The laboratory aims to undertake cutting edge bilateral / multilateral research on different topics, and to enhance higher education collaboration and partnership, and facilitate exchange of intellectual capital. The lab collectively addresses, analyzes, learns and nurtures the issues related to India and Japan and beyond, and make it more relevant to the global communities under three key pillars:
India Japan Laboratory (IJL) engages students and faculty members in inter-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder (private sector, non-government organizations and citizens) education, action research and policy advocacy programs on issues relevant to India and Japan. Through collective co-learning from India, IJL aims to co-design innovative solutions with governments, private sector, citizen groups and other related stakeholders. It provides unique learning opportunities for Keio students as well as students from different universities and research institutions from India and the world.
With the existing inter-disciplinary nature of education and research in the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) of Keio University, the IJL has the following goals:
India, being the largest democracy and an emerging economy, is home to 1.3 billion people. India is characterized by its long history, diversity in ethnic group, culture, religion, food, climate and many more. Although India was the center of Indus civilization in 3300 BC, the country today faces severe development problems including poverty, food, water security, and sanitation issues among others. At the same time, the region shows one of the highest economic growth rates over the last decade and has huge potential to be the development hotspot in the coming decades.
In the present decade, the relationship between Japan and India is advancing on a faster note than ever before. The significant development of Japan-India strategic partnership, high-speed railway, consumer nuclear cooperation, development of Japan-India economic relations and memorandum of cooperation of Japanese language education in India signifies that Japan-India bilateral relations have entered a new era.
To further expand the horizon of Japan-India relations, it is essential to maximize the interaction of human resource, especially the young generation of both nations. Prime Minister of Japan Hon. Shinzo Abe has emphasized that ‘Japan-India relations are international public goods that support regional order.’ In order to achieve that, substantial capacity development of youth and young professionals in premier educational institutes related to technology, commerce, development, humanities and law is required.
Henceforth, the premier educational Institutes of India and Japan collectively need to come forward to create a generation of expertise and human resource who will engage at global level to execute the “Japan and India Vision 2025 Special Strategic and Global Partnership Working Together for Peace.”
