The Memorandum was signed between Indian Ministry of Tourism and the Japan Tourism Agency under the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure , Transport and Tourism here on Wednesday. The Secretary in the Indian Ministry of Tourism Parvez Dewan in his capacity as Director General, Tourism and the Commissioner, Japan Tourism Agency Shigeto Kubo signed the Memorandum.

At the invitation of the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will undertake an official visit to this country on January 25-27. Prime Minister Abe will be the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for the Annual Summit between India and Japan. Their discussions will add substance and content to the India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership. The visiting Japanese Prime Minister will also call on the President of India Pranab Mukherjee.

Prime Minister Abe will be accompanied by his wife Akie Abe.

After signing the Memorandum of tourism cooperation between the two countries, Shigeto Kubo expressed the hope that the agreement would facilitate travel and tourist visits and further strengthen the tourism partnership between India and Japan.

The Indian tourism secretary, Parvez Dewan said that religious tourism in the form of Buddhist heritage sites was a great attraction for Japanese tourists to India. He said that Japanese tourists have been availing visa-on-arrival in a major way and the highest number of visas on arrival were issued to the tourists from Japan during 2013, as in previous years.

Japan is an important source market for Indian Tourism. During 2013, India received 220,000 tourists from Japan.

This Memorandum between India and Japan is intended to serve as the key instrument for greater action oriented cooperation and further strengthening the close tourism partnership between the two countries.

The main objectives of the Memorandum are to expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector, exchange information and data related to tourism, encourage cooperation between Tour Operators and tourism stakeholders including hotel owners, establish exchange programmes for cooperation in human resource development, exchange visits of tour operators/media/opinion makers for promotion of two way tourism, exchange experience in the areas of promotion, marketing, destination development and management, participate in travel fairs/exhibitions in each others' country and to promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism.