Japanese Aid Research Articles

An East Asian paradigm?

The World Bank's 1993 East Asian Miracle report proposed two models of East Asian Development, one based on the Japanese economy, the other on the more recent miracle economies of Southeast Asia. The latter pursued open-market and investment policies compatible with Anglo-American economic norms, while Japan and its coterie (South Korea and Taiwan) forged industrial policy regimes with high levels of government intervention and protection. Japan takes a different view of Southeast Asian success—as a combination of conscious emulation of Japan and concentrated Japanese foreign direct investment, aid, and regional industrial strategy. This article explores the tension between the World Bank thesis and the Japanese view, embodied in a growth metaphor called flying geese. The author concludes that Japan has been far more reactive and opportunistic than the flying geese metaphor suggests, but that this paradigm has a profound influence on Japanese government and corporate strategy in Asia.

BOOK REVIEW: Vietnam and Japan: Japanese Investment and Aid Strategies in Vietnam: Implications for Development Directions. Edited by Barbara Duffield

BOOK REVIEW: Vietnam and Japan: Japanese Investment and Aid Strategies in Vietnam: Implications for Development Directions. Edited by Barbara Duffield

JAPANESE AID TO TANZANIA: A STUDY OF THE POLITICAL MARKETING OF JAPAN IN AFRICA

JAPANESE AID TO TANZANIA: A STUDY OF THE POLITICAL MARKETING OF JAPAN IN AFRICA KWEKU AMPIAH KWEKU AMPIAH Kweku Ampiah is a member of the Department of Japanese in the University of Stirling Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 95, Issue 378, January 1996, Pages 107–124, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007693 Published: 01 January 1996

RESHAPING JAPANESE FOREIGN AID FOR THE POST‐COLD WAR ERA

ABSTRACTJapan recently became the world's largest bilateral aid donor. Tokyo views foreign aid as a ‘main pillar’ of its foreign policy for addressing post‐Cold War global challenges. Western understanding of Japanese foreign aid remains a poorly understood perspective both in the foreign aid and Japan studies literature. Therefore, this article improves conceptualization of Japan's aid activities by focusing on past trends, present changes and possible future developments. An approach is adopted in this study that focuses on both the Japanese domestic policymaking environment and the international context. Empirical evidence suggests that the Japanese employed an ‘entrepreneurial’ approach to aid that incorporates strong private sector involvement and a regional Asia‐Pacific concentration but that its approach is gradually changing toward a more multidimensional one. The ‘perceived’ success of Japanese aid involvement enables Tokyo to promote its international development approach as an alternative to the Western development

Japanese AIDS Activists Adopt a Milder Form of Protest

Japanese AIDS Activists Adopt a Milder Form of Protest

Interactions of Japanese Aid and Direct Investment in Indonesia

This article discusses a form of Japan's official development assistance (ODA), specifically the relatively small but growing part of Japan's ODA which is directed at promoting more Japanese direct investment in the recipient developing countries. The article provides a brief account of the various activities of Japan's major aid agen cies, and argues that this new form of Japan's ODA is quite welcome, as the Indonesian Government has been keen to attract more foreign, including Japanese, direct investment to Indonesia, particularly in export-oriented industries. In addition, while Japanese direct investment is generally viewed in a favourable light in Indonesia, Japanese investors should put higher priority on more effective technology transfer to their Indonesian employees.

Assessing Japan's Environmental Aid Policy

E NVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION has become an important issue in international politics in recent years. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro highlighted the political importance of environmental issues as well as revealing the differences in perspective on those issues between developed and developing nations, and between the developed nations themselves. Since the late 1980s, Japan has, in public statements, emphasized the importance of environmental protection and its willingness to assist in conservation efforts in the developing world. In particular, it has expressed its willingness to increase foreign aid for environmental protection. In part, this is an attempt by the Japanese government to define for itself a role which will help it meet its international responsibilities, and, in part, it is a response to a new issue in international politics. In the late 1980s, one scholar pointed out the potential dilemma in Japan's commitment to provide environmental aid. On the one hand, he predicted an increase in Japanese aid activity for conservation efforts. On the other, he noted that the Japanese experience in providing environmental aid was new, dating from the mid-1980s at the earliest, and that the institutional arrangements for a coherent environmental aid program had not been worked out.' This paper examines Japan's aid for environmental protection since the Arche Summit in 1989. It assesses the achievements and problems of this new aid orientation. It argues thatJapan's aid for environmental protection is limited for two basic reasons. First, the lack of institutional adjustments within the aid program has hampered the ability to implement the new policy. Second, the developing countries which receive Japanese aid continue to be ambivalent about the importance of environmental protection. This paper examines each limitation in turn. It concludes with a case study of Japan's aid for environmental protection in Thailand.

