From Southeast Asia to Africa: the Political Economy of Japan’s Foreign Aid

　　Abstract: Africa surpassed Asia to become the largest recipient continent of Japan’s foreign aid in 2006. The event marked a significant shift of Japan’s foreign aid thinking, the relationship structures among donor nations as well as those between recipient and donor nations. This paper constructs an analytical framework to analyze three crucial relationships which influence foreign aid behavior: that between recipient and donor nations, that between foreign aid and domestic politics, and that between foreign aid and the international society. The different combinations of these three relationships are crucial to understanding Japan’s foreign aid thinking and policy at different stages. This paper points out that Japan’s foreign aid thinking has gone beyond its original humanitarian and economic objectives. To Japan, its foreign aid policy is increasingly a diplomatic and strategic tool. Japan’s foreign aid policy offers a unique case in the study of foreign aid, and provides invaluable insights to developments in international aid as a whole. Furthermore, Japan’s experiences in the process are important references to China when Beijing constructs its own foreign aid policy.

　　Authors: ZHOU Yuyuan, Associate Research Professor, Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University