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ABSTRACT
Escalation of great power rivalry resulting from China’s rise and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Japan to align its foreign and security policies more closely. This paper analyzes how ODA policy, which the Japanese government regards as a crucial diplomatic instrument, has been modified in the face of these changes. The most significant transformation is the securitization of ODA, or the deployment of ODA to advance Japan’s national security interests. This trend is evident in the emergence of a new type of ODA that aims to contribute to Japan’s security interests by strengthening the deterrence capabilities of developing countries involved in territorial disputes with China. Notably, Japan is justifying this new ODA trend in the name of upholding the universal value of the international rule of law. In other words, Japan is shifting the focus of assistance away from domestic issues of democracy and human rights in each recipient country toward the rule of law in international relations. This is a manifestation of Japan’s effort to strike a careful balance between upholding universal values and avoiding the risk of offending incumbent governments in recipient countries with questionable domestic governance records.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Initiative of promoting the concept of human security by the Keizo Obuchi administration in the early 2000s is the rare exception of promoting values. In terms of international initiatives, the Pacific Basin Community proposed by the Masayoshi Ohira administration in 1978, and Japan’s role in creating the geo-economic concept of the Asia-Pacific and in establishing the APEC launched in 1989, are the exceptional cases.
2. Hosoya, “FOIP 2.0: The Evolution of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.”
3. Szechenyi and Hosoya, “Working toward a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
4. Jain, “Japan’s Foreign Aid and ‘Quality’ Infrastructure Projects: The Case of the Bullet Train in India.”
5. Katada and Liao, “China and Japan in Pursuit of Infrastructure Investment Leadership in Asia: Competition or Convergence?.”
6. Sato et al., “‘Emerging Donors’ from a Recipient Perspective: An Institutional Analysis of Foreign Aid in Cambodia”.
7. Hosoya, “FOIP 2.0: The Evolution of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.”
8. Values-based diplomacy refers to the approach of conducting diplomacy with an emphasis on upholding and promoting certain fundamental values such as liberal democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. In values-based diplomacy, countries seek to shape the international order and influence other countries based on these core values.
9. Abe, “Address by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Opening Session of the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development.”
10. Some ASEAN countries expressed concerns about potential interference in their domestic political affairs, raising questions about the Initiative’s compatibility with ASEAN’s principles of noninterference and consensus-based decision-making.
11. Shiga, “Kishida’s Realism Diplomacy: Japan’s Official Development Assistance Strategy.”
12. MoFA, Gaiko Seisho.
13. GoJ, National Security Strategy of Japan.
14. Economic cooperation came to be called ODA after Japan had joined the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
15. Shiga, “Yen Loans: Between Norms and Heterodoxy.”
16. Japan succeeded in becoming the world’s second largest economy, surpassing the United Kingdom and West Germany in 1967 and 1968, respectively. In 1987, just before the end of the Cold War, Japan surpassed the United States in GDP per capita.
17. GoJ, Official Development Assistance Charter. The ODA Charter, which outlined the objectives, basic policies, and priorities of Japan’s ODA, was initially established in 1992. It was subsequently revised in 2003, 2015, and 2023. The document was renamed the Development Cooperation Charter in 2015.
18. JICA, JICA’s Governance Assistance: Building Democratic Institutions, Improving Administrative Functions, and Supporting Legal Reform.
19. Ibid.
20. In recent years, however, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been shifting its emphasis to demonstrate that democracy promotes the economic welfare of ordinary people under the slogan “democracy delivers,” reflecting on its past support that has focused only on the realization of political rights (Power, Citation2023).
21. JICA, JICA’s Governance Assistance: Building Democratic Institutions, Improving Administrative Functions, and Supporting Legal Reform.
22. MOFA, “Grant Aid to Indonesia for the Project for Construction of Patrol Vessels for the Prevention of Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and Proliferation of Weapons.”
23. GoJ, National Security Strategy.
24. GoJ, Development Cooperation Charter – For Peace, Prosperity and a Better Future for Everyone. In 2015, the Japanese government renamed ODA as Development Cooperation. However, in order to avoid confusion, this paper will use the term ODA after 2015.
25. GoJ, Development Cooperation Charter.
26. JICA, In Pursuit of a Society in which Every Individual is Free from Fear, Want, and Indignity: Rule of Law and Human Security.
27. GoJ. Development Cooperation Charter.
28. It should be noted that these projects do not necessarily aim only to improve the deterrence capacity of recipient countries against China, but also improve their ability to deter maritime crimes such as piracy and smuggling by foreign fishing boats.
29. For example, the “Maritime Security Capacity Enhancement Project” in Vietnam, signed in 2020, will provide 36.6 billion yen in yen loans for the construction of six patrol vessels (JICA 2020). The increase in the amount is evident when compared to the 1.9 billion yen for the 2006 project to provide patrol boats to Indonesia.
30. Daily News, “JICA Strengthens Sri Lanka’s Maritime Safety Capability.”
31. The “Three Principles on the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology” replaced the previous “Three Principles on Arms Exports,” which had banned arms exports in principle. The new principles paved the way for exports of military equipment by allowing them under certain conditions, including the “cases where the transfer contributes to Japan’s security” (Government of Japan GoJ, Citation2014).
32. NHK World-Japan. “Japan Moving to Apply New Security Assistance Plan to Philippines.”
33. MoD, “The Transfer of the Air Surveillance Radar Systems to the Philippines.”
34. Ibid.
35. Jain, “Japan’s Foreign Aid and ‘Quality’ Infrastructure Projects: The Case of the Bullet Train in India.”
36. Braun et al., “Rethinking Agency in International Relations: Performativity, Performances and Actor-networks,” 788.
37. Doty, “Aporia: A Critical Exploration of the Agent-Structure Problematique in International Relations Theory,” 365.
38. Wendt, “The Agent-structure Problem in International Relations Theory;” Doty, “Aporia: A Critical Exploration of the Agent-Structure Problematique in International Relations Theory;” Braun et al., “Rethinking Agency in International Relations: Performativity, Performances and Actor-networks.”
39. Kuik, “Elite Legitimation and the Agency of the Host Country;” Lai and Kuik, “Structural Sources of Malaysia’s South China Sea policy: Power Uncertainties and Small-state Hedging.”
40. Takahara, “How Do Smaller Countries in the Indo-Pacific Region Proactively Interact with China?: An Introduction.”
41. Kishida, Japan’s Decisions at History’s Turning Point.
42. Lee, “The Endangered Asian Century,” 52.
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Hiroaki Shiga
Hiroaki Shiga is a professor at the Institute of International Social Science, Yokohama National University. His research centers on development cooperation strategy, informed by his experience working in development cooperation at the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Ministry of Finance of Japan. The results of the research have been published in international academic journals such as World Development and IDS Bulletin of the Sussex University, and by research institutions such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).