Former Japanese minister Hideki Makihara had earlier claimed that India was 'entirely' to blame for the delays in the much-awaited Shinkansen high-speed bullet train project.

Former Japanese minister Hideki Makihara had earlier claimed that India was 'entirely' to blame for the delays in the much-awaited Shinkansen high-speed bullet train project.

Former Japanese minister Hideki Makihara had earlier claimed that India was 'entirely' to blame for the delays in the much-awaited Shinkansen high-speed bullet train project.

India on Friday responded to a former Japanese minister blaming New Delhi for delays in Shinkansen, a bilateral high-speed bullet train project.

The criticism came from Hideki Makihara, Japan’s former Justice Minister and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who claimed that India was "entirely" to blame for the delays in the much-awaited project.

Calling Makihara's remarks an "individual opinion" that differed a lot from "facts", Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal claimed that project talks between the two nations on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Railway (MAHSR) were "progressing well".

Why India responded to Makihara's claims

In his Wednesday post, Makihara also clarified why he felt India was "entirely" to blame for the delays in the high-speed bullet train project.

"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," he said in a post on X, claiming that the Indian side was not keeping promises and was "pushing their own self-interest".

"The minister in charge was especially awful—if the top guy's like that, there's no way to have any decent dealings," he added, citing a Yahoo Japan story alleging the failure of recent India-Japan talks.

Held from July 1-3, the talks saw Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi visit her Indian counterpart PM Modi in Delhi for the Japan-India Economic Forum. 

The article, reportedly written by an engineer on the MAHSR project, who claimed that Japan's rigid pricing on its Shinkansen systems and refusal to compromise pushed India to strip away the Japanese signalling system, while also pivoting toward domestic train manufacturing.

In that regard, Jaiswal has now said that no Japanese offer was received for signalling equipment, which has been ordered in line with international specifications.

"Japan will provide E10 series trains, but only in early 2030s. The train in question is still under development. Meanwhile, construction work has rapidly progressed," he added.

He also pointed out that the first section of the MAHSR will be opened in 2027 itself, due to which both sides had agreed to start operations with "the Indian high speed train".

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