Japan's ODA Allocation Not Inline With Global Priorities

John de Boer (Japan Fellow, Stanford University; Research Associate, GLOCOM)

A working paper on Japanese official development assistance (ODA) published by the Institute of Development Studies (Sussex, England) in March 2005, has come up with some disturbing findings. This report, which set out to investigate whether Japan's pledge to increase aid would help the poorest countries achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals has answered its research question with a resounding, no. Judging from Japan's development assistance record over the past forty years, the authors of this report state unequivocally that, "the prospects of a significant increase in Japanese aid towards the most needy countries, concentrated mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, look unpromising." As far as this report was concerned, Japan's aid allocation priorities remain dominated by commercial interests.

It has long been recognized that Japan has an Asian "bias" when it comes to distributing aid. Since 1985, when Japan became one of the world's top donors, Japan has consistently allocated between fifty-five to sixty-five percent of its total aid budget to Asian countries. Significantly, the most needy were not among the top recipients in Asia. While over thirty percent of Japan's total aid went to the middle income earning countries of Southeast Asia, poorer countries in South Asia received only between ten and seventeen percent of Japan's aid budget. Meanwhile Africa as a whole has consistently received nor more than thirteen percent.

The most disturbing finding in this IDS report was the demonstration of a clear connection between Japanese trade interests and aid allocation. Sadly, the report also noted that infant mortality rates, an important indicator in the Millennium Development Goals, was a non-significant factor in determining Japan's allocation priorities. Japan is not alone. The United States and the European Union also fared poorly when it came to targeting aid to the most needy countries.

Considering Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and the central part that Japan's ODA plays in its campaign, this report is timely and important. The focus of the world's attention should not be on the amount of aid that Japan or for that matter any country makes, but rather on where that money is headed and on the impact that this aid is having on poverty eradication. Japan should make a concerted attempt to re-evaluate its ODA priorities in a manner that is inline with global needs and not defined according to narrow national interests.