Japan will encounter a shortage of 180,000 software engineers by 2030, and to bridge this gap, the country might look at India’s software power and tech talent pool, said Toshihiro Mizutani, Director General, Jetro (Japan External Trade Organisation) in Bengaluru.

“Japan is hardware heavy while our software capabilities are slightly slow and behind compared to, say, that of the U.S and European geographies,’‘ he said on the sidelines of Japan-India Innovation Pitch, an event organised by Jetro Bengaluru with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to foster open collaboration between Indian and Japanese start-ups and corporates here on Monday.

Under this pitch initiative, the challenge owners of large Japanese and Indian corporates looked for solutions to solve various issues. The response was overwhelming, and received 135 applications from startups, of which 15 were shortlisted.

Maruti Suzuki, Omron Healthcare, Toyota Tsusho, GMR Group and Infosys were some of the corporates that were seeking innovative tech solutions and tools from startups for diverse industry applications.

Addressing the gathering, Geetanjali Vikram Kirloskar said it was heartening to see India’s youth teaming up with Japan to promote innovation for the world. ‘’Four guiding principles are critical if you want to accelerate economic ties with Japan, and these are respect, building trust, humility and patience,’‘ she said, based on her over 30 years of exposure to Japanese business culture.

Mr. Mizutani further said the Japan-India Innovation Pitch was a new initiative for India. However, the programme has already been a success in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam in terms of involving social entrepreneurs in economic growth.