Japan wants to boost bilateral ties with India

Japan wants to boost bilateral ties with India
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, MAY 15: Japan today said it was eager to bolster bilateral partnership in business and other fields with India setting aside the differences between the two countries on the Nuclear issue.

"We do not want our bilateral relationship with India to depreciate due to a single issue - Nuclear issue," Japanese Counsellor to India Ichiro Ogasawara said, while releasing the report of the first-ever opinion poll conducted by Japanese Government in India on New Delhi's public perceptions of Tokyo.

Conceeding that the nuclear tests conducted by India had its negative impact on the Indo-Japan relations, Ogasawara said the Japanese Government realised the need for forging more partnership in the field of social security, issues of strategic importance, sea piracy and also on business and economic sphere.

"The past two years, after India had conducted nuclear tests have been a difficult period for Indo-Japan relations but we realise the importance of enhanced ties in social security, strategic importance, sea piracy, business and commerce," he said.

Highlighting the major findings of the opinion poll,conducted by Centre for Media Studies (CMS) on behalf of the Japanese Government, he said the findings of the survey will be taken note of in the long term policy of the Japanese Government.

Japanese Government has conducted a similar opinion poll in Pakistan, but the report of which has not yet been made public, he said.

In all about 1,120 respondents were interviewed across India during the poll conducted between February 21 and March 15, 2000. The respondents belonged to six categories -- Political functionaries, Academics, Professionals, Big Trade/Retailers, Media and Senior Government Officers, Ogasawara said.

To a question whether Japan's act of freezing assitance after India conducted nuclear tests was justified, a sizeable 35 per cent respondents had termed it 'not justified', while a meagre nine per cent backed the same.

To a related question whether there was any change in the attitude of people towards Japan because of the freeze of aid, 66 per cent of the respondents replied in the negative, while 15 per cent said yes and 19 per cent did not reply.

While 86 per cent of the respondents welcomed Japanese industry in India and believed that Indo-Japan relations will improve despite the Pokharan tests, 31 per cent of the respondents expressed their keenness to visit Japan.

Most of the respondents appreciated Japan's contribution to some extent in the development of Asian region and termed Japan as trustworthy or rather trustworthy friend of India.

While a whopping 86 per cent of the respondents believed Japan to be a trustworthy friend of India, 77 per cent of the respondents acknowledged Japan's contribution to the development of Asia region.

On the business sphere, 47 per cent of the respondents of the opinion poll wanted Japan's assistance to India in the Electricity sector, followed by 27 per cent in infrastructure sector, 12 per cent in industries and 4 per cent in urban facilities.

Forty-eight per cent of the respondents felt that Japan was not importing enough products from India, while 18 per cent felt that Japan was hardly importing any product from India and 11 felt there was sufficient import of Indian products in Japan.

This opinion poll was the first-ever poll conducted by Japan in India even as it conducted opinion polls from time to time in the United States.

The opinion poll was conducted in Lucknow, Delhi,Jallandhar and Chandigarh (North zone), Calcutta (East Zone), Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (West Zone) and Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Coimbatore (South Zone).