Abstract
This Paper examines at a general level the utility of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) program, where it is dispatched to, and its consequences to the recipient countries. In this paper special attention is given to Japanese ODA to Indonesia. In this paper I argue that the Japanese government has pursued, and still does pursue, aid relations with its neighbour seeking foremost political and economic benefit for Japan. Benefits for other are a secondary concern. Keywords: Japanese ODA, strategic aid, trade aid, Japan-Indonesia relations, debt-burden
Highlights
One prickly issue concerns the primary motivations of the donor nations
Hasegawa Sukehiro in his 1975 study of Japanese foreign aid identified at least five objectives driving Japan’s aid policy: (1) to spur the process of Japanese reconstruction and economic growth; (2) to establish diplomatic relations between Japan and neighboring countries; (3) to maintain political, economic, and social systems, and stabilise policies that are beneficial to Japan in countries that receive Japanese aid; (4) to raise per capita income in Japan through the commercial flow back to Japan from foreign aid projects; and (5) to assert Japan’s influence and leadership in both regional and global communities (Hasegawa, 1975: 11)
A landmark for Japan as a donor nation came in 1960 when Japan became a member of the Development Assistance Group, the international body of aid-donor nations within the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that later became the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). (Brooks and Orr, Jr., 1985: 325)
Summary
Other explanations paint a less altruistic position on the part of donor nations These include some critiques that paint international aid as exploitative and at its worst, a tool of imperialism. Hasegawa (1975), Nester (1992) and Carnoy (1974) are among those who have argued that real donor motives are more often covert than overt and more often self-interested than altruistic It is, naïve to think that nations are exclusively motivated by altruistic desire to help the poor. Naïve to think that nations are exclusively motivated by altruistic desire to help the poor These authors argue that far more of government concerns for national self-interest than official aid policy rhetoric ever indicates. My brief analysis of Japan’s aid program later, provides evidence that despite the defensive verbiage, national self-interest mostly around economic rewards has continued to shape Japan’s ODA policy
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