Japan’s foreign aid sanctions policy toward African countries

This paper examines Japan’s aid sanctions policy toward African countries since new guidelines for Japanese ODA were introduced. There were three cases of positive reinforcement in Africa, i.e. in Madagascar, Zambia) and Guinea. Also, the Japanese government implemented nine negative reinforcements in the region, i.e. in Kenya, Zaire, Malawi, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Togo, Nigeria and Gambia. Although Japan applied positive reinforcement and provided additional foreign aid to assist the political and economic reforms in three African countries, it would be an oversimplification to say that these “positive reinforcement” methods have effectively contributed to the improvement of the political situations in these countries. On the other hand, whether Japan’s and other aid donors’ measures of the “negative reinforcement” have effectively contributed to the improvement of the political situation in African countries remains as a contentious issue.