Japan-India bilateral ties take a step forward
The inauguration ceremony of the Japanese Language Teachers' Training Centre was held at Jawaharlal Nehru University on July 23.
The event was attended by Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador (Japan); Tomoyuki Sakurai, Executive Vice President of Japan Foundation(Japan) along with the Indian dignitaries like General V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs and Professor M Jagadesh Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of JNU among others.
Looking back at the Japan-India summit meeting held in September 2017, Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister Modi decided to train 1,000 teachers and launch Japanese language certificate courses at 100 higher educational institutions in India, in the next five years.
The establishment of the Japanese Language Teachers' Training Centre is the first major outcome of our bilateral collaboration to achieve the target set by the two Prime Ministers.
Activities at the Japanese Language Teachers' Training Centre will be steered jointly by MEA and Embassy of Japan with the support of the Japan Foundation.
The Centre started its first training course on the same day. The first batch of students also attended the inauguration. They will be taking a three- month course till October.
At the ceremony, Ambassador Hiramatsu expressed his appreciation for the efforts made by all the authorities concerned, both in India and Japan and mentioned the importance of Japanese language promotion for Japan towards supporting India's "Make in India" initiative.
"This wonderful project is the first concrete result of the great collaboration between Japan and India, initiated by our two prime ministers to expand Japanese language education in India," he said.
He further added stating, "The number of Japanese companies is increasing every year, and is now about four times the number as 10 years ago. These companies require Indians who can speak Japanese, in order to act as bridges between their Indian subsidiaries and headquarters in Japan."
"The number of Indians who are interested in Japan and want to learn the Japanese language is steadily increasing. But the number of Japanese language teachers is still too small vis-Ã -vis the number of potential learners. The centre will certainly contribute to addressing this reality."
Sakurai said, "I am expecting excellent Japanese language teachers are trained through this project, and many Japanese language courses will start at higher institutes in India."
V K Singh said, "Japan is an important partner of India. Development of Japanese in India enhances people to people contacts and helps many ventures that will come in India."
