Abstract
Chapter 12 underscores that, while this book engages Japan as a non-traditional player, the term “traditional” in the case of Japan can be taken to imply relatively long periods of time—thereby recalling that Africa-Japan relations date back to the pre-Second World War period. Though Japan’s trade with Africa had been largely with apartheid South Africa, which estranged Tokyo from the rest of the continent, the creation of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in 1993 marked an era of development cooperation and one that seeks to promote “self-help” and an African continent that is not entirely aid-dependent. Nevertheless, Japan’s double standards have been evident through parochial interests concerning Africa’s mineral wealth.
Scarlett Cornelissen and Yoichi Mine contributed equally to this work.
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Notes
- 1.
For example C. Alden and K. Hirano (eds), Japan and South Africa in a Globalising World: A Distant Mirror. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002); K. Ampiah, The Dynamics of Japan’s Relations with Africa: South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria (London: Routledge, 1997).
- 2.
R. Bradshaw and J. Ransdell, “Japan, Britain and the Yellow Peril in Africa in the 1930s”, The Asia Pacific Journal 9(44) (2011), p. 2; K. Kitagawa, “Japanese competition in the Congo Basin in the 1930s”, in A.J.H. Lantham and H. Kawakatsu (eds) Intra-Asian Trade and the World Market (New York: Routledge, 2006).
- 3.
J. Morikawa, Japan and Africa: Big Business and Diplomacy (London: Hurst, 1997).
- 4.
For a discussion of the Japan Anti-Apartheid Committee see K. Makino, “The Anti-Apartheid movement in Japan: An overview”, Institute of Developing Economies, Discussion Paper no. 440.
- 5.
Although “honorary white” was never officially used by the apartheid government, the National Party’s decision to allow the small community of short-term Japanese residents the right to use whites-only public facilities was quickly popularised by this term. See M. Yamamoto, “Honorary or Honorable? The ‘Honorary White’ status and Japanese residents in apartheid South Africa”, Soshioroji 56(3) (2012), pp. 3–120; K. Makino, “The framing discourses of “honorary white” in the anti-apartheid movement in Japan”, IDE, Discussion Paper no. 575 (2016).
- 6.
Makino, 2016.
- 7.
See also C. Rogerson, “Japan’s hidden involvement in South African manufacturing”, Geo Journal 30(1) (1993), pp. 99–107; E.G. Mukonoweshuro, “Japanese commercial interest in South Africa”, Journal of Contemporary Asia 21 (1991), pp. 42–53.
- 8.
See M. Osada, Sanctions and Honorary Whites: Diplomatic Policies and Economic Realities in Relations between Japan and South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002).
- 9.
See discussion by I. Inukai, “Why aid and why not? Japan and sub-Saharan Africa”, in B. Koppel and R. Orr (eds), Japan’s Foreign Aid—Power and Policy in a New Era (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993).
- 10.
See overview in S. Cornelissen, “Japan’s Official Development Assistance to sub-Saharan Africa: Patterns, dynamics and lessons”, in H. Kato, J. Page, and Y. Shimomura (eds), Japan’s Development Assistance: Foreign Aid and the Post-2015 Agenda (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016).
- 11.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan’s Official Development Assistance, Annual Report (1996).
- 12.
See M. Hanabusa, “A Japanese perspective on aid and development”, in S. Islam (ed.), Yen for Development: Japanese Foreign Aid and the Politics of Burden-Sharing (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1996).
- 13.
In application, these principles had seen Japan provide development assistance to recipient states on a request-only basis. Such assistance is offered at the initial stage after which recipients are expected to take full responsibility of the development process. As financial independence is pursued from the beginning, a majority of Japan’s aid has taken the form of loans to construct profitable industrial infrastructure . As a side effect of this aid modality, humanitarian grant aid tended to be downplayed and implemented as tied aid. This aid modality took shape in the 1960s and 1970s and was carried into the 1980s when Japan faced harsh criticism from other DAC countries for the “selfish” nature of its aid. Japan was considered to be preoccupied with the interest of Japanese firms by using aid to promote trade. The respect for national ownership was also often construed as being too conciliatory to authoritarian governments.
- 14.
Article 9 of the Japanese constitution strictly limits Japan’s military power to the minimum that is required for self-defence, and a majority of the Japanese public are against any change of the pacifist spirit of Article 9. However, public opinion is generally favourable to a greater role for Japan’s Self-Defence Forces in UN peacekeeping missions as long as operations do not involve casualties. Japanese troops (mainly engineering units) have been dispatched to Mozambique (1993–95), the DRC (1994), and South Sudan (2012–present) as part of UN operations.
- 15.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan’s ODA (1996).
- 16.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1996, p. 43.
- 17.
Tokyo International Conference on African Development, “Tokyo Agenda for Action” (21 October 1998).
- 18.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Japan’s Japan’s ODA” White Paper (2003).
- 19.
See K. Ampiah, “Japan and the development of Africa: A preliminary evaluation of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development”, African Affairs 104(414) (2005), pp. 97–115; S. Cornelissen, “Japan’s middle powership in Africa: beyond the reactive/proactive dichotomy”, Afrique Contemporaine 212, (2004), pp. 33–54.
- 20.
Commission on Human Security, Final Report of the Commission on Human Security, www.unocha.org/humansecurity/chs/index.html
- 21.
TICAD Civil Society Forum, “TCSF White Paper: Evaluation by Civil Society on Japan’s Policy to Africa: Strategic Recommendations on Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Tokyo”, TCSF (2007).
- 22.
See for instance J. Koizumi, “Statement by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi: Africa—The home of self-endeavour” (1 May 2006), http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/africa/pmv0605/state.html; Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Japan’s ODA: Accomplishments and Progress of 50 Years”, White Paper (2004).
- 23.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan’s ODA, White Paper (2007).
- 24.
Japan External Trade Organisation (2008). Survey on Japanese Companies in Africa. Tokyo: JETRO.
- 25.
Japan International Cooperation Agency, The Study on Japan’s ODA to Southern African Countries, vol. 1 (2008).
- 26.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Japan’s ODA package for Africa at TICAD V” (2004), http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000006375.pdf
- 27.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Japan’s ODA package for Africa at TICAD V”.
- 28.
S. Abe, “Japan’s Diplomacy towards Africa: Strengthening Each Individual, One by One”, Speech by H.E. Mr Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, on the Occasion of His Visit to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 14 January 2014, http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000023952.pdf
- 29.
See TICAD VI Nairobi Declaration, “Advancing Africa’s sustainable development agenda—TICAD partnership for prosperity”, http://www.mofa.go.jp/af/af1/page3e_000543.html
- 30.
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Cabinet decision on the Development Cooperation Charter”, 10 February 2015, http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000067701.pdf
- 31.
Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, “International Trade and Economy”, White Paper (2016).
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Cornelissen, S., Mine, Y. (2018). Africa-Japan Relations in the Post-Cold War Era. In: Nagar, D., Mutasa, C. (eds) Africa and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62590-4_12
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