The land of rising sun, Japan is having a shortage of IT professionals lately and to fulfill the requirement, it will be focussing on India’s IT talent to get prepared for the predicted “Internet of Things” ecosystem. In April, a Tokyo Technology Initiative event was held at Bengaluru in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, where scholars, policymakers, and officials from both Japan and India discussed the bilateral potential collaboration in the industry. The event was attended by the 90 Japanese companies, government officials, scholars and a few IT start-ups of India from various sectors, including medical, transportation, agriculture, and Fintech. The event was organized by the Tokyo- based Sasakawa peace Foundation and Delhi–based Carnegie India. The event was held to make a strong relationship between India and Japan. The main focus of the event is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, technologies and best practices between the two nations.

“Japan and India could be a good match to drive efforts to anticipate an internet of things society, where many things are connected to the internet,” said Tatsuya Terazawa, Director General of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry’s Commerce and Information Policy Bureau. To which he added, manufacturing of the high-quality electronics products is Japan’s strength, but the nation doesn’t have enough IT professionals to underpin software development for Internet of Things technologies. On the other hand, India’s strength lies in the rapid growth of its IT start-ups while its hardware production is not as strong as that of Japan. Collaboration between the two nations will create a strong industrial foundation that can compete with IT behemoths like China.

Commenting to this R.K. Misra, who chaired the panel discussion, said that for India, Japan can be seen as an important investor that has maintained a strong diplomatic relationship for a long time. According to 2016 ministry survey, it was estimated that Japan was short of 171,000 IT professional in 2015 and the number will go to 790,0000 by the end of 2030. Another survey conducted by IT promotion Agency Japan showed that 87 percent of 1,221 domestic IT companies surveyed in fiscal 2016 were found deficient in IT Staff. If the collaboration goes as planned, it could create great opportunities for both the nations and also create new jobs for the IT professionals, which is also another issue for India.