Uttar Pradesh wants Japanese manufacturers to have a town of their own. The state has proposed a 500-acre Japan City near Noida International Airport and the first Japanese factories in the same region have already started work.
Escorts Kubota and Minda Corporation begin work near Noida. Together the plants are expected to create more than 10,000 jobs.
Two Japan-linked companies have started work on new manufacturing plants in Uttar Pradesh. Escorts Kubota and Minda Corporation held a virtual groundbreaking during the UP–Japan Investment Meet 2026. The two projects are worth ₹3,191 crore in total.
Both sit in the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) region near Noida. The state expects them to create more than 10,000 jobs.
Where the money goes
Escorts Kubota: ₹2,025 crore for a plant making tractors and construction equipment. It will cover 154 acres in YEIDA Sector 10 and is expected to create over 3,800 jobs.
Minda Corporation: ₹1,166 crore across two auto component units, one in Sector 10 and one in Sector 24. The company is targeting around 6,440 jobs.
The job numbers are targets. They add up to roughly 10,000, which matches the figure reported for the two companies.
The meet behind the announcement
More than 200 Japanese industrialists, CEOs, business representatives and policymakers were due to attend the meet. It ran from August 18 to 23 in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The delegation was set to look at manufacturing, clean energy, semiconductors, digital infrastructure, skill development and tourism.
The state has been building towards this. In February 2026, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited Japan and signed MoUs worth about ₹11,000 crore. Those deals covered farm equipment, industrial machinery, water infrastructure, automobiles, electronics, printing, hospitality and real estate. The August groundbreaking is one of the first projects from that push to show up on the ground.
The 500-acre Japan City
Japan City is planned in YEIDA Sector 5A, near Noida International Airport. It is meant to be an integrated industrial area for Japanese companies, their suppliers and related industries. It would sit close to the semiconductor, electronics and data-centre clusters coming up in the region.
It is planned as a place to live, not just to work. The city is expected to include a Japanese-medium school, Japanese-speaking healthcare, izakayas (Japanese pubs) and a Japanese grocery store. YEIDA has earlier said employees of Japanese companies would get housing, schools and hospitals in their own environment.
The city is planned with a strict land-use ratio so that it can work as a complete, independent ecosystem. The reported plan for the Japanese and Korean cities is 70 per cent industrial, 13 per cent commercial, 10 per cent residential, 5 per cent institutional and 2 per cent roads and green space.
With this, UP hopes to attract more Japanese companies and their employees. Familiar food, language and schooling make it easier for families to move and stay. The state has also said it wants to pair Japanese practices such as lean manufacturing, automation, robotics and precision engineering with its own industrial base.
Japan is not alone in YEIDA
Other city-sized projects are planned in the same region:
Korean City: 365 acres, in Sector 4A, with a focus on electronics manufacturing.
Singapore City: around 500 acres in Sector 7. YEIDA has sent a proposal to the state government.
- International Film City: 1,000 acres.
Together they point to YEIDA becoming a region of city-sized clusters, each built around a country or an industry.
What UP is offering
The state points to its logistics network: 17 operational airports, two Dedicated Freight Corridors and a wide expressway grid. It is also setting up two Centres of Excellence for green hydrogen, with IIT Kanpur and IIT-BHU. Each centre has been allotted ₹50 crore.
What to watch
This is a start, not a finish. Analysts point to land acquisition, steady power supply and skilling of the workforce as the main risks. The real test is how fast the plants get built and staffed. Japan City is the other item to track, since it has no announced budget or timeline yet.
For real estate, the corridor deserves attention. Large factory clusters tend to draw housing, warehousing and land demand to the areas around them. If the Noida airport region fills up with Japanese suppliers, that demand could follow.
