TICAD and the National Interest of Japan

Abstract

At TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) IV in 2008 Japan began to approach the TICAD process with a stronger focus on its own economic interests rather than as a consultative forum on development cooperation. The Japanese business community had started to explore the economic opportunities available in Africa around 2006, with the result that more Japanese firms were expanding into the region. Consequently, the 2008 TICAD summit was designed to suggest, if not emphasise, Japan's national interest in the context of the African development process. In that sense TICAD IV was the first TICAD that the Japanese private sector took active part in; this resulted in TICAD IV gaining wider media coverage in Japan. Effectively, the significance of Africa for Japan has undergone a historical change, but to some extent this is a product of the recent role of China in Africa's economic development and indeed of the state of relations between China and Japan. TICAD IV may also be seen as an epoch-making event for Japanese ODA policy, which was changing under the new circumstances. Japanese overseas development aid policy is now in transformation and TICAD V, expected in 2013, will follow the line surveyed at the last summit.