Photo/Illutration Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi receives a report from Hiroshi Nakanishi (left), chairman of the Advisory Panel on the Revision of Development Cooperation Charter,at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kasumigaseki,Tokyo,on December 9, 2022.(Asahi Shimbun)

The principal mission of Japan’s official development assistance (ODA) program is to support the economic and social development of the recipient countries and improve the well-being of their inhabitants.

If this guiding principle for development aid is undermined by a policy change driven by a myopic and ill-advised pursuit of short-term national interests, Japan could lose the trust of numerous countries it has spent years helping to develop through aid.

In making decisions concerning such assistance, the government needs to show, through sincere dialogue, a solid commitment to helping recipients tackle the really important challenges they are facing.

This month, the government revised its Development Cooperation Charter, which defines basic policy principles for ODA, for the first time in eight years.

Describing ODA as “one of the most important tools of foreign policy,” the revised document calls for more “strategic use” of the program. It also says ODA should be linked to strategic efforts to promote the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP), a diplomatic vision that was first proposed by Japan.

Japan overtook the United States in 1989 in spending on development aid, becoming the world’s top supplier of funds to help development of other countries. After peaking at 1,168.7 billion yen ($8.2 billion) in fiscal 1997, however, the ODA budget has been shrinking steadily and fell to 570.9 billion yen in fiscal 2023, about half the peak figure. The United Nations calls on nations to provide development aid equivalent to 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI). Japan’s ratio is about half the target.

With this target in mind, the revised development aid charter says Japan will “expand” its ODA. But it is not easy to increase the ODA budget under current fiscal conditions. This is why the charter stresses the importance of focusing on the “quality” of aid. The document cites food and energy security, digital and “quality infrastructure” as priority areas for supporting “quality growth” to eliminate poverty.

In addition, the document proposes enhancement of “offer-type” cooperation, which means Japan will make aid proposals to recipients instead of simply waiting for their requests. This approach should be based firmly on the principles of “equal partnership” and “dialogue and cooperation,” which are stipulated in the charter, to avoid imposing Japan’s agenda on partners.

The document also emphasizes that Japan’s aid program is designed to respect “the independence and sustainability of developing countries” and realize “cooperation that does not involve debt traps (a lender’s strategic use of debt to hold states captive to its wishes and demands) or economic coercion.”

This passage clearly reflects a sense of rivalry with China, which has been bolstering its influence over poor countries through massive investment and aid.

The document’s references to promoting the concept of the FOIP, the quality of aid based on Japan’s strengths and the “offer-type” approach also echo Japan’s foreign policy strategy focused on attracting developing countries in competition with China. But Japan should not put pressure on developing nations to take sides and thereby cause a division in the region.

Beside the ODA program, the government has also created a new framework to provide defense aid to “like-minded” countries dubbed “Overseas Security Assistance (OSA)” program, while maintaining the principle of avoiding any use of development cooperation for military purposes.

But it has been recently revealed that passenger ships Japan provided to Myanmar through a special developmental assistance program were used for military purposes: transporting soldiers and weapons. The government needs to establish a reliable system to ensure that its aid will not be used for military purposes or transferred to a third party.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 19

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