TOKYO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated TCS Japan Technology and Culture Academy, which will work towards enhancing technology and cultural knowledge between IT professionals of the two nations.Modi also flagged off the first batch of 48 TCS Japan trainees, who will proceed to India to undergo training for 6-8 weeks at various TCS locations, the country's largest software services firm said in a statement.Apart from increasing their exposure to new technologies, trainees will also learn about quality and other processes along with business skills, it added.This will be followed by on-the-job training on projects for six months."The 21st century is the century of knowledge and technology and all of you will gain knowledge from travelling in India... You are going as employees of TCS but I want you to come back to Japan as ambassadors of India," Modi said.In April this year, TCS and Mitsubishi Corp announced that they were merging their IT operations in Japan to create a new global scale player in the Japanese IT industry, with TCS having 51 per cent stake in the new venture called Tata Consultancy Services Japan (TCSJ)."Japan and India have the potential to create a strong economic, and business partnership. TCS is proud to play a role to strengthen the relationship between these two great nations by investing in Japan," Tata Consultancy Services CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran said.TCSJ will initially house more than 4,000 employees in Japan and a dedicated centre located in Pune, India.It will provide Japanese companies a mix of global talent and capabilities combined with local expertise and knowledge that to help Japanese corporations transform and globalise effectively and drive growth.