It’s time for India, Japan to tango

Japan’s ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu did well to highlight three critical issues in a recent article in an Indian newspaper — that Japan and India needed to “continue to team up”, that the “partnership between Japan and India carries increasing weight for the peace and prosperity of a wider region”, and that the two countries “will be true partners on the global stage”. Japan’s corporations, the Zaibatsu, the Kambatsu, resemble the “sab ka saath, sab ka vikas” development, that has been there for more than 150 years since the beginning of the Meiji era of the mid-19th century. Being one of the pioneer aircraft-carrier navies, with a tradition going back almost a century, India could consider actively exploring new avenues of technology development and effective end-use technology to meet the growing challenge posed by the Chinese PLA Navy which is floating, poaching and sniffing all around the Indian Ocean; and at times venturing too close to India’s core area of interest. Japan, on the other hand, has already come up with its Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin “technology demonstrator” twin-engine fighter, as reported by Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft 2018-2019: “potential stealth fighter; official launch announced 2007.” The “photo of a putative twin-jet configuration showed a design broadly similar to the US F-22 Raptor but dimensionally closer to Saab Gripen.” It is understood that Japan focused its efforts towards the development of the “advanced technology demonstrator” as a “step towards the production type for Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force” only after the United States refused to export its F-22.