Main characteristics of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows
At the end of the 1990s, the Japanese government distributed annually more than US$10 billion as foreign aid directly or indirectly to developing countries. Japan’s ODA can be divided into the following four groups: 1) Bilateral Grants, 2) Technical Co-operation, 3) Multilateral Aid, and 4) Bilateral Loans. In 2001, Bilateral Grants made up 19.3 percent of Japan’s total ODA budget; Technical Co-operation constituted 29.7 percent; Multilateral Aid and Bilateral Loans accounted for 24.7 percent and 26.3 percent, respectively. There have been criticisms that Japanese ODA loans have been provided mainly for economic infrastructure projects only. In response to these criticisms, the Japanese government claims to have made efforts to channel these loans into various social sectors, such as agricultural projects or rural development.
Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA): Altruism or Mercantilism?
No country has offered a greater amount of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries than Japan. Typically, ODA takes four different forms: 1) bilateral grants, 2) bilateral loans, 3) technical assistance, and 4) multilateral aid (Furuoka 4). Japan’s ODA provision started in 1954 as the war reparation to Asian countries, and even after the termination of the reparation, the amount continuously increased (Inada 13). In 1991, Japan became the largest ODA donor country in the world. Because ODA has been one of the few ways Japan can show its presence in the international community due to the constitutional limitation on deployment of the Japanese Defense Forces (JDF) (Sunaga 1), Japan’s ODA “remains the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy” (Thernstrom 1).
Japanese Policy toward Democracy and Human Rights in Asia
Japan's postwar foreign policy has been called a "lowcost, low-risk foreign policy" that allowed Japan to focus on economic development while avoiding costly military and political burdens. As a consequence, however, a gross imbalance developed between postwar Japan's economic and political weight, not only in dealing with the West but also in Asia because Cold War barriers limited Japan's interest in, and ability to cultivate relations there. Today, however, Japan has new opportunities and needs; since the mid-1980s it has sought leadership through growing contributions to North-South relations and international peace and security. In developing international leadership, Japan cultivates two roles: that of an advanced economic and political partner with the West, and that of an Asian nation leading others in East Asia. Japan now emphasizes economic policy coordination with the United States and Europe through G-7 mechanisms, development cooperation through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and security cooperation through the proposed inclusion of Japan among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. With regard to Asia, Japan is trying to bury the past and construct a strong set of bilateral relations. This explains the visits to Southeast Asia and China by the Heisei Emperor, and the ritualistic shazai gaiko (apology diplomacy) of Japanese prime ministers as they tour the region and at the United Nations. Japan has also worked to strengthen regional economic cooperation fora, and in the area of regional peace and security, it has pledged to support the cost of peacekeeping operations and future reconstruction efforts in Cambodia, as well as committing peacekeeping personnel there in 1992 to assist the