In July this year, a former Japanese minister who was involved with India’s first bullet train project publicly blamed New Delhi for the delay in its implementation and accused the country of “pushing their own self-interest”.
Hideki Makihara, who was Japan’s justice minister during his time in government, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The Shinkansen project in India is something I was involved with myself, but what stood out in international meetings and negotiations was the sheer recklessness of the Indian side, repeated over and over.
