Japan and Africa


Book Description

Since the early 1990s, Japan has played an increasingly important and influential role in Africa. A primary mechanism that has furthered its influence has been through its foreign aid policies. Japan’s primacy, however, has been challenged by changing global conditions related to aid to Africa, including the consolidation of the poverty reduction agenda and China’s growing presence in Africa. This book analyzes contemporary political and economic relations in foreign aid policy between Japan and Africa. Primary questions focus on Japan’s influence in the African continent, reasons for spending its limited resources to further African development, and the way Japan’s foreign aid is invested in Africa. The context of examining Japan’s foreign aid policies highlights the fluctuation between its commitments in contributing to international development and its more narrow-minded pursuit of its national interests. The contributors examine Japan’s foreign aid policy within the theme of a globalized economy in which Japan and Africa are inextricably connected. Japan and many African countries have come to realize that both sides can obtain benefits through closely coordinated aid policies. Moreover, Japan sees itself to represent a distinct voice in the international donor community while Africa needs foreign aid from all sources.




The Japan–South Korea Identity Clash


Book Description

Japan and South Korea are Western-style democracies with open-market economies committed to the rule of law. They are also U.S. allies. Yet despite their shared interests, shared values, and geographic proximity, divergent national identities have driven a wedge between them. Drawing on decades of expertise, Brad Glosserman and Scott A. Snyder investigate the roots of this split and its ongoing threat to the region and the world. Glosserman and Snyder isolate competing notions of national identity as the main obstacle to a productive partnership between Japan and South Korea. Through public opinion data, interviews, and years of observation, they show how fundamentally incompatible, rapidly changing conceptions of national identity in Japan and South Korea—and not struggles over power or structural issues—have complicated territorial claims and international policy. Despite changes in the governments of both countries and concerted efforts by leading political figures to encourage U.S.–ROK–Japan security cooperation, the Japan–South Korea relationship continues to be hobbled by history and its deep imprint on ideas of national identity. This book recommends bold, policy-oriented prescriptions for overcoming problems in Japan–South Korea relations and facilitating trilateral cooperation among these three Northeast Asian allies, recognizing the power of the public on issues of foreign policy, international relations, and the prospects for peace in Asia.




Japan and South Africa in a Globalising World


Book Description

This title was first published in 2003. From its position as one of Africa's major investors, and a top provider of development assistance, Tokyo's quiet diplomacy is having a growing impact on African affairs. This book illuminates the challenges facing the prospective partnership, and deconstructs the international political economy of this relationship. Furthermore, through a series of comparative studies, it explores the relevance of the content of the East Asian experience of South Africa and the continent as a whole. Features include: - an innovative study of the international political economy of an increasingly important relationship between Asia and Africa - an original analysis of the comparative dimensions of East Asia and Southern Africa's respective experiences in development - contextualizes the South African and Japanese experiences within the contemporary globalization debate The book is suitable for students and courses in international relations, development studies and comparative politics, as well as African and Asian studies.




Japan and South Africa in a Globalising World


Book Description

This title was first published in 2003. From its position as one of Africa's major investors, and a top provider of development assistance, Tokyo's quiet diplomacy is having a growing impact on African affairs. This book illuminates the challenges facing the prospective partnership, and deconstructs the international political economy of this relationship. Furthermore, through a series of comparative studies, it explores the relevance of the content of the East Asian experience of South Africa and the continent as a whole. Features include: - an innovative study of the international political economy of an increasingly important relationship between Asia and Africa - an original analysis of the comparative dimensions of East Asia and Southern Africa's respective experiences in development - contextualizes the South African and Japanese experiences within the contemporary globalization debate The book is suitable for students and courses in international relations, development studies and comparative politics, as well as African and Asian studies.




The Dynamics of Japan's Relations with Africa


Book Description

This is the first book to examine in-depth Japan's relations with Africa. Japan's dependence on raw materials from South Africa made it impossible for Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s to support other African states in their fight against the minority government and its policy of apartheid. Kweku Ampiah's detailed analysis of Japan's political, economic and diplomatic relations with sub-Saharan Africa from 1974 to the early 1990s makes it clear that Japan was lukewarm in the struggle against apartheid. Case studies of Tanzania and Nigeria dissect Japan's trade, aid and investment policies in sub-Saharan Africa more widely.




New Asian Approaches to Africa: Rivalries and Collaborations


Book Description

The 21st century has seen an increase in the presence and influence of Asian governments, firms and other stake-holders in Africa. With the changing times, changes in approaches to Africa by four major Asian countries (China, India, Japan and South Korea) have taken place. By tracing the history between these Asian countries and African countries, this collection reflects on the “new” phases of Asian Approaches to Africa. Composed by authors who are not only experienced expert scholars of African Studies, but also prominent specialists on African policies of Asian countries, this collection focuses on the official development assistance (ODA) as well as other crucial issues and actors such as business, civil society, and media to explore the new Asian approaches to Africa in a comprehensive manner. Organised into three sections, this collection explores the experiences of the “forums” (conferences, or summits) for Africa’s development hosted by four major Asian countries, reflects on Asian cultural influence in Africa, and highlights new phases of Asian approaches to Africa. This book looks to the future collaboration of Asian actors/ partners working in/ with Africa, rather than exaggerating rivalries and disputes in order to grasp the potentialities and challenges in the relationship between the two regions; an emerging and ongoing agenda that we will encounter further in the coming years. This book will be of interest to students, researchers and professors in universities, as well as research institutes on Asian and African Studies. It will also be of value to journalists, and government officials; particularly diplomats.




Sanctions and Honorary Whites


Book Description

This study critically examines for the first time the unlikely friendship between apartheid South Africa and non-white Japan. In the mid-1980s, Japan became South Africa's largest trading partner, while South Africa purportedly treated Japanese citizens in the Republic as honorary whites under apartheid. Osada probes the very different foreign policy-making mechanisms of the two nations and analyzes their ambivalent bilateral relations against the background of postcolonial and Cold War politics. She concludes that these diplomatic policies were adopted not voluntarily or willingly, but out of necessity due to external circumstances and international pressure. Why did Japan exercise sanctions against South Africa in spite of their strong economic ties? How effective were these sanctions? What did the sensational term honorary whites actually mean? When and how did this special treatment begin? How did South Africa get away with apparently treating the Japanese as whites but not Chinese, other Coloureds, Indians, and so forth? By using Japan's sanctions against South Africa and South Africa's honorary white treatment of the Japanese as key concepts, the author describes the development of bilateral relations during this unique era. The book also covers the fascinating historical interaction between the two countries from the mid-17th century onward.




Japan’s Reluctant Realism


Book Description

In Japan's Reluctant Realism , Michael J. Green examines the adjustments of Japanese foreign policy in the decade since the end of the Cold War. Green presents case studies of China, the Korean peninsula, Russia and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the international financial institutions, and multilateral forums (the United Nations, APEC, and the ARF). In each of these studies, Green considers Japanese objectives; the effectiveness of Japanese diplomacy in achieving those objectives; the domestic and exogenous pressures on policy-making; the degree of convergence or divergence with the United States in both strategy and implementation; and lessons for more effective US - Japan diplomatic cooperation in the future. As Green notes, its bilateral relationship with the United States is at the heart of Japan's foreign policy initiatives, and Japan therefore conducts foreign policy with one eye carefully on Washington. However, Green argues, it is time to recognize Japan as an independent actor in Northeast Asia, and to assess Japanese foreign policy in its own terms.




The African American Encounter with Japan and China


Book Description

African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945