New Delhi: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s highly anticipated visit to Assam next month has been shelved due to scheduling difficulties.
The annual India-Japan summit will be now held during her visit to New Delhi.
Apart from the scheduling difficulties, Takaichi is also expected to be accompanied by a delegation composed of a number of leading Japanese businesspersons, which highlights the logistical challenges in hosting them all in Assam. The Japanese PM is likely to travel between 1 and 3 July for her maiden visit to India.
Sources in the know said that while Guwahati was considered as a “possible venue” and “offered to the Japanese side,” the visit to the Northeastern state is off the table given Takaichi’s tight schedule during the visit.
“Given Prime Minister Takaichi’s domestic commitments, including an ongoing session of the Diet (Japanese Parliament), the window between her proposed arrival in India and her departure is quite tight. In view of this and the additional logistical issues connected to a visit outside the capital, the visit is now likely to be held in Delhi,” one of the sources said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had hinted at a potential visit by the Japanese Prime Minister to the state last week. Japanese media organisations had also reported on the proposed visit. However, this is unlikely to come to pass.
Japan has lent approximately Rs 22,000 crore to India’s Northeast through overseas development assistance programmes over the years, focusing on large scale infrastructure projects to improve road connectivity across the region.
Other initiatives backed by Tokyo include a health system strengthening project in Assam worth approximately Rs 3,800 crore, a water supply project for Guwahati, improving the bamboo value chain across the region, and also construction of bridges in almost every state in the Northeast.
Japan has grown to become one of the few countries trusted by India to invest and develop the region. Takaichi’s visit will be her first and reciprocates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tokyo last August. Modi and Takaichi have met in the past, on the margins of the G20 summit in South Africa last year.
Last year, Japan had agreed to double its investment from $34 billion to $68 billion. The two countries also announced a joint declaration on security cooperation, as they seek to deepen their strategic ties. The joint declaration includes multiple areas of collaboration including enhancing joint training exercises, co-production of defence technology and sharing of technologies in new fields.
Takaichi’s visit comes at a delicate moment in Asian geopolitics. Ties between Japan and China have cratered in the last few months, especially since Takaichi became the Prime Minister in October 2025. The Japanese Prime Minister had in November last year highlighted that in an hypothetical situation that China takes Taiwan by force could lead to a Japanese response.
At the same time, Japan’s traditional ally since the end of World War II–the US– has sought to engage with China. US President Donald Trump visited Beijing last month. The Quad– the maritime coordination minilateral which consists of the US, Japan, India and Australia—has not held a leaders’ level summit since September 2024, when Joe Biden was the American President.
India has also sought to stabilise its ties with China, with Prime Minister Modi travelling to the Chinese city of Tianjin last year for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of States’ summit.
Takaichi’s visit also comes as the US war with Iran has come to a halt with Washington and Tehran opening direct negotiations for a larger peace deal.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: India-Japan to finalise deal to co-develop & co-produce UNICORN mast ‘soon’, says Japanese envoy