Japan as top donor: The challenge of implementing software aid policy

Pacific Affairs

Volumn 69, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 519-537

  Fujisaki, Tomoko ^a   Briscoe, Forrest ^a   Maxwell, James ^a   Kishi, Misa ^a   Suzuki, Tatsujiro ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AID POLICY; OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE; SOFTWARE AID;

JAPAN;

EID: 0030417405     PISSN: 0030851X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2761185     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. OECD, "Development Assistance Committee Report 1994," p. 2.
2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan, and OECD, "Japan's Official Development Annual Report 1994."
3. MOFA, "Japan's Official Development," p. 60.
4. Bruce M. Keppel and Robert M. Orr, Jr., eds., Japan's Foreign Aid: Power and Policy in a New Era (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993), p. 2.
5. MOFA, "Japan's Official Development."
6. Grant share is the portion of overall ODA given as grants, as opposed to loans. Grant element is a measure of grant portion which gives increasing weight to loans with more generous repayment terms. Tying status measures the degree to which funds are required to be used in the purchase of donor-country goods and services.
7. Yen-based loans have been particularly difficult for developing countries to handle in an environment of appreciating yen currency, where the value of loans appreciates significantly.
8. OECD, DAC 1995 Report, Statistical Annex.
9. However, it is interesting to note that there seems to be some pressure put on the government from frustrated private sectors suffering from the recession to utilize ODA resources for their benefits overseas (Asahi Shinbun, August 27, 1995).
10. OECD, "Aid Review 1992-93, Report by the Secretariat and Questions for the Review of Japan," p. 29.
11. "Elements for Inclusion in An Agenda for Development," submitted to the UN Working Group on An Agenda for Development, August 1995.
12. MOFA, "Japan's Official Development," p. 60.
13. These themes include the promotion of democracy, good governance, WID, and participatory development. Global issues include environment and sustainable development, AIDS and population, and social development, including poverty alleviation. Conferences which brought forth these issues have included UN Summit for Children (1991, New York); UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN Conference on Human Rights (1993, Vienna); Population (1994, Cairo); World Summit for Social Development (1995, Copenhagen); and UN Conference on Women (1995, Beijing).
14. These themes include the promotion of democracy, good governance, WID, and participatory development. Global issues include environment and sustainable development, AIDS and population, and social development, including poverty alleviation. Conferences which brought forth these issues have included UN Summit for Children (1991, New York); UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN Conference on Human Rights (1993, Vienna); Population (1994, Cairo); World Summit for Social Development (1995, Copenhagen); and UN Conference on Women (1995, Beijing).
15. These themes include the promotion of democracy, good governance, WID, and participatory development. Global issues include environment and sustainable development, AIDS and population, and social development, including poverty alleviation. Conferences which brought forth these issues have included UN Summit for Children (1991, New York); UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN Conference on Human Rights (1993, Vienna); Population (1994, Cairo); World Summit for Social Development (1995, Copenhagen); and UN Conference on Women (1995, Beijing).
16. These themes include the promotion of democracy, good governance, WID, and participatory development. Global issues include environment and sustainable development, AIDS and population, and social development, including poverty alleviation. Conferences which brought forth these issues have included UN Summit for Children (1991, New York); UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN Conference on Human Rights (1993, Vienna); Population (1994, Cairo); World Summit for Social Development (1995, Copenhagen); and UN Conference on Women (1995, Beijing).
17. These themes include the promotion of democracy, good governance, WID, and participatory development. Global issues include environment and sustainable development, AIDS and population, and social development, including poverty alleviation. Conferences which brought forth these issues have included UN Summit for Children (1991, New York); UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN Conference on Human Rights (1993, Vienna); Population (1994, Cairo); World Summit for Social Development (1995, Copenhagen); and UN Conference on Women (1995, Beijing).
18. These themes include the promotion of democracy, good governance, WID, and participatory development. Global issues include environment and sustainable development, AIDS and population, and social development, including poverty alleviation. Conferences which brought forth these issues have included UN Summit for Children (1991, New York); UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN Conference on Human Rights (1993, Vienna); Population (1994, Cairo); World Summit for Social Development (1995, Copenhagen); and UN Conference on Women (1995, Beijing).
