Japan’s Official Development Asistance Towards Afghanistan:2001~2014

As an important part of foreign aids, Official Development Asistance （ODA） is alsoa main way of economic diplomacy, which reflects the orientation of a country’s foreignpolicy. Since Japan is a country that attaches great importance to economic diplomacy, thestudy of ODA policy is of relevance in understanding its foreign policy.Since the Afghan war in2001, Japan’s ODA to Afghanistan increased significantly. Thetotal assistance amount offered from2001to2012is40more times than that from1968to2000. Why Japan provided so much aid to Afghanistan after2001? That is the mainquestion this paper aims to answer.This paper first described profiles of Japan’ ODA towards Afghanistan since2001,including its history, contents, characters and so on. Then it tries to analyze Japan’smotivation based on the theory of national interest.In the case that economics and trade relations between Janpan and Afghanistan are notclose, this paper argues that the most significant reason behind Japan’s ODA is noteconomic interest, which is proved by the ways and fields of ODA. This research finds thatJapan has paid more attention to the maintance of Japan-US alliance, the strategic resourcessecurity and the pursuit of political powers. More concretely,1, Japan-US alliance. Since Afghanistan is the main battlefield of the US war onterrorism, Japan uses ODA to support the US strategy and show its responsibility to thealliance.2, Strategic resources. Afghanistan connects the major origins of oil and otherresources such as Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, its stability havesignificant effect on the safety of Japan’s strategic resources.3, Great power pursuit.The ODA towards Afghanistan can serve for Japan’s GreatPower strategy, for it can not only consolidate bilateral friendship, but also increaseJapan’s international influence, strengthen its cooperation with other countries andinternational organizitions including the United Nations.Besides, this paper also summarizes the fruits and lessons of Japan’s ODA briefly,anlysises the challenges which Japan has faced in the aids, with the hope to provide a reference for China’s future aid towardsAfghanistan.