Söderberg, Marie () (European Institute of Japanese Studies)
Abstract
Peace building and peace preservation are new key concepts in Japanese foreign aid policy. According to the revision of the ODA charter in 2003, the objective of Japan’s foreign aid is to contribute to the peace and development of the international community, and thereby to help ensure Japan’s own security and prosperity--“Japan aspires for world peace. Actively promoting the aforementioned effort with ODA” that Japan will carry out “even more strategically” in the future. Asia and especially East Asia is pointed out as a priority region. North Korea, with whom Japan has not yet normalised its relations, is one of Japan’s closest neighbours and would, from a logical point of view, then seem like an important starting point. However, when main Japanese aid agencies such as JICA (Japan International Co-operation Agency) and JBIC (Japan Bank of International Co-operation) are asked, no one works officially with aid to North Korea. The standard answer is that there is no aid to that country, besides some smaller amounts of Japanese humanitarian aid that are channelled through multilateral organisations. If Japan regards aid as one of its main tools for creating peace, why isn’t aid provided to North Korea? Aid is a very complex issue and not giving is often regarded as effective as giving, when it comes to getting concessions and changes in the recipients’ policy behaviour. It is used both as a carrot and a stick. Aid is always envisioned as something quite plausible, if North Korean policy behaviour is changed for the better according to Japanese judgement (so called positive aid sanction); but aid is never paid out and remains an illusion as long as it does not change (negative sanction). But the question for Japan is more complex than this. There are various domestic opinions and interest groups that have to be taken into consideration. The kidnapping issue (Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s) has lead to a considerable amount of anti-North Korean sentiment that makes it difficult for the Japanese government to disperse aid to North Korea. There is also foreign pressure at work; the US, Japan’s military ally, and other western countries as well have imposed economic sanctions on North Korea due to its withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. This also affects the Japanese position on the aid question. Keeping all these factors in mind, this paper questions if Japanese foreign aid is an effective tool to influence North Korean policy behaviour. Has it ever led to a change of behaviour? Has it contributed to peace and stability in the area in any way?
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by The European Institute of Japanese Studies in its series EIJS Working Paper Series with number
210.
Length: 13 pages Date of creation: 16 Sep 2005 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hhs:eijswp:0210
Contact details of provider: Postal: The European Institute of Japanese Studies, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden Phone: +46-8-7369360 Fax: +46-8-313017 Email: Web page: http://www.hhs.se/eijs/ More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Nanhee Lee).
Find related papers by JEL classification: H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War O20 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General R58 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Policy
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: