Most diplomats can point to one episode that lingers long after postings blur into memory. For me, that moment came during my early years in Japan. I served there twice—first from 1982 to 1985, and later from 1991 to 1994—and the contrast between the two could not have been sharper.
The second posting coincided with India’s economic liberalisation and the early onset of the Look East Policy, when engagement with East Asia was acquiring new momentum. The first, by contrast, belonged to a very different era. India then barely registered on Japan’s strategic or public consciousness, and any small success in attracting attention felt like a minor victory. Looking back from today’s close and consequential India–Japan partnership, that world feels almost unrecognisable.
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