Beyond the ‘North’-’South’ impasse: self-effacing Japan, emancipatory movements of the Global South and West-Engineered aid architecture

Abstract

The article has three objectives. The first is to reconsider the popular taken-for-granted categories of ‘Global North’/’Global South’ and ‘Northern’ donors/’Southern’ providers and proposes an alternative account for examining Japan’s role in West-engineered aid architecture. The second is to examine why Japan has constructed a ‘sui generis’ foreign aid model by accommodating both the OECD-DAC and SSC (South-South Cooperation) norms. Finally, this article aims to explain how Japan’s alternative aid modality was possible by highlighting that the academic debate has failed to capture the significance of the emancipatory movements of the Global South epitomized by the 1955 Bandung Conference for Japan’s aid policy.