Japanese development aid: Trendiness versus reality

Japanese development aid: Trendiness versus reality

Yen for Development: Japanese Foreign Aid and the Politics of Burden-Sharing

Japan has just replaced the United States as the world's top donor of foreign aid. Yet many, particularly in the United States, believe that while Japan is doing more, it is not doing enough. To study this issue, the Council on Foreign Relations convened a group of distinguished Japanese and American aid experts, academics, and officials from the two countries and multilateral development institutions. Their Findings, contained in a series of essays, are especially timely: a debate is growing over the effects that Japans new role as an aid superpower will have on U.S.-Japan relations and the global economy. This volume will be the sourcebook for that discussion.

Doing Good or Doing Well? Japan's Foreign Aid Program

This monograph argues that, contrary to stated claims, Japanese foreign aid is inextricably linked to Japanese business interests. It demonstrates how Japanese aid to the developing world is often tied to purchases from Japan, with potentially devastating consequences to Third World nations.

High-level manpower movement and Japan's foreign aid.

"Japan's technical assistance programs to Asian countries are summarized. Movements of high-level manpower accompanying direct foreign investments by private enterprise are also reviewed. Proposals for increased human resources development include education and training of foreigners in Japan as well as the training of Japanese aid experts and the development of networks for information exchange."

The financing of electric power projects in developing countries

Developing countries face a buyers' market for power plant, but they face a sellers' market in negotiations to obtain the related finance. The purpose of this paper is to explore these relationships and to highlight the factors that may strengthen or weaken the common interest that the buyers and sellers of power technology have in seeking project finance. The paper charts the rise and fall in the flows of capital to developing countries since the 1970s, and examines the implications of the current debt crisis and the rise in Japanese aid finance. Estimates are made of the likely shortfall between the finance required to meet developing countries' need for electrical energy and the likely availability of funds. Four strategies are then considered that will be required to meet this shortfall. It is concluded that the prospects for developing countries' power sectors are extremely bleak, and that significant areas of the world will have to build their future development on the assumption that electrical energy will not be available. It is considered unlikely that the market mechanism will provide finance on a scale and in a form suitable to the need. Those funds that are available, seem likely to favour power developments that are more rather than less damaging to the global environment.

Humanitarianism, Mercantilism, or Comprehensive Security? Disbursement Patterns of Japanese Foreign Aid

In 1967, The American Challenge appeared on the best-seller list of popular books in Europe.' Written by French author Jean-Jacques S rvanSchreiber, it warned about the economic power and innovative capacity of U.S. firms and the danger that they posed to the political autonomy of West European countries. This concern with U.S. hegemony, however, seemed rather quickly displaced by events pointing to the rapid ascendance of Japan in international trade and finance. In 1979, barely a dozen years after the appearance of The American Challenge, Ezra Vogel published Japan as Number 1: Lessons for America.2 This book was followed by others with titles such as The Eastasia Edge,3 America Versus Japan,4 and Trading Places.5 Their authors expressed a combination of admiration for Japan's economic achievements and alarm over the escalating international tension resulting from the relative status adjustments (especially for the United States) implied by these achievements. Often American analysts emphasize the closed nature of Japan's society and economy and the relentless drive for foreign economic advantages by that country's government and corporate leaders. While erecting various formal and informal barriers for keeping foreign capital and goods out of their home islands, the Japanese have supposedly exploited to the fullest extent the easy accessibility of the American society and economy to obtain valuable technologies, market shares, and investment opportunities. Thus, their economic

Yen for Development: Japanese Foreign Aid and the Politics of Burden-Sharing.

Yen for Development: Japanese Foreign Aid and the Politics of Burden-Sharing.

Japanese Foreign Aid in a New Global Era

As..iter occupying the position of predominant global aid donor since the advent of the Marshall Plan in the late 1940s, the United States finally gave way to Japan in June of 1990. Although absolute aid disbursements are bound to fluctuate in the coming years, with the United States and Japan perhaps trading first and second places several times, Tokyo has undeniably become a major factor in global economic development. This new influence will require Washington, other donors, and aid recipients alike to come to terms with a foreign aid apparatus and approach to development that is sometimes at variance with Western aid programs. For example, elements of the Japanese aid program are more compatible with the close relationship that often exists between the state and the private sector in developing countries. Although generally more sympathetic to the private sector, Japanese aid officials do not shriek in horror at the idea that government might be able to contribute to developmental goals. Instead, they believe that develop

Japan's Aid Diplomacy: Economic, Political or Strategic?

In recent years Japan’s foreign aid has often been raised both as a domestic and as an international political issue. Domestically, for example, the propriety of aid to the Philippines became the subject of debate in the National Diet in 1986, and this legislative discussion led to serious questioning of the nation’s foreign aid policy. On the international level, meanwhile, the United States has been seeking increases in Japanese aid, mainly as a way to share the cost of promoting international security. For example, the increase in Japan’s official development assistance to the countries of the South Pacific in recent years is said to be partly in response to the increasing presence of the Soviet Union in this region.

