Northeast India and Japan

This book examines the complex and connected past, present, and future of Northeast India and Japan. It looks at the intricate political geography and ethnolinguistic diversity of India’s Northeast, and its historical and strategic relationship with Japan.

From the theatre of the Second World War to a potential economic corridor to the Indo-Pacific, the Northeast, which shares a border with China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar, has emerged as an area of central importance in India–Japan relations. The book highlights the importance of connectivity and cooperation in the North Eastern Region, for sustainable growth, better accessibility, and quality of life. The chapters in the volume look at shared economic, socio-political, and environmental concerns of the two countries as well as the shared legacies between Japan and the Northeast through stories, collective memories and memorials about World War II, and research. They also explore the strategic implications of China’s One Belt One Road initiative in the region and for India–Japan relations, India’s Act-East policy, provincial politics and ethnic conflicts, and the challenges for sustainable development and greater cooperation for the two countries.

With contributions from both Indian and Japanese academics, this book will be a key resource on understanding Asian politics. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, strategic studies, development studies, and Asian studies.

Mayumi Murayama serves as Executive Vice President of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in charge of the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). Her research interests include industry, labour, gender, and youth issues as well as the regional relationship of India and Bangladesh. Some of her publications include Gender and Development: The Japanese Experience in Comparative Perspective , (editor), Globalization, Employment and Mobility: South Asian Experience , (co-edited with Hiroshi Sato), and ‘Borders, Migration and Sub-regional Cooperation in Eastern South Asia’, among others.

Sanjoy Hazarika is currently International Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi, which is headquartered in India and has offices in London and Accra. He has designed innovative development interventions such as the boat clinics on the Brahmaputra river and is a columnist in various media and an award-winning former reporter with the New York Times . He is Founder and Managing Trustee of the Centre of North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES) and established India’s first centre for Northeast studies at a central university – at Jamia Milia Islamia. He is a former member of the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee to review the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and former member of the National Security Advisory Board. Journalist, researcher, editor, and expert on the Northeast and its neighbourhood, he has made more than a dozen documentaries on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river, environmental issues, human rights and conflict. His books include the acclaimed Strangers of the Mist, Tales of War and Peace from India’s North East ; Rites of Passage ; Writing on the Wall; Bhopal, the Lessons of a Tragedy and, most recently, Strangers No More , published 25 years after the pioneering Strangers of the Mist . His work has appeared in newspapers, journals and magazines across the world, and he has contributed to The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration and various nonfiction anthologies.

Preeti Gill is an independent literary agent who has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry as a commissioning editor and rights director. She has travelled extensively in the Northeast of India and written on issues of conflict and women. She is the editor of T he Peripheral Centre: Voices from India’s Northeast as well as Bearing Witness: A Report on the Impact of Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam . Her writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including 1984 in Memory and Imagination (2016).