Open AccessJapan’s development cooperation: from making amends to agenda–setting
Author(s) -
Nikolay Murashkin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista de fomento social
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2695-6462
pISSN - 0015-6043
DOI - 10.32418/rfs.2021.300.5032
Subject(s) - developmentalism , mercantilism , vision , political science , modernization theory , geopolitics , agency (philosophy) , international development , summit , economic growth , development economics , politics , geography , sociology , economics , social science , law , physical geography , anthropology
This article revisits the post–World War II evolution of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) over the past 75 years, with a particular focus on the period starting from the 1980s and subsequent changes in Japan’s international development cooperation policies. I address cornerstones such as human security and quality growth, while examining the role of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), shifts and continuities in regional visions and sectoral priorities, such as infrastructure development. I argue that the threefold mix of key drivers behind Japan’s development cooperation has remained consistent, involving developmentalism stemming from Japan’s own experience of successful modernisation from a non–Western background, neo–mercantilism, as well as strategic and geopolitical considerations. The relative weight and interplay of these factors, however, fluctuated in different periods.