| This doctoral dissertation examines the changing role of Japanese foreign aid at the turn of the millennium. Specifically, it analyzes the changing relations between the Japanese state and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting effective aid policies, focusing on Japanese NGOs engaged in international aid and development.; First, two popular models of Japanese aid policy making are examined: (1) the unitary developmental state model, promoted originally by Johnson (1982) for the analysis of Japan's economic development and later adopted by Arase (1995) for the analysis of aid policy making, and (2) the bureaucratic politics model, a modified version of Allison's bureaucratic politics model (1971; 1972) by Rix (1980) and Orr (1990). Although refuting the applicability of the unitary developmental state model to Japanese foreign aid policy making, this dissertation modifies the bureaucratic politics model by emphasizing the emerging role of NGOs in influencing Japanese aid policy. I propose a bureaucracy-led pluralist model which acknowledges the predominant role of the bureaucracy in aid decision making, but I also take societal forces into consideration. In contrast to the unitary developmental state model, this pluralist model stresses that the state is not insulated from societal groups but is, on the contrary, directly influenced by them.; Highlighting the emerging roles of Japanese NGOs in aid policy making, the dissertation attempts to answer the following two questions: (1) How have Japanese NGOs come to play an increasingly important role in aid policy making? (2) How are the state and NGOs interacting in the competitive policy environment? To answer these questions, the changing nature of Japanese foreign aid policy for the past forty years is examined, followed by an analysis of the internal and external factors that have contributed to the rise of NGOs in the area of international aid and development. Obstacles to NGO development are explored, including legal and cultural restrictions on NGOs and corporate sector opposition to the shift from infrastructure-based "hard" aid to grassroots-based "soft" aid. Finally, state-NGO relations in foreign aid policy making and implementation are analyzed. The study examines the implications of changing state-NGO relations on governance in Japan. |
