Haryana will train and send up to 50,000 skilled youth to Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture over the next five years, after the prefecture asked the state for help addressing a shortage of technically skilled manpower that its government says affects nearly 80% of local companies across semiconductors, automobiles, information technology and manufacturing.
The commitment emerged from “Haryana-Fukuoka Connect 2026,” a meeting held at Haryana Niwas, Chandigarh, on Monday. Representatives from the Fukuoka Prefectural Government, the Fukuoka Institute of Technology and Japanese industry met with officials from Haryana’s Foreign Cooperation and Industries and Commerce departments, along with several state universities, to work out cooperation on investment, skill development and technical education.
Dr Amit Kumar Agrawal, Commissioner and Secretary, Industries and Commerce, said Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is personally tracking the effort to prepare Haryana youth to Fukuoka’s specifications so that more of them can secure jobs abroad. To institutionalise the partnership, the state has set up a Haryana Sakura Working Group and a dedicated help desk for Fukuoka-based companies, in addition to its existing single-window clearance system. Agrawal added that Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam will help connect students from the state’s universities to Fukuoka’s workforce needs, and that new Japanese-language and technical courses tailored to Fukuoka’s requirements will be introduced across Haryana’s educational institutions.
Amneet P. Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary, Foreign Cooperation, briefed the delegation on the state’s industrial policy and the ecosystem being built for Japanese firms, and referred to Saini’s visit to Japan last year. She linked the deepening ties with Japan to the Viksit Bharat at 2047 goal and pointed to potential cooperation in green jobs and green fuels.
Pawan Kumar Choudhary, Advisor to the Chief Minister in the Foreign Cooperation Department, proposed setting up a Fukuoka Institute of Technology campus in Gurugram to serve Japanese professionals and their families based in Haryana and the National Capital Region.
The 50,000 figure aligns with the five-year national target set at the August 2025 India-Japan summit, where the two countries agreed to facilitate the movement of 50,000 skilled Indians to Japan as part of a wider 500,000-person exchange, though that understanding covered Japan as a whole rather than a single prefecture. Officials said the two sides will now prepare a time-bound implementation roadmap.
