Japanese people in India

Japanese people in India
在インド日本人
Zai Indo Nihonjin

Total population
8,313 (2014)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Bangalore · Chennai · Kolkata · Haldia
Languages
Indian Languages · English · Japanese
Religion
Buddhism · Shinto · Christianity · Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Japanese diaspora

There is a small Japanese community in India (在インド日本人 Zai Indo Nihonjin) which consists mainly of expatriates from Japan or Indian-born people of Japanese ancestry. Most of them live in Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and most notably, Haldia.

Settlement

Bangalore

Bangalore has seen a huge growth of Japanese community in last few years of approx 3000, mostly working in Toyota Kirloskar, Honda, Fujitsu, Komatsu, Hitachi,Tsujikawa,Keihin, and 80 other Japanese corporates.[2] Bangalore attracts over 1800 Japanese business visitors every month.[3] Karnataka government has announced to set up an industrial township on 1,000 acres of land outside Bangalore for Japanese manufacturer.[4] The growing Japanese influence in the city could be well-gauged from 105 students of Bangalore learning Japanese at the department of foreign languages, Bangalore University.Bangalore has Japanese-style Sakra World Hospital,Kenkos store for lifestyle products,and Japanese friendly Trio World School.[5]

Japan Habba (Japan Festival) has been held in Bangalore since 2005 and about 1,000 Japanese people from various parts of India travel to Bangalore to join in the festival.[6]

Chennai

Chennai has a Japanese community of around 1500 members. Chennai has traditionally respected and valued Japanese culture and discipline. More than a third of the Japanese companies in India have their presence here. As of 2015, around 577 Japanese companies are present in Chennai.[7] Japanese language centers have sprung up and the city’s American International School has opened a center that teaches the language; there are about half a-dozen Japanese restaurants while hotels continue to add Japanese cuisine to their menus.[8] The Japanese influence in the city has resulted in a keen interest in the Japanese language among the people of Chennai, who learn it to better understand Japanese culture and the language's traditional linguistic similarity to Tamil, the official language of Tamil Nadu, and also to avail new business opportunities. Chennai has the largest number of JLPT test takers among the cities that offer the test in India.[9] [10]

The number of Japanese expatriates is expected to rise with the development of a 1500-acre Japanese township on the outskirts of Chennai.

Haldia

The Japanese community of Haldia are mostly engineers and top executives at Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation’s (MCC) PTA (Purified Terephthalic Acid) plant in the city. The community have been living in the mini Japanese township called Sataku (Japantown) for many years. Sataku has many Japanese restaurants and a local Japanese news station. Japanese movies are also shown in local theaters. Haldia is the only Indian city to have a Japantown.

The only problem for tourists to this Japantown is that it is not open to public. You need to be invited as a guest of one of the residents to gain entry to the complex. Also, the exact location is not available on Google Maps and not known to most locals or local traffic police.

The commissioning of the PTA plant and subsequent expansions have seen the arrival of many Japanese executives. While a few have returned, many stayed back in this quaint township, thousands of miles away from their home land. The next phase of expansion promises to bring in more Japanese expatriates to this new industrial hub in West Bengal.[11]

Education

List of Japanese international schools in India:

Supplementary programmes:[12]

The Calcutta Japanese School (カルカタ日本人学校), a day school, previously existed.[14]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
  2. ↑ "More Japanese companies root for facilities in Bangalore". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
  3. ↑ "Bangalore Woos Japanese Visitors". WSJ Blogs - India Real Time. ISTDec 27, 2012. Retrieved 2015-05-25. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ Kulkarni, Mahesh (2010-11-16). "Karnataka plans 'walk to work' industrial townships". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
  5. ↑ S, Madhumathi D. (April 19, 2014). "Karnataka beckons Japanese companies". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
  6. ↑ Japanese dance Bharatanatyam, sing in Kannada
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Land of the rising yen
  9. ↑
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Expats in new India
  12. ↑ "アジアの補習授業校一覧（平成25年4月15日現在）" (Archive). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Retrieved on February 13, 2015.
  13. ↑ "学校案内." Japanese School Educational Trust of Chennai. Retrieved on February 14, 2015.
  14. ↑ "過去に指定・認定していた在外教育施設" (Archive). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Retrieved on January 15, 2015.
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