This year, in Phase II of the project, a grant will be provided to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to arrange visits of young Indian parliamentarians to Japan. Building on results from Phase I (2005-2007), SPF aims to deepen understanding between Japan and India through exchange between promising young parliamentarians from India and Japan.
Implementation Plan
In the final year of the three-year project, the following activities will be carried out.

In the final year of the three-year project, the following activities will be carried out.

• Visit of Indian parliamentarians to Japan
  
  • (1) Selection of parliamentarians to visit Japan
    Suitable young nonpartisan Indian parliamentarians with few or no experience in Japan, will be selected from various parties and constituencies to form a mult-party delegation. Approximately five individuals will be selected per visit, and the selection work will be outsourced to the grantee, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
  • (2) Details of the Japan visit program
    The program will be conducted twice this year, in spring and autumn. In last year's program, the project participants visited a number of places of their interests, namely, companies with operations in India, Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and the city of Hiroshima. This year also, the sites to be visited will be chosen on the basis of a theme of interest that will be decided in close consultation with CII.
• Preparation and follow-up activities in India
  
  • (1)The project will be introduced at the annual meeting of CII, as well as in the CII newsletter and homepage, to publicize the project widely in India. As this is the final year of the project, SPF will attempt to create a pro-Japan network between parliamentarians who have taken part in the project, and conduct various follow-up activities to this end.
  • (2) Announcement of project results
    As a means to form a pro-Japan group of parliamentarians in India and to advance India-Japan dialogue, the results of the project will be publicized throughout India with the cooperation of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

For the one week period between October 16 to 22, 2011, a five member multi-party delegation headed by Mabel Rebello from the Indian federal parliament visited Japan. The group took part in an enthusiastic exchange with various individuals from the financial world, including legislatory groups from the National Diet working on Indo-Japan friendship, members of the majority and minority parties, and various companies. Through these activities, the visiting party were looking to strengthen systems for Japan-India cooperation, build new partnerships, and promote mutual understanding between the two countries.

At the request of the Indian parlimentarians, the visit this time included inspections of facilities employing technologies related to employment and food processing. In rapidly economically developing India, which is experiencing rapid economic development, such technologies are of particular concern as means to secure outstanding human resources for the manufacturing industry and to prolong the shelf life of food products in a country where underdeveloped infrastructure causes difficulties in rapid distrubution of goods. To observe vocational training in practice, the group visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Vocational Skills Development Center in Itabashi, central Tokyo. The group also paid a call on the Nagoya headquarter of the Toyota Motor Corporation, which has operations in India, and one of the Yakult company in Kyoto. In addition to hearing about the activities of the companies, they observed first hand the production lines at the company factories.

*List of Indian parlimentarians

Project results

In 2011, the project for exchange with Indian parliamentarians was temporarily stopped in order to assess the results up to that point. The project contributed to bilateral relations between Japan and India in three ways, by: (1) increasing the number of pro-Japan parliamentarians in India, (2) building bilateral political networks, and (3) promoting exchange with the economic sector in Japan.

In the seven year period between 2004 and 2011, a total of 35 Indian parliamentarians (7 from the upper house, 28 from the lower house) visited Japan. Looking at the different political parties, the Indian National Congress (INC) sent the most (15), with the second highest number coming from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who sent eight parliamentarians. Among those who visited Japan were the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Railways, and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, as well as the prime minister of Uttar Pradesh.

For details, please see the document on Indian parliamentarians who have visited Japan.