Nuclear deal between India and Japan opens up new vistas of cooperation

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting India nearly two months after operationalisation of the historic Indo-Japan civil nuclear deal, which has added a new dimension to bilateral ties that could scarcely be imagined in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima tragedy.

The journey traversed by the two nations over the past six years reflects growing confidence in each other and depth of the strategic partnership.

Japan and India signed a memorandum of understanding for civil nuclear cooperation in December 2015, when Abe was in Delhi for the annual bilateral summit, overcoming reservations over India’s status as a nation which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This was transformed into a deal in November last year when PM Narendra Modi was in Tokyo for the summit.

Subsequently the Japanese government got approval from the Diet (parliament) for the nuclear deal with India.The landmark deal came into force in July this year with the completion of necessary formalities in both countries. This will enable Japan to export nuclear power plant technology as well as provide finance for nuclear power plants in India.

Besides, Japan will assist India in nuclear waste management and may undertake joint manufacture of nuclear power plant components under Make in India initiative, people familiar with the development told ET. Growing civil nuclear ties will be highlighted during Abe’s trip as one of the key elements of Indo-Japan strategic partnership, they said.

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba, which owns US-based Westinghouse, will have a major role when the US nuclear firm supplies technology for the set of six reactors in Andhra Pradesh following its bankruptcy.

Westinghouse, which was to set up six nuclear reactors in Andhra Pradesh, will supply technology while construction will be undertaken by an Indian partner. This was discussed as a way out during Modi’s visit to Washington, D.C. for ensuring the presence of Westinghouse in India following the troubles the company faced over bankruptcy.

The finance for the project from the US Exim Bank remains intact and the initiative may kick-start only in 2018. Westinghouse, which was acquired by Japanese conglomerate Toshiba in 2006 for $5.4 billion, had filed for bankruptcy in March this year. HitachiBSE 2.80 %, another Japanese firm, has a stake in GE, which is also proposed to set up reactors in India.
ET View: Enhance areas of partnership

The partnership in space, like that on the African continent, will give a new dimension to the longstanding India-Japan ties. It makes sense for India to partner with Japan to focus such opportunities in areas where the two countries have complementary strengths. The space partnership will serve as another plank in the effort to present a counter to Beijing. For New Delhi, it is also a spring board for a bigger role in the global arena. India must seize this opportunity with a clear plan.

India, Japan Ink 15 Agreements Including Aviation, Trade and Science

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The pact in the area of disaster risk management, entered into between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan, aims to cooperate and collaborate in the field of disaster risk reduction, an official statement said

India and Japan on Wednesday signed 15 deals in key areas, including civil aviation, trade, science and technology, and skill development.

The pact in the area of disaster risk management, entered into between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan, aims to cooperate and collaborate in the field of disaster risk reduction, an official statement said.

It said the understanding in the field of skill development looks to further strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation in the field of Japanese language education in India.

The one titled ‘India-Japan Investment Promotion Road Map’ envisages enhanced Japanese investments in India while the ‘Japan-India special programme for Make In India’ is on bilateral cooperation towards infrastructure development in the Mandal Bechraj-Khoraj region in Gujarat.

There was exchange of RoD (Record of Discussions) on civil aviation under which Indian and Japanese carriers can now mount unlimited number of flights to selected cities in both countries.

There was an agreement to establish a joint exchange programme to identify and foster talented young scientists from both countries to collaborate in the field of theoretical biology.

The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the Department of Biotechnology and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Science & Technology (AIST) seeks to promote research collaboration between these institutions in the field of life sciences and biotech, the statement said.

The India Japan Act East Forum, among the agreements signed, seeks to enhance connectivity and promote developmental projects in India’s North Eastern region in an efficient and effective manner, it said.

There were four agreements in the field of sports, including one to facilitate and deepen international education cooperation and exchanges between both Sports Authority of India and Nippon Sport Science University, Japan.

Source: NDTV

Japan logs biggest current account surplus since 2007

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Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are scheduled to meet for talks later this week.

Japan attained its second-biggest current account surplus on record in 2016, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, just days before the US and Japanese leaders meet for talks with trade surpluses and currency valuations expected to be high on the agenda.

The 20.6 trillion yen ($183.63 billion) surplus reflected the trade balance swinging into surplus on cheaper oil, rising foreign tourists arrivals creating a record travel surplus, and hefty foreign income from overseas investments.

