Five members of the Japan Foundation's Nihongo Partners program (front) gather at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday. NEW DELHI - Five people dispatched from Japan to assist in Japanese language education in India gathered in New Delhi on Monday for a six-month program aimed at enhancing cultural exchanges between the two countries. Under the Nihongo Partners program run by the Japan Foundation, the five will assist Japanese language teachers and introduce Japanese culture at secondary schools in the Delhi area over six months. It is the first time that Nihongo Partners are dispatched to a South Asian country, as the program has previously focused on Southeast Asia. The Japan Foundation plans to carry out a similar dispatch to India continuously over a decade starting this year, as part of an agreement reached at a summit of Japanese and Indian leaders last month to increase personnel exchanges between the two countries.