2025.07.10Dr. Chawla, Former Japan Advisor, Ministry of External Affairs of India, and Forum Engineering Sign Advisory Agreement to Accelerate Personnel Exchanges between Japan and India
Forum Engineering Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo: Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer: Tsutomu Sato, hereinafter referred to as "the Company") announces that it has signed an advisory agreement with Dr. Ashok Kumar Chawla, former Japan Advisor to the Ministry of External Affairs of India who has been working for many years to strengthen relations between India and Japan.
Dr. Chawla is an expert on Japan-India exchange and has been working for many years to promote Japanese-language education and human resource development in India as a Japan advisor to the Ministry of External Affairs of India. In addition to having extensive contacts with Indian government authorities, he has been involved in the establishment of a Japanese language promotion center in India and Japanese-language education at University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University, two of India’s most prestigious universities, as well as serving as a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and a honorary professor at Tokyo International University, playing an active role in the government and universities. By concluding an advisory agreement with Dr. Chawla, the Company will help plan more Japan-India personnel exchanges and create a system for Japanese-language education in India. Moreover, with the advice of Dr. Chawla, the Company will expand Cognavi, which is a service provided by Cognavi India Private Limited (hereinafter “Cognavi India”), the Company’s Indian subsidiary, that helps new graduates searching for jobs in India.
Dr. Chawla will begin communicating with management in July 2025 at the earliest to expand the Company’s projects in India. Firstly, we will continue to improve the contents of the proposal currently being prepared to “connect Indian high-level technical human resources with the Japanese market” with the advice of Dr. Chawla. Furthermore, we will work to create a system for Japanese-language education tailored to Indian human resources going to Japan. We will also provide Japanese-language textbooks to Indian students thinking about working or studying in Japan, with Dr. Chawla taking part in the contents creation. In the future, the plan is for him to help with the production of a “Japanese language education app” that we are considering developing, already from the planning stage.
Personal history of Dr. Ashok Kumar Chawla
He holds a bachelor’s degree in botany from University of Delhi. He also holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in the Japanese language from other universities. While working as an internal and external coordinator in the steel industry, he began to learn Japanese-style management methods and communication skills, supporting good outcomes in strategic technical cooperation between India and Japan. After working as a Japanese-language instructor at University of Delhi, he worked as Chief Scientist and in other key positions for about 33 years at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the Ministry of Science & Technology of India. As a specialist in the Japanese language and the Japanese area, he was appointed as a Japan adviser at the Ministry of External Affairs of India, helping to promote Japan-India relations by working to strengthen the relationship in all fields, including the advertising and dissemination of the Japanese language, Japanese culture, and work culture in India, for more than eight years within the Government of India until March 2025. He is currently a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, a honorary professor at Tokyo International University, and a senior fellow of the Delhi Policy Group (DPG).