Ultrastructural Behavior of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Multinucleated Giant Cells in the Brain of a Japanese Hemophiliac Presenting AIDS Encephalopathy

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was detected ultrastructurally and immunohistochemically in the brain of a Japanese hemophiliac presenting AIDS encephalopathy. The encephalopathy was characterized by the multifocal occurrence of multinucleated giant cells mainly in the subcortical areas. The giant cells were identified immunohistochemically to be macrophages. HIV particles were observed in and out of the giant cells, and most of the particles ingested in the cells were membrane-bound. Some virus particles were found in pinocytic vesicles or phagocytic vacuoles, whereas the others were degradated in the lysosomes of the cells. Budding of HIV particles from the cell surface was also observed, indicating replication of the virus in vivo. These findings suggest ingestion, digestion, and replication of HIV by brain macrophages in AIDS.

Collaboration or Conflict? Foreign Aid and U.S.-Japan Relations

THE JANUARY 1989 announcement that Japan's ODA (Official I Development Assistance) disbursements would probably supersede U. S. foreign aid totals had been expected for at least two years. Ever since 1985, when Japan's aid doubling plans (begun in 1977) were boosted by the dramatic appreciation of the yen it was inevitable that the day would come when Japanese foreign aid superseded that of U.S. foreign aid, especially as the U.S. aid program was facing severe budget limitations. Japan has traveled a long road in a short time. Within days of the government's announcement that Japan would be the largest donor, Japanese television was reminding viewers that only twenty-five years ago the Shinkansen (bullet train) had been built just prior to the Tokyo Olympics as a World Bank project. The television programs also mentioned thatJapan was the second largest recipient, after India, of World Bank assistance at that time. In fact in 1990 Japan will finally be taken off the World Bank's borrower list by paying back its final installment. In other words in twentyfive yearsJapan had gone from being one of the largest receivers of foreign aid to becoming the largest donor of foreign aid. This change from recipient to the world's largest donor of foreign aid has also been mirrored in the overall U.S. -Japan relationship. Whereas twenty-five years ago Japan had a net trade deficit with the United States, today it enjoys an approximate $50 billion surplus. In 1964Japan's Self-Defense forces had a minor regional role in the Pacific but in 1988 Japan's defense budget appeared to be the third largest in the world after that of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In part, Japan's rapid development is of course a direct result of America's calculated foreign policy following World War II. One of the underlying tenets of that policy was to create conditions for the promotion of economic development and democracy and by doing so to prevent, or at least minimize, the advance of Soviet-sponsored communism. Now,

The Aid Factor in U.S.-Japan Relations

Research Article| July 01 1988 The Aid Factor in U.S.-Japan Relations Robert M. Orr,, Jr. Robert M. Orr,, Jr. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1959) 28 (7): 740–756. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644698 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Robert M. Orr,; The Aid Factor in U.S.-Japan Relations. Far Eastern Survey 1 July 1959; 28 (7): 740–756. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2644698 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1988 The Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Aspects of Soviet‑Vietnamese Economic Relations, 1979–84

Vietnam's foreign economic relations have, of necessity, been primarily conducted over the last six years with the few countries that make up the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON). Hanoi has been faced with several impediments to the establishment of wide-ranging economic ties with coun tries outside this Soviet-led economic bloc. Amongst these impediments, the Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Kampuchea has been the most significant in circumscribing Vietnam's foreign economic options. Together with the Kampuchean question, which resulted in the imposition of a Japanese and Western economic aid embargo on Vietnam in 1979, the Vietnamese tilt towards, and then embrace of, the Soviet Union, was the factor which had, earlier in 1978, led China to sever its economic ties with Vietnam. The formal conclusion of that nexus between the Soviet Union and Vietnam in November 1978, through a Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation, had in itself been a partial result of the Vietnam war: the refusal in 1977 by the United States to provide reconstruction/development aid to a war-ravaged Vietnamese nation. The issue of American troops listed as Missing-In-Action (MIA) during the Vietnam war, allied to Vietnamese actions in Kampuchea, provided further factors which combined to firmly shut the U.S. aid and trade door to Vietnam. As a result of all these essentially geopolitical factors, Vietnam's interna tional economic ties have largely been limited to the countries of the CMEA. Within that grouping, the Soviet Union has been for Vietnam by far the largest and most important trading partner and aid donor. How are economic relations between the Soviet Union and Vietnam regulated? To what extent is Vietnam reliant upon Soviet economic aid and trade? Has the Soviet Union been able to benefit from this aspect of its relationship with Vietnam? These are just some of the questions which this article will attempt to answer through a survey of Soviet Vietnamese economic relations since the conclusion of their Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation.