Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to visit India from July 1 to 3, sources said, adding that the venue of the bilateral summit is likely to be in Guwahati.This will be Takaichi’s first bilateral visit to India since she assumed office in October last year.Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Japanese counterpart in France on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit last week, where Modi said he had a “great interaction with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan”. He said, “India and Japan will continue to deepen ties in diverse sectors, with a priority on trade and investment.”The venue of Guwahati is being considered since Japan has been working on projects in the north-east, as part of India’s Act East policy.Also Read | Quad launches new maritime, critical mineral initiatives at Delhi SummitIn fact, Japan’s former PM Shinzo Abe — considered to be Takaichi’s mentor — was supposed to come to Guwahati in December 2019, but the plan was cancelled due to the anti-CAA and NRC protests at that time.Modi and Takaichi have met a couple of times in the past eight months, since she became the PM of Japan.In October last year, Modi spoke to her and agreed to focus on “economic security, defence cooperation and talent mobility”.Story continues below this adThey met in South Africa on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in November.Takaichi, a hardline conservative, replaced former PM Ishiba after the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered disastrous losses in July elections for Parliament’s upper house and lost its majority in the lower house.She joined Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 1996 and entered the Cabinet for the first time under former Japanese PM Abe. In the past, she held the position of the Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs. Later, she went on to become the first woman to chair the LDP’s Policy Research Council.From 2022 to 2024, Takaichi was Japan’s Economic Security Minister. She also holds the record as the longest-serving Minister for Internal Affairs — a post she held in several tenures. As the Prime Minister, she will serve the remainder of her predecessor Ishiba’s three-year term.Story continues below this adDuring Modi’s Japan visit in August 2025, when he met then Japanese PM Ishiba, the two nations inked several key agreements, including a framework for defence ties and a 10-year roadmap to boost economic partnership.Delhi is hoping that the new Japanese PM will carry forward the commitments and agreements reached by her predecessors, who have been following the template and vision set by Abe during his Prime ministerial stint from 2012 to 2020.Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More Tags:India Japan relations