Japan’s Aid to Under-Developed Counties is the Second Largest in the World, but…

According to the OECD, the Japanese government offered US$8,859,000,000 in 2004 to developing countries. This is the second largest amount of aid after the U.S.A, which offered US$18,999,000,000 followed by France (US$8,475,000,000), Britain (US$7,836,000,000) and Germany (US$7,497,000,000).

ODA stands for the "Official Development Assistance" that advanced countries offer to developing countries in economic development and welfare promotion aid. There are three different kinds of aid.
1. Low interest loans for development investment
2. Free-in-kind cooperative grants
3. Technological cooperation in areas such as engineer training and the dispatch of experts.

There are two kinds of assistance. One is direct aid to the country, and the other is multinational aid via donations made through the United Nations and the World Bank. Direct aid has two patterns. One is grant monies in which no return payments are required, and the other is low and long-term interest loans cooperation.

In recent years, major countries except Japan have increased their amount of aid in response to requests from the United Nations, while Japan's ODA budget has decreased since its peak in 1997 when the amount provided was 1,168,700,000,000 yen, although Japan used to be world's largest aid donor between 1989 and 2000, and provided more than 20% of the total worldwide aid.

One reason is that Japan's recession was forced the Government to reduce social security payments, but the main reason is that Japan's aid is mainly in the form of loans, the amount of which is much higher when compared to the aid of Western countries which is basically no strings attached. In recent years, however, the repayment of loans from Asian countries has rapidly increased. ODA results are calculated according to the balance obtained after subtracting returns from expenditures. So even if the annual budget increases, it is possible that the resulting figure is less than the previous year.

Japan is still aiding China
China's economic growth is outstanding, but Japan is still providing aid to China. Japan began providing ODA to China in 1979 when then Prime Minister OHIRA Masayoshi promised to aid China as much as possible to promote their modernization efforts. In the last 20 years, Japan has provided about six trillion yen. This has become the largest portion of aid received by China. Nevertheless, because of Japan's differing view of history, China does not welcome Japan as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Recently, violent anti-Japan rallies took place all over China.

According to an Asahi Shimbun survey carried out in March of this year, 66% of Chinese in China replied "NO" to the question "Are you aware that Japan has been offering aid to developing countries?" While 63% of Japanese support the idea of reducing aid to China, 67% of Chinese are against it.

Many Japanese people wish that the Chinese government would not only emphasize anti-Japan education, but also inform Chinese people that Japan has contributed to the post-war world by having a peaceful constitution, and has been the world's second largest donor of UN and ODA funds. On the other hand, voices demanding a halt of Japanese ODA to China, which is undergoing rapid economic growth yet continues its anti-Japan education policy, have become louder.

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