi had addressed the Gujarat Samaj of Japan, met members of the India Centre Basis, and was honoured at a reception hosted by HCCI Chairman Mimuro. At Kobe’s India Membership, he engaged with the diaspora and even took a symbolic boat trip on the port.