Japan’s infra push in South Asia

The country's investments in South Asia should be seen in the context of its projects in the ASEAN region and not just as an Indo-Pacific strategy.

The Bay of Bengal-Northeast India industrial value chain proposed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his visit to India last month is envisaged to enhance connectivity with Nepal and Bhutan too. This industrial value chain will be part of Japan’s Matarbari deep sea port investment in Bangladesh which could emerge as a regional connectivity hub. Japan has substantial investment in connectivity projects in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, but its infrastructure development initiatives in South Asia are comparatively recent. It is interesting to note that India has emerged as an important partner of Japan and has committed to joint investment in infrastructure projects—a new model of cooperation that started with the announcement of the Asia-Africa growth corridor in 2016.