Tokyo [Japan], August 29 (ANI): India and Japan concluded an important action plan on human resources on Friday, aiming to exchange 500,000 people over the next five years, including 50,000 skilled and semi-skilled personnel from India to Japan, the MEA said.

While adressing the MEA press briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Japan visit, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, 'There is an Indian diaspora in Japan, but the mechanics of how to leverage this better have been a subject of discussion between both governments.'

'And we find that one of the outcomes of these discussions is the discovery of a natural complementarity between the two sides of what India can provide at this point in time and what Japanese society, Japanese economy, and Japanese business need at this point in time,' he added.

Further, Misri noted that 'Japan has a dynamic economy, but also faces a labour shortage in certain specific sectors. India has a large pool of skilled and semi-skilled personnel who can fill the need in precisely some of these sectors in Japan.'

'The two sides concluded an important action plan on human resource exchange today, which sets a headline number of two-way exchange of people of 5,00,000 over the next five years, including 50,000 skilled and semi-skilled personnel from India to Japan,' he added.

'During the India-Japan Annual Summit of 2025, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan concurred on the need to foster deeper understanding between their citizens through visits and exchanges, and to find collaborative avenues for their human resources to co-create values and address respective national priorities,' the action plan for India-Japan Human Resource Exchange and Cooperation reads.

Further, the MEA emphasised that the action plan aims to 'leverage manpower complementarities for joint research, commercialisation, and value creation in both countries.'

'Promoting Japanese language education in India, as well as bi-directional cultural, educational and grass-roots exchanges as an investment for the future,' MEA added.

Earlier in the day, while addressing a joint press briefing after bilateral talks with his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba, PM Modi said, 'Under the action plan of human resource exchange, in the next 5 years, exchange of 5 lakh people in different sectors will be conducted...'

Prime Minister Modi is on a two-day official visit to Japan, scheduled from August 29 to 30, where he attended the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit. Following his visit to Japan, the Prime Minister will head to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin. (ANI)