Eyeing a new digital society where a variety of data will be better utilized for people’s lives and industrial activities, Japan and India have stepped up cooperation in the area of digital infrastructure.
The two countries are particularly focusing on sharing information on the development of digital infrastructure to improve architecture design, according to a joint statement recently released by the Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan, the Japan External Trade Organization, and the Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable.
Well-designed digital social infrastructure is expected to play a significant role in enhancing the efficiencies of societal services and solving social issues in numerous countries as society enters the era of the internet of things, the statement said.
As a first step in cooperation, the agencies will facilitate a joint study on how such digital infrastructure can be used in the two countries and elsewhere.
The cooperation in digital infrastructure is consistent with the Japan-India Digital Partnership launched in October 2018 between the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Under the partnership, Japan and India agreed to establish a startup hub in Bengaluru, and to cooperate in cybersecurity and the dissemination of next-generation networks.
The two have been enhancing cooperation on a wide range of issues, such as the strategic depth of bilateral security and defense cooperation, with both sharing a vision of a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region.
Leaders of the two countries have been frequently engaging in reciprocal visits lately, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently postponed a three-day visit to India, originally scheduled for December, due to local security concerns deriving from recent protests over a citizenship bill.
