Die Neue Entwicklungspolitik Japans

Abstract

This paper attempts to describe and to analyze Japan's new foreign aid policy. Japan's foreign aid activities can be divided into four periods, roughly the fifties, the sixties and the seventies; in 1977, the Japanese government started new foreign aid policy by deciding to double Japan's foreign aid within three years. In the 1980s, three more doubling plans followed. As result, in fall of 1988 Japan became the biggest foreign aid donor in the world. The paper analyzes aims and motives of Japan's new foreign aid policy as well as country and regional distribution, instruments, and results. The findings show that Japan is going into the right direction accepting its international responsibilities as an economic superpower and playing more important role concerning the problem of burden-sharing among the OECD-countries. The paper closes by identifying problems of the new foreign aid policy of Japan and by stating that Japan could and should do more.