ABSTRACT
Substantial and world-wide changes are occurring in the field of development assistance. To reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a new aid architecture (or, rather, development cooperation architecture) is being formed that implies wider and deeper cooperation with non-OECD DAC members and other sources such as private industry and NGOs. This is in line with what Japan has long been proposing, but which has consistently been heavily criticised by other DAC members. Now we see a distinct pivot towards Asia and, in particular, to Japanese development assistance, which has been a role model for many other Asian countries. In Japan, strong belief is placed in development through industrialisation – a pattern that the country has itself followed. Under the constitution adopted after the Second World War, Japan was prevented from sending its Self Defence Forces abroad or from solving international conflicts by military means, and this has made development assistance an important tool in its international relations. Economic diplomacy is a key concept for Japan when dealing with developing countries. At the domestic level, development assistance is also a tool to stimulate the Japanese economy, assisting small- and medium-sized companies in particular to establish themselves in less developed parts of the world. This chapter provides an historical background and analysis of Japanese development assistance from the perspective of diplomacy, defence/security, and economic activity.