Trade surpluses and currency valuations are in focus as US President Donald Trump pursues an “America First” campaign in which he has accused big exporters such China, Germany and Japan of deliberately weakening their currencies to gain a competitive advantage.

For the whole of 2016, Japan posted a trade surplus of 6.8 trillion yen ($59.95 billion) with the United States, down 4.6 percent from 2015, with U.S.-bound car shipments rising for a second straight year, the Ministry of Finance said.

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are scheduled to meet for talks later this week. Trump said he and Abe would play a round of golf, with Abe as his partner in the game, rather than a competitor.

Wednesday’s data showed the vast bulk of Japan’s current account surplus was generated by Japanese direct and portfolio investment abroad, accounting for 18.1 trillion yen of the 20.6 trillion current account surplus for 2016.

The trade surplus was 5.6 trillion yen in 2016, from the 630 billion yen deficit seen in 2015, earned in part as declining oil prices curbed import costs.

The travel balance logged a record 1.3 trillion yen surplus last year as a record number of foreign tourist visits took Japan’s services deficit to the smallest on record.

Japan’s current account surplus was 1.11 trillion yen in December, a seventh straight month of annual increases, the ministry data showed.

That compared with economists’ median forecast for a surplus of 1.29 trillion yen seen in a Reuters poll.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/57034126.cms

Japan plans world’s fastest supercomputer

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Presently, Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer, remains the world’s most powerful computer.

Japan plans to build the world’s fastest-known supercomputer in a bid to arm the country’s manufacturers with a platform for research that could help them develop and improve driverless cars, robotics and medical diagnostics.

The ministry of economy, trade and industry will spend 19.5 billion yen ($173 million) on the previously unreported project, a budget breakdown shows, as part of a government policy to get back Japan’s mojo in the world of technology. The country has lost its edge in many electronic fields amid intensifying competition from South Korea and China, home to the world’s current best-performing machine.

In a move that is expected to vault Japan to the top of the supercomputing heap, its engineers will be tasked with building a machine that can make 130 quadrillion calculations per second—or 130 petaflops in scientific parlance—as early as next year, sources involved in the project told Reuters.

At that speed, Japan’s computer would be ahead of China’s Sunway Taihulight that is capable of 93 petaflops. “As far as we know, there is nothing out there that is as fast,” said Satoshi Sekiguchi, a director general at Japan’s ‎National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, where the computer will be built.

The push to return to the vanguard comes at a time of growing nostalgia for the heyday of Japan’s technological prowess, which has dwindled since China overtook it as the world’s second-biggest economy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for companies, bureaucrats and the political class to work more closely together so Japan can win in robotics, batteries, renewable energy and other new and growing markets.

Deep learning

In the area of supercomputing, Japan’s aim is to use ultra-fast calculations to accelerate advances in artificial intelligence (AI), such as “deep learning” technology that works off algorithms which mimic the human brain’s neural pathways, to help computers perform new tasks and analyze scores of data.

Recent achievements in this area have come from Google’s DeepMind AI program, AlphaGo, which in March beat South Korean professional Lee Seedol in the ancient board game of Go.

Applications include helping companies improve driverless vehicles by allowing them to analyze huge troves of visual traffic data, or it could help factories improve automation. China uses the Sunway Taihulight for weather forecasting, pharmaceutical research, industrial design, among other things.

Japan’s new supercomputer could help tap medical records to develop new services and applications, Sekiguchi said. The supercomputer will be made available for a fee to Japan’s corporations, who now outsource data crunching to foreign firms such as Google and Microsoft, Sekiguchi and others involved in the project said.

The new computer has been dubbed ABCI, an acronym for AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure. Bidding for the project has begun and will close on 8 December. Fujitsu Ltd, the builder of the fastest Japanese supercomputer to date—the Oakforest-PACS, capable of 13.6 petaflops, declined to say if it would bid for the project. The company has, however, said it is keen to be involved in supercomputer development.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Science/tvHE1Qa3EshJdFSkiqCoxK/Japan-plans-worlds-fastest-supercomputer.html

PM Narendra Modi, Shinzo Abe sign landmark India-Japan Civil Nuclear Deal

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today met with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and signed the Civil Nuclear Deal between India and Japan. PM Narendra Modi, after signing the deal said, “Our strategic partnership is not only for the good & security of our own societies. It also brings peace, stability & balance to region.” PM Modi added, “I wish to thank Prime Minister Abe for the support extended for India’s membership  of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.”

