A friendly indifference

Yet, there is no negative sentiment towards India among the Japanese, just a nervous wariness. For our part, we seem to regard Japan more favourably than we do most other developed countries. A public opinion poll conducted in 2000 by the New Delhi based Centre for Media Studies showed that 33 per cent of the Indians polled said that of all the developed countries they liked Japan the most. This compared with a 29 per cent vote in favour of the United States, 7 per cent each for Britain and France and an even lower 4 per cent for Russia.

Indians can get worked up about the US or Britain or Russia or China, but few Indians seem to get worked up about Japan. The CMS survey showed that 54 per cent of the persons polled thought Japan was a ‘peaceful’ and ‘beautiful’ country. The Japanese were perceived as ‘diligent’ (43 per cent) and ‘polite’ (30 per cent). As many as 51 per cent thought there were ‘cultural commonalities’ between India and Japan. Japan scored over the US in all categories of persons polled, namely, politicians, academics, professionals, government officials, business persons and media.

If Japan has such a favourable profile in India, how come the overall level of interaction between Indians and Japanese is so limited? Obviously, language is an issue. But what seems to keep the two Asian nations at arm’s length is their benign indifference to each other. It would be interesting to see what the results of a similar poll in Japan would show. Some may worry about India’s nuclear weapons, others about poverty and crowds. But most may have no views at all! India? What, where?

This lack of mutual interest between two of Asia’s three major nations explains the low profile character of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Japan. Look at the brouhaha in Japan about the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China. Compare it with the subdued tone of the celebrations in India, even though the embassy here tried to enliven things a bit with the sound of traditional Japanese drums that resonated in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave last week heralding the weeklong celebrations!

There have been many high level bilateral visits between Beijing and Tokyo, but much of the traffic between New Delhi and Tokyo has been uni-directional. All former Japanese prime ministers and as many as 2000 officials and politicians have reportedly visited China to commemorate 30 years of China-Japan diplomatic relations. By contrast, India was privileged to host one former prime minister who was honest enough to admit at an official reception in New Delhi that the Japanese ambassador to India had to persuade him to make the trip.

While official India was sore about Japan’s ‘measures’ against India following the nuclear tests in May 1998 and continues to be irritated by what is viewed in New Delhi as Japan’s kid glove treatment of Pakistan, non-official India has a benign and friendly attitude towards Japan. Indians have no hostility towards the Japanese, as the CMS poll shows. But they remain wary. This partly explains why so few Indian software engineers want to go to Japan, a workplace destination that comes after all the attractive English speaking countries followed by western Europe.

‘‘There are a hundred Indian restaurants now in Tokyo’’, Takashi Shimada, president of the Indo Business Centre and a visiting professor at the Center for South Asian Studies, Gifu Women’s University, tells me reassuringly. Shimada is in India trying to figure out why India-Japan business and economic relations are so lukewarm. He’s heading yet another study group on India to figure this out. There have been so many such groups from Japan in the past decade that members of such study groups must exceed all other Japanese tourists put together!

Is it politeness and an unwillingness to just say no to doing business in India that keeps Japan sending such study groups, or is it that the Japanese have still not figured India out? Shimada is polite. Japanese are interested in doing business in India, he reassures me. But, ‘there are problems’. Far from it, says an Indian diplomat who has an intimate understanding of Japan. ‘‘Japan finds doing business in India far too bothersome. There’s enough business to be done in China and south east Asia.’’

While Japan and China look at each other with concern they have also invested in a vibrant economic relationship which India does not as yet have with either. ‘‘The Chinese first lay out the red carpet and throw a party. They may quarrel later! Indians are more reticent.’’ says Shimada. Indians certainly come across as more aggressive and less hospitable even when they mean well. Therein lies the chasm waiting to be bridged.

Fifty years of diplomatic relations, centuries of cultural interaction and the more recent fascination of Indian economists, especially those close to the sangh parivar, with ‘Japan’s model of development’ have all not yet combined to lend depth and stability to a relationship of friendly indifference. Something big has to shake the two Asian giants out of their stupor and this low level equilibrium. Maybe China or North Korea will!

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