Top Japanese official, JICA India chief stuns all, Greets audience in Hindi language

NEW DELHI: It’s music to the ears when a Japanese national greets Indians in their native language Hindi. And this is what happened recently during a webinar when the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s Chief Representative in India, Katsuo Matsumoto threw a pleasant surprise for the participants by greeting them in the Hindi language.

“Namaste, Mera naam  Katsuo Matsumoto hai (my name is Katsuo Matsumoto), Main Japan se aya hun ( I come from Japan). Is korona ke samay mai main aasha karta hun ki aap sabhi kushal mangal honge (I hope you all must be keeping well during the Koronavirus time),” said (JICA)’s Chief Representative in India, Katsuo Matsumoto at the beginning of his speech during a webinar titled “Japan’s Support for Sustainable Development Goals in India: Huge opportunity for Jobs, Academia and Businesses”.

Matsumoto not only spoke in the Hindi language he also gestured Namaste with folded hands while closing his speech.

A global arm of the Japanese government, the JICA aims to contribute to the promotion of international cooperation and works as a bridge between Japan and emerging countries like India for providing assistance in forms of loan, grant, and technical cooperation to strengthen the capabilities of the emerging countries.

Katsuo Matsumoto had assumed the India office of JICA in June 2018, and succeeded Takema Sakamoto who completed his 3-year tenure with JICA India. Though he has stayed in India for little over two years, previously, Matsumoto was closely engaged in the work related to the South Asian region while being the Deputy Director-General of South Asian Department (SAD) at the JICA Headquarters, Tokyo.

During his over two years of stay in India in the capacity of Chief Representative of JICA India office, Matsumoto has developed a deep understanding of not only the government and trade & industry scenario of the country, but he is also fairly conversant with the Indian art and culture including the Hindi language.

Prior to this, he gained rich experience in working for some of the largest Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan projects in the South Asian region. Through his frequent visits to India, Matsumoto had acquired immense familiarity and interest in working with India as well as an understanding of the developmental needs of the country.

On October 23, Matsumoto attended the webinar organized by the New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM) to speak on the subject “Japan’s 950 Crore Support for SDGs in India: Huge Job & Business Opportunities for India.”

Other speakers who participated in the webinar included Minoru Shimada, MD, Yakult Danone India, Suguru Sakata, Head of Market Expansion, SATO (LIXIL), Madoka Mori, Head, Hygiene Business in Africa (Uganda), Global Operations Division, Africa BD Section, Saraya Co. Ltd, Soumitra Mandal, Director, Niti Ayog, Dr. Vishva Mohan Bansal, Chairman, NDIM & PHDCCI Education Committee. Prof. Nikhil, Dean, NDIM moderated the session.

NDIM, being the only MBA school rated best in India by AICTE, and CII for 2017, 2018, 2019; it partnered with NSDC, for Indo-Japan TITP. It also has a Japanese Centre at its campus and in Japan as well and is known for the finest career opportunities in Japanese MNCs since 2017. Its campus was visited by 25 Japanese CEOs for MoUs on jobs, internships, and training in AI-ML- Business Analytics, Data Science, Digital Transformation Domains.

According to NDIM, India needs USD 2,633 trillion by 2030 to meet the UN’s SDGs. This will create a whopping USD 1.12 trillion in opportunities for academia, employment, and business. More than 250 NDIM students are learning the Japanese Language at NDIM, and getting ready for tremendous job opportunities in more than 15,000 Japanese companies planning to set up base in India.

While replying to a query by NDIM that in order to secure local supply chain, and reduce its dependency on China the Japanese government in July this year had announced to support its companies in moving out of China to back home or elsewhere, Matsumoto said that it’s true that the Japanese government has announced to support Japanese companies who were trying to shift production base from China to other countries.

“And India can be one of the attractive destinations for this purpose. And some of the companies in China have the intention to come to India but the situation in India sometime is not matching so much to the demand of the Japanese side and therefore needs improvement, and also the attitude of some of the state governments and also some legal issues, and so on. It’s not a small matter but a big one,” said Matsumoto.

The JICA India chief further said that the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCII) was working on this matter with the concerned ministries. “Someone needs to suggest to the government on how to improve the situation to and make it easy for the Japanese companies to come to India,” he added.