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“Japaneseness” from the ODA Charter 2015 – with a glance at UK
Kenneth [email protected]
Edinburgh University & NORRAG7th July 2015, ODI
Comparing aid discourses: China, Japan & UK
• UK’s White Paper on International Development: Eliminating World Poverty (1997) Total Refocusing of UK aid policy on IDTs –not British aid
• China’s African Policy (2006) China’s Foreign Aid (2011, 2014) – MDGs mainly for DAC. China= S-S
• Japan’s Official Development Assistance Charter (2003) No mention of MDGs, only in early 2000s
• Japan’s Development Cooperation Charter (2015)Minimal reference to the MDGs and none to OWG
Lenses from the ODA Charter 2015:Cooperation & ‘Japan’s Strengths’
• Distinctive characteristics• Japan’s history & ODA impact• ‘Soft power’ & ‘Japanese language’: a comparison• Expertise, experience & experts• Training & human resource development • Self-help & ownership• Japanese values• Occupational culture• Private sector involvement in ODA• Growth, infrastructure & poverty reduction• Education and human resource development in the Charter - see full
accompanying paper
Distinctive Characteristics of the ‘first developed country in Asia’?
• Japan talks of people-to-people interaction being the very ‘essence’ of its ODA, of people-centred development, of reciprocal relations and learning from each other
• But China actually uses ‘mutual’ much more than Japan - mutual benefit, mutual trust, mutual understanding, mutual respect. N.b. China is ‘the largest developing country in the world’.
• UK’s mutuality is more about global interdependence, with no reference to people to people cooperation
History as Lens on Japaneseness
• ODA philosophy & Japan’s ‘long history’• Values learned thru ‘post-war history’• Not just poverty reduction, but growth that is ‘Inclusive’, ‘sustainable’ & ‘resilient’ in crises• JICA RI book on 60 years of foreign aid, 1954-2014• 50 years of JOCV, 1965-2015• Top donor 1989 (compare China 1989); TICAD 1993• Very different from China and its ‘unreplicable’ development
history, 1950-2010 (Li Xiaoyun in China-DAC 2011) & the UK: ‘Our particular history places us on the fulcrum of global influence’ (White Paper, 1997)
Japan’s ‘Soft Power’ including ‘the Japanese Language’
• New in ODA 2015, not in ODA revision 2003• Note the Japan Soft Power Research Institute 2009• 22 Centres of the Japan Foundation in 21 countries, culture, language,
& Japanese studies• 10 Japan Centres (2000) in 9 countries, focus on business, language
and mutual understanding• 10 TICAD HRD Centres proposed in Africa by 2017 (business?)• Japan Information & Cultural Centres – US, UK, Iraq, Philippines, Kenya,
Peru, Uruguay etc How many?• Lack of global scale and coherence compared with China, Germany, UK,
France, Russia?• See $5 million to Columbia U for Japanese politics –first such grant to
US university in 40 years – versus 100 Confucius Institutes in USA
Language & culture promotion organisations: A comparison
• Alliance Francaise (founded 1883) 1040 offices,136 countries
• British Council (founded 1934) 200+ offices in 100+ countries
• Goethe Institute (founded1951) 149 Institutes in 93 countries
• Confucius Institute (founded 2004) 470 CIs in 130• Russkiy Mir (fnd. 2007) 83 centres in 42 countries• Japan Foundation (fnd. 1972) just 22 centres in 21
countries, & 10 Japan Centres in 9 countries
The ‘X’ Factor in Japanese ODA:Experts, Experience, Expertise
• ‘Experience, expertise and technology’, ‘experience, expertise and lessons learned’
• 136,000 Japanese experts dispatched in 60 years of aid in projects, + hundreds of thousands in study missions, feasibility & development studies.
