Japan's Post-Cold War Africa Research Assistance

After World War II due to the constraint of the pacifist constitution as well as withthe reality of taking global economic power’s position, economic diplomacy, includingforeign aid, has become Japan’s an important means to achieve its foreign policy goals.Japanese aid to Africa began in the1960s, and since then it has become the core ofJapan’s diplomatic strategy in Africa. In the particular context of the Cold Warcharacterized by bipolar structure, with its emphasis on Africa’s economic value, theJapanese aid to Africa was mainly concentrated in the superficially economic and tradefields. However, with the strategy of becoming a global political power as the core ofJapan’s foreign policy and the vigorous trend of multi-polarization in the internationalstructure in the post-Cold War era, the motivations of Japanese assistance to Africa aregradually showing a diverse and complex momentum. As a result of it, the characters ofits assistance to Africa have changed significantly by comparison of preference onMercantilist economic benefits during the Cold War. At the same time, nowadays themechanism of its assistance to Africa has transformed into a modern systemcharacterized by clearly defined and centralized powers and responsibilities,combination of domestic and international levels, diversity and inclusiveness, comparedto the non-ambiguous and cumbersome of it during the Cold War. Since the end of theCold War, with the fruits on politics, mechanisms and economy, Japanese aid to Africahas successfully been in accordance with the adjustment of Japan’s diplomatic strategyin Africa. But due to changes in the international situation in recent years, Japan’s aid toAfrica is also facing some real challenges. Looking back on the more than20yearsprocess of Japan’s aid to Africa in the post-Cold War era, we find some usefulexperience for China’s assistance to Africa which is now facing a number of criticismsfrom the West. I believe these experience play a role in improving China’s Africanstrategy and its international assistance strategy.