India and Japan asked each other on Tuesday to liberalise visa regimes to help promote cooperation in trade and investment and people-to-people contact.
After his talks with Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he requested him to ensure that Japanese visa system becomes more liberal to enable growth of trade investment and people-to-people contact.
"I raised (with Hatoyama) the Japanese visa system and requested to have this looked into as the means promoting increased cooperation in trade, investment in particular in hi-technology areas," Singh said at a joint press conference.
On his part, Hatoyama said he sought 'cooperation' from the Indian side with regard to procedure for visa issuance because the major projects (involving Japanese citizens) were not only beneficial for the two countries but was also for the global economy.
Singh said Hatoyama pointed to some 'concerns' with regard to Indian visas and "I promised him that I will have it looked into."
At the same time, Singh pointed out that as a special case India has introduced visa on arrival for Japanese citizens.
Image: Yukio Hatoyama
