New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) A joint seminar held in Tokyo brought together Japanese policymakers, industry leaders and Indian officials to discuss long‑term cooperation of both countries on skilled workforce mobility and human resource development, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The event was organised by the Embassy of India in Japan, and ASEAN ONE Co. Ltd, Japan, which drew 250 representatives from leading Japanese companies, academic institutions and workforce mobility stakeholders to explore structured engagement with India’s skilling ecosystem, the statement from the Ministry of Labour & Employment said.

Both sides discussed forward-looking measures such as expanding Japanese language and testing centres in India and strengthening collaboration between Japanese employers and Indian skilling institutions.

Further, improving demand visibility from Japan, promoting skill-recognition and occupational alignment, and building trusted workforce mobility pathways through closer institutional cooperation were also discussed.

Toshiaki Nishikawa, Chairman & CEO, ASEAN GROUP Co. Ltd., expressed optimism about future workforce cooperation and conveyed his enthusiasm for realising a Japan–India personnel exchange programme involving 50,000 people over the next 10 years.

Vandana Gurnani, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, highlighted India’s growing role as a trusted global workforce partner and the government’s commitment to ethical, scalable international labour mobility pathways.

She emphasised that India’s demographic strength, robust skilling ecosystem and institutional reforms position the country as a reliable source of skilled manpower for global economies, including Japan.

She also elaborated on India’s large-scale workforce preparation ecosystem, supported by higher education institutions, industrial training institutes, apprenticeship systems, digital skilling platforms and career services.

The secretary stressed the need to strengthen Japanese language readiness, sector-specific skilling, testing infrastructure, skill mapping, occupational alignment, structured demand aggregation, ethical recruitment practices and institutional collaboration between India and Japan, the statement noted.

Participants recognised strong potential for India–Japan cooperation across sectors such as manufacturing, caregiving, construction, automobile maintenance, hospitality, agriculture, IT and digital services, and emerging green economy sectors.

Discussions also underlined the importance of digital public infrastructure and employment facilitation systems in creating transparent and scalable workforce mobility pathways.

—IANS

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