This move comes after six years of negotiation. After the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster, the nuclear deal negotiations were halted due to political resistance in Japan.

After many years, the deal was signed today on November 11. This nuclear treaty will bring Japan’s export nuclear technology to our country, and it will be a necessary step towards India’s nuclear deals with the US, France and other countries.

Soon after hitting the demonetization masterstroke in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for his second visit to Japan in order to seal the civilian nuclear deal between the two countries. This is Modi’s fourth visit to Japan over the last decade (twice as PM and twice as Gujrat Chief Minister).

Soon after landing in Japan, Modi tweeted, “Reached Japan. Looking forward to fruitful deliberations that will boost economic and cultural ties between India and Japan.”

Statement from the Press:

Commenting on the issue, a top Japanese government official said, “Terrorism, which has been an outlier subject in Japan’s national discourse, was brought closer home in July, when seven of our own — five men and two women, who were associated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency — were killed in a terrorist attack in Dhaka.

Both the countries are expected to sign around 10 different agreements which highlight issues like skill development, culture etc. Nevertheless, the prime focus of this meet was the possible signing of the civilian nuclear deal that was initiated in June 2010 but got stuck after the Fukushima disaster in December 2015.

Commenting on the possible signing of the deal, Kumao Kaneko, a former Japanese diplomat and negotiator on nuclear issues, said that the NTP has been a treaty of “convenience and expediency”. Though India adheres to NPT principles, but has not inked the treaty yet. By signing the agreement, Japan is doing the correct thing, however, the Abe government will have to work hard in the Diet (Japan’s parliament) to get the naysayers on board.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/pm-narendra-modi-shinzo-abe-sign-india-japan-civil-nuclear-deal/443823/

Japan has 17th straight Current-Account Surplus in November

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A cargo ship is seen behind Japan's national flag at an industrial port in Tokyo March 8, 2012.Japan posted a current account surplus for the 17th consecutive month in November, providing support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to boost the world’s third-largest economy.

The excess in the widest measure of the nation’s trade was 1.14 trillion yen ($9.7 billion) in November, up from 440.2 yen billion a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday in Tokyo. The median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a surplus of 895 billion yen.

The surplus was supported by a rise in income from investments abroad by Japanese companies as well as a gain in services, which came with an influx of tourists after the yen weakened. The boost helps an economy that has been hurt by a slowdown in exports including to China, Japan’s biggest trading partner.

“The wider current account surplus bodes well for Japan’s economy,” said Junko Nishioka, chief economist for Japan at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. in Tokyo. “Going forward, Japan will likely hold onto the surplus trend.”

Declining oil prices and recent gains in the yen, which may push down import prices and improve the trade balance, is expected to help Japan maintain the current-account surplus in coming months, Nishioka said.

The primary income surplus was 1.54 trillion yen in November, the largest on record for November, according to the report. The services balance had a surplus of 61.5 billion yen, helped by charges for the use of intellectual property rights and travel.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/japan-posts-17th-straight-current-account-surplus-in-november

Japan pledges $10 billion for climate policies in developing nations

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today promised to give $10.6 billion to developing nations by 2020 to help them implement policies against global warming, ahead of the UN climate talks in Paris next week.

The decision to offer 1.3-trillion yen ($10.6 billion) came after Japan gave a roughly combined 2.0 trillion yen for the same purpose in 2013 and 2014.

The government said in a statement that the money covers a one-year period but did not specify which year, only that it would be offered by 2020.

“We attach great importance to the notion that all nations will participate in agreeing to a new international framework,” Abe said in a meeting on global warming with members of his cabinet.

He added that Japan wanted to to encourage active participation in climate change by developing nations.

The pledged money will be funded both by the private and public sectors, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

He said Abe would announce details of the pledge at the UN climate conference to be held in Paris, which is set to be the biggest gathering of world leaders on climate in history.

“COP 21 will be an extremely important meeting as we aim to agree on an international framework against global warming that will replace the Kyoto Protocol,” Suga said.

“Prime Minister Abe will announce (Japan’s climate programmes) to the world at the COP 21 summit,” Suga said of the gathering.Suga said of the gathering

Japan has aggressively promoted use of its energy efficient technologies and infrastructure, such as train systems and power generation stations, to developing nations.