With Japan’s eyes trained on India, the country can expect to see the skills of its workforce develop rapidly to help investors meet their targets.

High quality skills are said to ensure growth at the personal, at the enterprise and at the national level. If that be so, the economic success of Asia’s most advanced country, Japan, stands as testimony to the skills of its people. Boosting the proficiency of its workforce, both by imparting domain-specific skills and the core technical kind, is an ongoing endeavour in the land of the rising sun. Japanese acquire skills at different stages of their career. Higher education, reading, and participation in hands-on workshops are well supported by company training and measures by the government.

Not that the Indian government lacks efforts to train its people. Now that the country is fast moving towards acquiring a developed status, the importance of government-level efforts like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a public-private partnership that helps train and upgrade skills of Indian workers, and industry-level training programmes cannot be over-emphasised.

Still, India can leapfrog its training and skills upgrade process by executing projects jointly with Japan. What better way can the Indian industry learn but from the masters? In this context, the July 2011 inked MoU between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Japan Research Institute Limited, aimed at cooperating and working jointly on projects in energy, environment and water management technologies, promises to stand India in good stead. Indians absorbed in these projects are bound to pick up essential and high-end skills. Japan’s recent offer to cooperate with India to improve the safety of Indian atomic reactors, notwithstanding the fact that it is battling the Fukushima crisis at home, is a significant move since it promises to transfer essential skills to personnel manning existing and the slew of reactors proposed to be established.

With the two nations having signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement earlier this year, Japan’s Deputy Minister (Economy), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shinichi Nishimiya is known to have opined that all kinds of economic activities will ease, and thus probably pave the way for accelerated expansion between the two countries.

Accelerated expansion is likely to translate into faster sharing and transfer of skills. Already, top Indian IT firms like Infosys and Wipro have offices in Japan. Conversely, several Japanese industries have set up manufacturing facilities in India. This gives them access to the burgeoning Indian market and allows Indians to enjoy products featuring advanced technology, such as the best automobile, electronics, and pharmaceuticals. Over time, such Japanese engagement helps enhance employees’ skills. Some Indian expertise is shared with the parent firm as well.

Japanese investments cover the spectrum of Indian industry. Given the Japanese penchant for exactness, accelerated skill development is expected to follow in all these instances. To cite a few examples, Yamazaki Mazak India Pvt Ltd a company supplying CNC lathes, machining centres and manufacturing systems has set up a state-of-the-art technology centre in Pune. It holds programming and machine maintenance classes there for Mazak India customers. Japanese drug major Eisai and Co proposes establishing a huge manufacturing plant at Visakhapatnam, in Andhra Pradesh. A Panasonic manufacturing facility in Haryana, India is slated to be made operational by next year. Also on the cards is a research and development centre in Gurgaon to focus on products for the Indian market. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will participate in the technical and financial aspects of the Delhi Metro Phase III, having already made significant investments in earlier phases of the Delhi metro.

Last year, India’s mammoth steel maker Tata Steel, announced a joint venture (JV) with Japan’s Nippon Steel to produce and sell automotive cold-rolled flat products at Jamshedpur. The JV will invest US$ 400 million to form an automobile venture in India. Also, the two nations have agreed to jointly develop a solar city in India and boost cooperation in research and development to promote renewable energy.

Skill-enhancing training and research and development has been earmarked as a priority area for several ventures between companies and organisations in India and Japan as well. For instance, an ILO/SKILLS-AP/Japan Regional Workshop and Study Programme, “Addressing Skills Mismatch through Public Private Partnerships” held in Tokyo in February 2011 aimed at assisting delegations from select countries in the region (including India) to discuss and find effective ways to develop partnerships between training institutions and industries, to make the skills development system more responsive to labour market needs and reduce skills mismatch.

Other promising initiatives include the Kansai Research Centre of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies launching a four year international joint research project with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Kyoto University, to promote the application of Japanese low-carbon technologies in India. It will cover research institutes, industrial sectors and the governments of India and Japan. Also, the Japan Science and Technology Agency has started the ‘Asia Science and Technology Portal’ to spread information related to science and technology from East Asia.

Not only core skills but general skills are also useful across industries and in every walk of life. Such soft skills encompassing teamwork, leadership, communication and time management cannot be quantified but are vital for a project’s success. Individuals must consciously work to strengthen these abilities. Then, Japanese initiatives like Kaizen, meaning ‘change for the better’ or ‘continuing improvement across the board at a minimal monetary cost’, in the business arena, promise to help India fulfil the ambitious economic goals it has set for itself. Kaizen’s positive effect on throughput time, WIP/inventory, total inventory, manpower productivity, value added per employee, and floor space used is already being experienced by Indian firms in the manufacturing and hospitality industries that have applied the technique.

For Japanese firms looking to offer training services in India, the NSDC and IMaCS (ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited) industry-specific reports detailing the skill gaps likely to occur in various industries and the unorganised sector up until 2022 will provide valuable insights into possible areas of engagement.