This is the India Year in Japan 2007 and the Japan Year in India 2007. It is a significant time for every enterprise interested in the flow of information, goods and people between the two countries.
This is also the 54th year of Chandru G. Advani's living in Japan. Now nearly 83 years of age, Advani is one of the few old-time Indian residents still in Yokohama. He is the third generation of his family that began putting down roots here when his grandfather arrived in 1910.
"My father followed my grandfather to Yokohama in 1917," Advani said. "He managed a branch of his father's business. At that time there were about 100 Indian firms represented in Yokohama. Japan was exporting silk to India, and Indian traders had been active here for many years. My father returned to the family home in Sindh that was then still in India. After partition, that region became part of Pakistan."