2019-08-11_Business_Today

ndia’s economic engagement with the world may have begun in

right earnest after the liberalisation of the economy in 1991 but the

country’s ties with Japan go further back. India is considered a dif-

ficult market for outsiders but in consumer centric sectors like au-

tomobiles and durables, Japanese companies have always found re-

markable success — Maruti Suzuki, the country’s leading car maker,

along with Honda, Toyota and Yamaha in automobiles; and Pana-

sonic, Sony, Daikin, Hitachi, Toshiba and Canon in consumer du-

rables are prime examples.

As of October 2018, the number of Japanese establishments in

India was 5,102, a number that increased by 5 per cent over 2017.

Similarly, there were 1,441 Japanese companies operating in India,

which also grew 5 per cent during the year. Over a longer 12-year pe-

riod, since 2006, the number of Japanese companies has increased

by an average of 16 per cent every year. The rising interest of the Japa-

nese corporate sector in India can be attributed to multiple reasons,

including the growing proximity between Japanese Premier Shinzo

Abe’s and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governments, and

increased spending by Japanese venture capital funds in the Indian

start-up story.

“SoftBank helped change the perception of investment in In-

dian start-ups. Because of proximity, Japanese investors are always

looking at the South-East Asia market. The US and China (in terms

of start-ups) are sometimes difficult,”

says Yuki Kawamura, Principal, AET

Fund (Akatsuki Entertainment Tech-

nology Fund). “India was de-prioritised

compared to those markets. Because of

SoftBank’s exit (from Flipkart, where it

made close to $2.3 billion on an invest-

ment of $1.5 billion), and relationships of

our prime ministers, in the last couple of

years, investors have started to focus (on

India) as an attractive market,” he adds.

With its young demography and ris-

ing per capita income, India’s high poten-

tial domestic market is a strong magnet.

“It is only fitting that the two nations

Japanese firms

have generally

cracked

the code of

working in

India’s huge

domestic

market, but

the extent of

success varies.

$2.97

BILLION

FDI INFLOW FROM

JAPAN IN INDIA IN

2018/19, WHICH

MAKES JAPAN THE

FIFTH LARGEST

INVESTOR IN INDIA

DURING THE YEAR

By SUMANT BANERJI
Photograph by SHEKHAR GHOSH

Maruti plant at

Manesar in Haryana

August 11I 2019 I BUSINESS TODAYI 91