With royal visit, Japan focuses on people-to-people contact

New Delhi: The visit by Japan Emperor Akihito to India is being considered as a crucial one as it brings the partnership between the two countries under the spotlight.

The visit comes after more than five decades when the royal couple visited India as crown prince and princess. On Monday, they met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Even though no political treaties have been signed or Memorandums of Understanding agreed upon, the visit is significant. Interestingly, it comes at a time when relations between Japan and China are tense.

Sakutaro Tanino, former ambassador to India and currently a Counsellor at the Japan-China friendship centre in Tokyo insists that the visit is not aimed at countering China but adds, "It is an immediate need for both China and Japan to come up with a good mechanism to deal with crisis on East China Sea, to deal with the possible crisis."

The relationship between China and Japan has been strained, good economics presented the two a reason to come together.

Relationship between Japan and China picked up speed only after the Emperor, loved and revered in Japan, visited the country.

India is hoping for the same.  

Tanino says the challenges are huge. In comparison to Sino-Japan, the engagement between India and Japan is miniscule. "23 flights fly from Japan to India in a week, whereas the number is 527 when it comes to China. Also, there are 573 Indian students in Japan, whereas the Chinese students are numbered 87,000. We shouldn't be satisfied with this."

But Japan is planning to invite more Indian students and prepare their universities to be able to teach them in English, keeping in mind Japan's ageing population, and India's demographic dividend.

Shying away from calling this a political visit, the Japanese diplomats were clear about their country's keenness in increasing people-to-people contact with India.

Diplomats accompanying the royal couple say that the land of Buddha and Himalayas can be a great destination for Japanese tourists but cleanliness is an issue. "We don't want too much but cleanliness... toilets should be clean."

Even though India has Japan's attention, does it have what it takes to challenge China's rise? There is a lot of room for improvement and for balance of power in the region, India can begin by increasing people to people contact, by inviting more Japanese tourists. But in order to do that, India needs to solve a very domestic problem that of sanitation.

Famous for its temples and infamous for its toilets, Incredible India's sanitation crisis is impacting not just the health of Indians but also India's image abroad.