Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will embark on a three-day visit to Tokyo this February to woo investors and entrepreneurs. The Japanese government, which wants to further its cooperation with Bihar in various sectors, has invited him.

"The chief minister will visit Japan on February 19, 20 and 21. He has been invited by the Japanese government to take part in deliberations over various matters of cooperation in development," a source in the cabinet secretariat department told The Telegraph on Friday.

The invitation has been routed to the chief minister through the Japanese embassy in New Delhi, which is also in touch with the ministry of external affairs about it. He has accepted it and the state government is putting up a file in this regard to the MEA, whose permission is needed by public representatives to visit any foreign country.

Sources in the government said "the MEA will be easily grant permission this time as Nitish is a part of the NDA, which is in power at the Centre".

The MEA had denied Nitish permission to visit Nepal in 2016 on an invitation by the Nepalese government. He was a part of the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress at that time.

Nitish will take an eight-member delegation with him to Japan of which chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and principal road construction secretary Amrit Lal Meena will also be a part.

"Japan is very interested in Bihar because it is the land of the Buddha and there is a large inflow of pilgrims and tourists from there. Japanese agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) is involved in the construction of roads and bridges in our state. They (the Japanese) want to take it ahead," a senior government official said.

The official also revealed that the delegation going with Nitish will give a presentation to Japan government officials on the strong points of Bihar and ask them to invest in the state's tourism, trade, infrastructure and industries.

An eight-member delegation led by Japanese economic, trade and industries minister Yosuke Takago had come to Bihar in July last year to meet Nitish. It had expressed interest in cooperating and investing in food processing and tourism in view of their huge growth potential.

Takago had also sought Bihar government's cooperation in starting a direct flight from Tokyo to Bodhgaya, which is a place of prime importance for Buddhists, as they have to visit it at least once in their lives.

In 2013, Jica had inked a pact with the Centre to provide an assistance of Rs 1,350 crore for a highway project in Bihar, which is a part of the Buddhist circuit that is being developed in the state.