Abstract
Conventional wisdom holds that Japanese economic assistance, both Official Development Assistance (ODA) and otherwise,1 is either a response to foreign (primarily U.S.) pressure—the so-called gaiatsu thesis2—or is motivated by Japan’s desire to expand export and investment markets for Japanese firms—the neomercantile thesis.3 Kent Calder explained Japan’s vulnerability to gaiatsu as a result of the inability of its government to take policy initiatives, which rendered Japan a “reactive state.” Japan’s immobility, he argues, stems from its multiple bureaucratic players and a weak, fragmented legislature.4 With regard to foreign assistance, Calder maintains, “despite some self-interested nuances, Japanese foreign aid policies also appear reactive to foreign pressure as well as broadly supportive of U.S. strategic purposes in the global political economy.”
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Notes
For a recent statement of the neomercantile thesis, see David Arase, Buying Power: The Political Economy of Japan’s Foreign Aid (Boulder, Colo.: Lynn Rienner, 1995).
See Kent Calder, “Japanese Foreign Economic Policy Formation: Explaining the ‘Reactive State’,” World Politics 40 (1988): 517–541.
See Dennis Yasutomo, The Manner of Giving: Strategic Aid and Japanese Foreign Policy (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1986).
In 1996, Japanese ODA fell below $10 billion to $9.4 billion for the first time since 1990. Nonetheless, Japan remains the world’s largest donor of bilateral assistance. See GOJ, Japan’s ODA: Annual Report 1997, 9–10.
Juici Inada, “Japan’s Aid Diplomacy: Increasing Role for Global Security,” Japan Review of International Affairs, 2(1) (Spring/Summer 1988): 101.
MOFA, Japan’s ODA: Annual Report 1994 (Tokyo: APIC, 1995), 16. Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki adopted comprehensive security as a national policy in 1980, and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone endorsed it in 1982.
Toshiyuki Shikata, “The Expanding Role of Japan: Opportunities and Problems,” in Trevor Taylor and Seizaburo Sato, eds., Future Sources of Global Conflict (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995), 114.
Isami Takeda, “Japan’s Aid to the Pacific Island States,” in Robert Orr, Jr. and Bruce Koppel, eds., Japan’s Foreign Aid: Power and Policy in a New Era (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993), 242–243.
See Selig S. Harrison and Masashi Nishihara, eds., U.N. Peacekeeping: Japanese and American Perspectives (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), 1995.
MOFA, The Diplomatic Bluebook (Tokyo: MOFA, 1991), 25–31.
Hiroshi Hirabayashi, “Japan’s ODA: Assuming Leadership in a New Era,” Gaiko Forum, February 1995, 10.
MOFA, Japan’s ODA (Tokyo: APIC, 1991), 1–3, 42.
Noriyuki Wakisaki, “Japanese Development Cooperation for China,” in Ryosei Kokubun, ed., Challenges for China-Japan-U.S. Cooperation (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 1998), 114.
Ako Washio, “Nuclear Test Costs China Grant Aid,” Japan Times Weekly International Edition, 29 May–4 June 1995, 3.
MOFA, Japan’s ODA: Annual Report 1994, 260.
Christopher B. Johnstone, “Grant Aid Suspension Heightens Tensions in Japan-China Relations,” JEI Report, 15 September 1995, 8–10.
Masako Fukuda, “Indian Blasts Fire Up Resistance to Nuclear Weapons in Japan,” Nikkei Weekly, 18 May 1998, 1.
Masako Fukuda, “Nuclear Tests Rattle System of International Controls,” Nikkei Weekly, 1 June 1998, 1.
See Joseph Nye, Jr., “East Asian Security: The Case for Deep Engagement,” Foreign Affairs, 74(4) (July/August 1995): 96–97.
See William J. Long, Economic Incentives and Bilateral Cooperation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996).
APIC, Investigation of Japanese Public Opinion, 3 March 1997, 18.
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© 2001 Akitoshi Miyashita and Yoichiro Sato
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Long, W.J. (2001). Nonproliferation as a Goal of Japanese Foreign Assistance. In: Miyashita, A., Sato, Y. (eds) Japanese Foreign Policy in Asia and the Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107472_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107472_7
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