Wednesday 26 / August / 2026
Nagoya: India and Japan are looking to make their 15-year-old Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) more contemporary and work towards expanding its scope to create new opportunities for bilateral trade and economic ties, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.
Responding to a question on whether the CEPA review was discussed during his meeting with Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akazawa Ryosei in Tokyo on Tuesday, Goyal said the issue had already been taken up by the leaders of the two countries during the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit in New Delhi in July.
"This issue was discussed between the two Prime Ministers in the 16th Summit held in Delhi," Goyal said during a media interaction in Nagoya.
Referring to the joint statement issued after the summit, Goyal said, "Since it is 15 years since the signing of CEPA, we should discuss and make it more contemporary."
"I also discussed it with my counterpart minister and we are hoping to work towards further expanding the scope and providing new opportunities for this relationship to grow," he added.
Goyal said the two sides had not yet begun working on the terms of reference for the CEPA review, but indicated that India was open to a wider engagement.
"We haven't started working on the terms of reference of CEPA yet, but we are open to expanding the scope, scale and extent of engagement," Goyal said.
The India-Japan CEPA was signed on February 16, 2011 and came into force on August 1 that year. The agreement covers trade in goods and services, investment and other areas of economic cooperation.
The joint statement issued after the July 2026 summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi noted that more than 15 years had passed since the two countries signed the CEPA and underlined the need to enhance and diversify bilateral trade.
The two leaders agreed to accelerate the review of the implementation and full and effective utilisation of the agreement to make it more forward-looking.
Goyal's meeting with Akazawa in Tokyo on Tuesday also covered bilateral trade and investment. According to the Commerce and Industry Ministry, the two ministers discussed accelerating the CEPA review to make the agreement more forward-looking and responsive to emerging economic opportunities.
The two sides also discussed cooperation in new and emerging sectors, next-generation industries, manufacturing, technology and innovation.
In a significant development, Goyal revealed that Uniqlo, the Japanese apparel giant with 3,500-4,000 stores and a turnover of USD 25 billion, is looking to start doing business from India. He said the company's chairman met with him and the delegation, and expressed interest and excitement far greater than he had seen from any other business leader he had interacted with, adding that the chairman appeared almost ready to begin sourcing from India immediately.
Goyal is on a four-day visit to Japan from August 24 to 27, covering Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. He is leading India's largest-ever business delegation to Japan, comprising more than 200 representatives from sectors including manufacturing, semiconductors, clean energy, steel, automotive, financial services, healthcare and start-ups.
India and Japan share a Special Strategic and Global Partnership, with economic ties increasingly extending into areas including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, supply-chain resilience, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
Bilateral trade stood at around USD 27.5 billion in 2025-26, while Japan is India's fifth-largest source of foreign direct investment. The two countries are also working towards a target of 10 trillion yen in private investment from Japan into India, set at the India-Japan Annual Summit in 2025.
