3 min readNew Delhi, TokyoAug 27, 2026 08:21 AM IST
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that Japan is one of India’s most strategic partners and India is working to expand the scope, scale and extent of the engagement.
The statement came at a time when India and Japan are expected to review their 2011 trade deals. New Delhi is concerned over a widening trade deficit with Tokyo.
Japan has announced to invest 10 trillion yen (about Rs 7 lakh crore) in India over one decade. He said that India has received about Rs one lakh crore in investments from that target in about 10 months.
“We haven’t got down to work on terms of reference, but I think once the teams have discussed, we will be open to expanding the scope, scale and the extent of the engagement because Japan today is one of our most strategic partners,” he added.
Terms of Reference (ToR), in trade parlance, set the roadmap, boundaries, and rules for trade talks between countries.
The commerce ministry is also supporting industry and exporters in registering their products to meet regulatory requirements, the minister said, adding that under the export promotion mission scheme, the ministry will facilitate and support micro and small businesses in undertaking expensive registrations such as the European Union’s registering chemicals in the EU (REACH) regulations for chemicals.
“For the pharma industry, I have also requested to start registrations all across the world…they should all look at registering all across the world, including Japan,” he said.
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The two-way commerce between the two countries grew 9.18% to $27.47 billion in 2025-26 from $25.16 billion in 2024-25.
The trade deficit between the countries increased to $15.4 billion in the last fiscal year from $12.66 billion in 2024-25. It was $12.53 billion in 2023-24 and $11 billion in 2022-23.
He, however, said that “we also have to see what kinds of goods we are importing…which are the things we need, like equipment…which help us in promoting economic activities”.
The minister said he has asked different industries to submit challenges they are facing in exporting goods to Japan.
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“Many times these challenges are more about process and language and time, and our mission stands ready to support all sectors,” he said.
Earlier, in the day while addressing a round table on start ups which was attended by start ups from India and investors from Japan, Goyal called for four areas of focus — deeptech capital corridor for early-stage funding, leveraging India’s design-to-deployment ecosystem, building a two-way innovation bridge across universities and industry, and launching an India-Japan Shark Tank-style pitching series.