19. MOFA established the Division for Global Issues for Environment, Population and AIDS. JICA created two divisions for social development: one for research and another for project implementation.
20. JICA, "Report of the Sectoral Development Study Group on Women in Development" (Bunyabetsu [Kaihatsu to Jyosei] Enjyo Kenkyukai Houkokusho), 1991; and JICA, "Report of the Sectoral Study Group on Population and Development" (Jinkou to Kaihatsu Bunyabetsu Enjyo kenkyukai Houkokusho), 1992.
21. JICA, "Report of the Sectoral Development Study Group on Women in Development" (Bunyabetsu [Kaihatsu to Jyosei] Enjyo Kenkyukai Houkokusho), 1991; and JICA, "Report of the Sectoral Study Group on Population and Development" (Jinkou to Kaihatsu Bunyabetsu Enjyo kenkyukai Houkokusho), 1992.
22. "Japan's Official Development Assistance Annual Report 1995," Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan, 1995, p. 106.
23. OECD, DAC Report 1995.
24. MITI Annual Report on Economic Cooperation, 1995.
25. It is interesting to note that trends in the United States in health care delivery are moving away from high-tech tertiary care, in that outpatient services, reduced hospital stays, and tighter control of expensive high-tech medical tests are being favored.
26. Information from Environment Agency (July 1995).
27. MOFA, "Japan's Official Development," information from MOFA and Asahi Shinbun, August 30, 1995.
28. For example, Hiroshi Hirabayashi, the director-general for the Bureau of Economic Cooperation, MOFA, stated, "As leading donor, Japan has to provide not only money, but also intellectual contributions" (Gaiko Forum, no. 77 [February 1995]).
29. The United States, and many European countries, have been making efforts to streamline ODA responsibility. Finland recently moved the Department for International Co-operation into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Denmark merged its DANIDA development agency into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Austria transferred bilateral aid responsibility into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and France is in the midst of considering major structural reform. Norway has been consolidating and concentrating policy making to enhance development policy coherence, and a recent Norwegian expert commission suggested placing responsibility for all developing country policy either on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or an independent Ministry for Development (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] Development Assistance Committee [DAC], Development Cooperation Review Series: Norway, 1996, Report No. 14, p. 47).
30. During interviews with government officials involved in ODA, some commented that until now the incremental change approach has dominated both domestic and development affairs. They felt reluctant to go along with the recent policy shift announced by MOFA because software aid will force Japan to be engaged in a more Western-style approach to development, namely, the imposition of a policy framework and a conditionality based on their own values. These concepts and philosophies are still foreign, not genuinely adopted and embraced in the Japanese value system. Others said that Japan does not need to go into software aid just because everyone else is. In their opinion, there is still an option for Japan to continue putting most of its monetary and technical assistance into areas it excels in like hardware aid.
31. See Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Development Co-operation Review Series: Norway, 1996, Report No. 14, pp. 7, 36-43.
32. Japan has voiced the need for coordination with NGOs for some time. In the Fifth Medium Target for ODA, setting policy goals for the period 1992-1997, ODA is reported to need "close coordination with Japan's local governments, private bodies, and NGOs."
33. Dentsu Research Institute, Non-profit Organizations, 1996.
34. Association for Promotion of International Cooperation (APIC), "Survey on NGO Supporting Systems in Japan" (Wagakuni no NGO ni Taisuru Sientaisei Chosa), 1995.
35. "Fulfilling Japan's Responsibility as the World's Foremost Aid Donor Nation - Interview with Kimio Fujita, President, JICA," Japan, 21 January 1995; and OECD Development Co-operation Review Series, Japan, 1996.
36. "Fulfilling Japan's Responsibility as the World's Foremost Aid Donor Nation - Interview with Kimio Fujita, President, JICA," Japan, 21 January 1995; and OECD Development Co-operation Review Series, Japan, 1996.
37. Hirohisa Kohama, "The Economics of ODA (Tokyo: Kabushikigaisha Nihon Hyouronsha, 1993), p. 60.
38. According to the information given during our interviews with government officials.
39. OECF Development Assistance Research Institute, "Dictionary for Terminology for Economic Cooperation" (Keizai Kyouryoku Yougo Jiten), 1993.
40. The Bureau of International Cooperation of the International Medical Center of Japan," 1993.
41. Although in reality, many of these doctors are exclusively engaged in international assignments as the demands for medical specialists in ODA have been increasing (Etsuko Kita, "International Medical Cooperation," Laboratory and Clinical Practice, vol. 11, no. 1 [1993], pp. 68-78.
42. Draft Budget for 1996 ODA, by the Environment Agency.
43. MOFA, "Evaluation Report of Economic Cooperation, 1995" (Keizai Kyouryoku Hyauka Houkokusyo).
44. The Netherlands, for instance, has established procedures for systematically appraising future projects on environmental, gender, and poverty aspects. See DAC, Development Co-operation Review Series: The Netherlands, no. 4 (1994), p. 7.