The earliest sizeable presence of Japanese expatriates in India was in colonial Bombay and its Presidency. The Japanese came for trade, but their engagement with the port city and its cotton hinterland went beyond commerce to include spiritual life and later, India’s national movement. This chapter, ‘Geographies of Exchange between Japan and India’, traces their community, religion, social infrastructure, and commercial and cultural contributions to Bombay.

The earliest sizeable presence of Japanese expatriates in India was in colonial Bombay and its Presidency. The Japanese came for trade, but their engagement with the port city and its cotton hinterland went beyond commerce to include spiritual life and later, India’s national movement. This chapter, ‘Geographies of Exchange between Japan and India’, traces their community, religion, social infrastructure, and commercial and cultural contributions to Bombay.