• ‘Field-oriented approach’, sharing technologies and Japanese values and occupational culture
• Claim by Japan Centres that ‘Japanese expertise: now available worldwide’ (JICA, 2012)
‘The World’s Biggest Training Programme’ –a/c JICA’s World 2011
• ‘HRD is an ultimate priority in the Japanese development community’
• 538,000 participants, worldwide, 10,000 per year for short-term training
• Unique role of the 15 domestic offices of JICA, creating ‘Japan experts and Japanophiles’
• Training in 300+ programmes in 17 fields• Philosophy of ‘wakon yosai’, ‘transmitting
Japan’s unique experiences’ & Japanese spirit
Japanese and Universal Values
• Universal: such as ‘freedom, democracy, respect for basic human rights (HR) & rule of law’
• Japanese values as ‘distinctive characteristics’: resilient, agile, proactive, sincere, reciprocal, jointly creating, down to earth, steady, responsible, even ‘spiritual affluence’
• China talks ‘friendship’; UK & Japan don’t• UK & Japan talk democracy and HR; China doesnt• ‘Occupational culture’: presumably, work
commitment, health & safety, 5S, kaizen
Self-help for them or for us?
• The ODA Charter (2003) is about Japan supporting the self-help efforts of developing countries (DCs).
• The same for the 2015 Devt. Coop. Charter• China also claims to build the key self-devt.
capacity and self-reliance of DCs.• But Japan’s own self-help history is clearly
implied if not made at all explicit (See Ampiah et al.)
Hugely increased role for the private sector along with ODA
• Much greater role for private sector in 2015 Charter than in 2003. Same for UK –see below
• Now private sector is seen as a ‘powerful engine for economic growth’ for developing countries
• TICAD 2013 talks of joint public and private• Opportunities for Japanese private companies• ODA as a catalyst for private investment• ODA promoting private-led, quality growth/ PPPs• ‘At DFID, our relationship with business has never been
closer’ Greening 2nd July 2015, ODI
Infrastructure hard and soft; Growth and Poverty Reduction
• Already in Japan’s ODA 2003, ‘social’ and ‘socioeconomic’ ‘infrastructure’ have a key place in policy
• By 2015 Charter, a clear requirement for both ‘hard (physical)’ and ‘soft (non-physical) basic infrastructure
• Poverty reduction only possible via sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth including institutional development & private sector devt
• In UK, poverty reduction central. In China’s African Policy – no mention of poverty and poor
The 2015 Charter & Education: with a glance at China and UK
• Japan’s 2015: a) more about HRD than formal educ. b) but HE as ‘intellectual foundations’ for devt. coop c) TVET for economic growth d) ‘agility, expertise, knowledge, research capacity’
• See History of Japan’s Education- implications for Developing countries – a remarkable approach
• UK’s Education Position Paper (DFID, 2013)• China has no Education Aid Policy Paper, just a few
paragraphs in China’s Foreign Aid and China’s African Policy
Aid with a Japanese Face?• ‘Japan’s human resources, expertise, advanced technology’ seen
as assets for developing countries.• Aid with a Japanese face very visible in the multiple photographs
of Japanese experts, JOCVs, JICA staff, and JICA president in the 2014 JICA Annual Report
• Unlike UK’s Into the 1990s with British experts on every page, no British face in its Education Position Paper, partly because of sector budget support. But see claim to be a ‘global leader’ in rigorous education research
• No reference to Kaizen in 2015 Charter, despite it being ‘one of the areas of Japan’s greatest competency’ (JICA Annual Report)
• ‘Triangular cooperation’ continues Japan’s engagement
FollowupsFor article on ‘China's Higher Education Engagement with Africa’ (Oct. 2014), see:
http://poldev.revues.org/1765
• For the book, China’s Aid & Soft Power, see James Currey Publishers, published 16 May 2013:http://www.jamescurrey.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14171
For Japan’s aid at 60 years of ODA & JICA, see forthcoming book.• http://www.jica.go.jp/english/publications/reports/annual/2014/index.html
• For emails: [email protected] & [email protected]
• Read NORRAG News and join NORRAG http://www.norrag.org/en/register. html
Next Issue, NORRAG News 52 (July 2015): Financing education and skills
• Last contrast: Japan has 78 NORRAG members, China has 86, UK has 457!
