CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann will lead a 10-day official visit to Japan starting December 1, heading a state delegation to Tokyo and Sapporo to engage with industry leaders ahead of the sixth Progressive Punjab Investors Summit scheduled from March 13 to 15, 2026. The delegation will include state industries minister Sanjeev Arora, Chief Secretary KAP Singh, and other senior officials.
During the visit, CM Mann is expected to meet representatives of around two dozen leading Japanese companies, including Toyota, Nippon, Panasonic, NEC, and Sumitomo. “The Punjab government will be showing the Japanese companies that it is business ready,” an official said, underscoring the state’s focus on attracting investment.
The visit follows Mann’s recent virtual engagement on November 26 with a high-level Japanese delegation comprising officials from the Embassy of Japan, Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII), and over 25 leading Japanese companies operating in India.
During the session, Mann pitched strategic tie-ups in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, mobility, electronics, food processing, renewable energy, and global services, inviting Japanese companies to participate in Punjab’s industrial transformation. Japanese and Indo-Japanese industry leaders, including senior representatives from Yanmar Holdings and TTC Group, shared positive experiences of operating in Punjab, highlighting the quality of human capital, supportive policy ecosystem, and facilitation by Invest Punjab.
The visit comes in the wake of a similar trip by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini in October, who spent three days in Japan securing memoranda of understanding worth over Rs 5,000 crore with Japanese corporations and engaging with ministers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Saini’s discussions focused on collaboration in sectors including MSMEs, future mobility, green energy, advanced electronics, semiconductors, infrastructure, and digital transformation, while inviting Japan to participate as a partner country in the Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit scheduled for April 2026.
CM Mann’s trip marks a concerted push by Punjab to strengthen ties with Japanese industry and position the state as a key investment destination for high-value sectors.