Japan’s international cooperation to Latin America and the Caribbean in the changing development landscape

Abstract

Japan has been a proactive contributor to development cooperation, ranking among the top five OECD donors worldwide. Latin America and the Caribbean have been traditional recipients of Japan’s ODA due to their long-standing relationship. However, the U.S. interests, and recently, the rise of China, have influenced Japan’s aid to the region. This paper aims to study how the influence of foreign interests, especially those of the U.S., and the rise of China as a nontraditional donor has challenged Japan’s ODA to Latin America and the Caribbean during the 21st century. Since this is hermeneutical research, the analyzed documents were selected based on impact criteria, and the contents were grouped following a chronological evolution. The findings unveil that even though Japan’s ODA has been influenced, at some periods, by pre-established U.S. guidelines, in other cases, it has relied on different reinterpretations to those suggested by the U.S. This dynamic turns into a set of ideas and concepts that, despite seeming unrelated, have Japan’s national interests as the fundamental principle and translate into diverse strategies of Japan’s ODA to the region. Japan’s approaches to global and regional contexts bring a strategic debate on how the elements that characterize its ODA were adapted to the needs in the period under study. This debate is still unfolding and allows Japan’s ODA not to lose its identity. Thus, even though China has taken the lead in some developmental initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean, the core elements of Japan’s ODA remain valid.