Two-way exchange of 500,000 personnel in 5 Years, including 50,000 skilled personnel and potential talents from India to Japan
During the India-Japan Annual Summit of 2025, the Prime Ministers of India and Japan concurred on the need to foster deeper understanding between their citizens through visits and exchanges, and to find collaborative avenues for their human resources to co-create values and address respective national priorities.
Accordingly, the public and private sectors in India and Japan will endeavour to expand exchange of personnel to serve as a bridge between the two countries in the next generation. The two countries have set an aspirational target of the exchange of more than 500,000 personnel in both directions in the next five years, including 50,000 skilled personnel and potential talents from India to Japan, to create a new wave of people to people exchanges between India and Japan. Such efforts will be geared to the following objectives:
i. Attracting skilled personnel and potential talents from India to Japan by bridging respective perception gaps.
ii. Leveraging manpower complementarities for joint research, commercialization and value creation in both countries.
iii. Promoting Japanese language education in India, as well as bi-directional cultural, educational and grass-roots exchanges as investment for the future.
iv. Tapping economically beneficial complementarities for both Japan, facing a manpower shortage including IT personnel, and India, aiming to boost skill development and strengthen its manufacturing sector.
v. Strengthening points of contact between Japanese companies and Indian students.
Towards this, India and Japan jointly launch the following Action Plan, which will promote the efforts of various entities in government, industry, and academia to increase the number of skilled personnel and potential talents from India to Japan by 50,000 over the next five years.
(1) High-skilled personnel:
Enhancing a flow of Indian engineering professionals and academic personnel to Japan over the next 5 years, to be facilitated by
a) Special Mission of Japanese companies to Indian higher education institutions, aimed at raising awareness of employment opportunities in Japanese companies in targeted fields, including semiconductors and AI.
b) Conducting survey of employment of Indian professionals in Japan, identifying best practices/success stories, facilitating awareness and smoothening employment, leading to higher job placement and retention of Indian talent in Japan.
c) Promoting employment of English language assistant teachers from India in Japan under the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme.
(2) Students and Researchers:
Enhancing a flow of Indian students, scientists and researchers to Japan over the next 5 years, to be facilitated by
a) The bilateral High Level Policy Dialogue on Education between MEXT Japan and Ministry of Education of India, with added focus on measures to promote student exchanges between India and Japan and streamline post-education internship and employment of Indian talent in Japan.
b) Promoting the Inter-University Exchange Project by MEXT that supports Japanese universities for developing/conducting quality assured international student exchange programs with partner universities in India.
c) Visits of Indian students and researchers every year to Japan, under Japan Science & Technology Agency (JST)’s Sakura Science Exchange Program, encouraging female researchers to participate.
d) Continuous support through Japanese Government (MEXT) scholarship for Indian students studying in Japan.
e) Newly launched MIRAI-Setu programme of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, inviting Indian university and post-graduate students for visit and month-long internship training at Japanese companies as a catalyst for long-duration talent exchanges between the two countries.
f) International Youth Science Exchange Programme facilitated by Indian and Japanese ministries or agencies respectively, directly inviting high school students for short-duration exchanges in science & technology areas to Japanese institutions as a catalyst for long-duration scientific talent transfer between the two countries.
g) The LOTUS Programme (India-Japan Circulation of Talented Youths in Science Programme) which was newly introduced by Japan’s MEXT for young researchers, including post-graduate students, coming to Japan, to promote joint research between Indian and Japanese universities in cutting-edge fields. Additionally, METI will support the programme by facilitating matching with Japanese companies for those among them who are interested through internships, further enhancing industry-academia collaboration.
(3) Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) System/ Technical Intern Training Program (TITP):
Enhancing the flow of Indian personnel over 5 years under Japan’s SSW system, to be facilitated by
a) Striving to cover all 16 categories for SSW test in India.
b) Making efforts towards establishing new test centres for skill exams and Japanese language tests, covering the North, East, South, West and Northeast regions of India.
c) Providing supplementary pre-departure occupational language training for eligible Indian SSW personnel through Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana programme of India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
d) Including Japan as a destination country in India’s e-Migrate portal and creating a dedicated India-Japan corridor on India’s National Career Service platform for safe, legal and orderly recruitment of certified Indian personnel by Japanese employers.
e) Attracting Indian potential talents to Japan through TITP and the Employment for Skill Development (ESD) Program, once introduced.
(4) Skill development:
Leverage Japan’s managerial, industrial and manufacturing competence to upgrade skill levels in India and further produce Japan-ready workforce at scale, including through
a) Provision of subsidy towards the cost of endowed courses and vocational training programmes by Japanese companies in India and training of Indian personnel in Japan, under initiatives such as the India-Nippon Programme for Applied Competency Training (INPACT).
b) Promoting internship programmes and job matching events for Indian students and mid-career Indian skilled professionals through newly launched programme "India-Japan Talent Bridge” and other schemes.
c) Support of state governments in India to the relevant training and placement of their residents in coordination with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
d) Establishing Centres of Excellence in Yoga and Ayurveda, supervised by the AYUSH Cell of the Embassy of India and India’s Ministry of AYUSH, across Japan to promote awareness on traditional wellness and encourage their practice, particularly in the field of geriatric care.
(5) Language capability development:
Promote Japanese language education that is relevant to the skill sectors through
a) Improved access to practical Japanese language instruction at educational institutions in India through government initiatives and private sector efforts.
b) Subsidies towards the cost of language training provided by Japanese companies.
c) expanding the training opportunities for Japanese language teachers as well as to support to design efficient curricula and materials by dispatching specialists of Japanese-language education.
d) Starting NIHONGO Partners programme (long-term) in India, through which Japanese citizens are dispatched to secondary schools in order to support the local Japanese-Language teachers and students.
e) Considering scaling up and orienting the 360-hour Teachers’ Training Course in India conducted by Japan Foundation towards the needs of industry and skilled workers in line with demand.
f) Making efforts towards increasing the number and capacity of Japanese language test centres in India in line with demand for Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and the Japan Foundation Test for Basic Japanese (JFT-Basic).
(6) Enhancing Awareness, Support and Coordination:
Stakeholders will work actively to promote awareness to create a basis for self-sustenance of these exchanges beyond the next five years, through
a) Programs on employment opportunities in Japan and Japanese language education by Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), NSDC and other stakeholders through job fairs at universities, targeted advertisement campaigns and social media outreach.
b) Employer-employee match-making seminars organised by NSDC in Japanese prefectures.
c) On-arrival support, orientation workshops and grievance redressal in Indian Missions and Posts with the support of the Japanese government.
d) Creation of a website to consolidate and disseminate relevant information on promotion of mobility between the two countries across sectors.
e) Human resource and talent exchange through State-Prefecture partnerships, matching skill initiatives of Indian States with recruitment drives of companies located in concerned Prefectures in Japan.
f) Organizing a human resources exchange symposium to exchange views on stimulating personnel exchange between the two countries.
(7) Implementation and Follow-up measures:
The Ministry of External Affairs of India and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan will be in overall charge of the implementation of the above Action Plan and hold annual Joint Secretary/Director General-level consultation towards this end. They will also explore additional steps as necessary to promote human resource exchange and cooperation between the two countries. Existing dialogue mechanisms in education, skill, S&T, digital economy will also be utilized to complement efforts.
