Bengaluru: With high-speed rail projects planned to connect Bengaluru with Chennai and Hyderabad, Japanese officials said the initiative will transform not just travel, but also business and economic activity.Watanabe Ikko, director for India, trade policy bureau of Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry (METI), compared it to the Tokyo–Nagoya bullet train. “Travel time dropped from seven hours to one and a half, boosting business transactions. Companies like Toyota could access Tokyo markets easily — similarly, Bengaluru-based businesses will benefit,” he said at the Japan–India Mobility Summit 2026.
Japan has already supported Bengaluru through JICA loans for Namma Metro Phase 2. Takayama Naritoshi, deputy director-general for Trade, METI, stressed transit-oriented development (TOD) and multimodal connectivity to reduce dependence on private vehicles. He said India’s digital strengths — integrated journey planning, unified ticketing, and data-driven management — can enhance TOD and improve reliability across transport modes.S Selvakumar, principal secretary for Karnataka’s commerce and industries department, highlighted the state’s potential for mobility innovation, citing over 800 R&D centres, global capability hubs, and policies like the Clean Mobility Policy 2025–2030.
