Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and 15 other leading industrialists will be part of the delegation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first major bilateral visit, outside the sub-continent, to Japan this week.    

The industrialists will take part in a bilateral meeting under the aegis of India-Japan Business Leaders' Forum on September 1 which would be co-chaired by Chairman of Bharat Forge Baba Kalyani, sources said.    

The meeting, coinciding with Modi's visit, assumes high importance as the two countries are trying to forge a strong multifaceted strategic partnership with economic relations as a crucial component. Bilateral trade between the two reached $18.61 billion in 2012-13.   

Sources said Modi keen on meeting his counterpart Shinzo Abe whose leadership he deeply respects and sees the visit as an opportunity to take ties with Japan to a new level and increase cooperation in various fields. To leverage the ever-growing trade and investment between the two countries and for greater co-operation between their businesses, IJBLF was constituted with prominent business leaders from India as its members.    

The forum has been re-constituted recently and Modi re-nominated Kalyani as the co-chair of the forum from the Indian side.