JAPAN: Premier’s Trip Pushes Africa up in Tokyo’s Priorities

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jan 5 2001 (IPS) - Departing from Japan’s traditional diplomacy, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is going to Africa this week in a trip that shows the widening diplomatic interests of the world’s second richest nation, say analysts here.

“There is really no particular focus on the visit to the three African nations by Prime Minister Mori,” explained professor Fumio Kaneko, an expert on development issues.

“The move is intended to indicate Japan’s growing commitment to a region that has hitherto been on the back burner in Japanese diplomacy,” he added.

While previous Japanese leaders have chosen Asia or western countries as important destinations at the start of the year, Mori will leave on Jan. 7 for a week’s tour to South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, and then go to Greece.

Analysts note that the African visit marks the first by a Japanese premier. Only high-ranking foreign ministry officials have met with leaders of the sub-Saharan countries until now.

Indeed, foreign ministry officials say the visit will pave the way for closer relations with a region that Japan has not had frequent contacts with.

“Japan’s relationships with African countries have finally reached the summit level,” a senior foreign ministry official told the Japanese media recently.

He added that as a global leader, Japan must play a role to help eradicate poverty in the region.

Mori is scheduled to give a speech in South Africa touching on promoting people-to-people exchanges between Japan and Africa, and reinforcing ties between the Asian and African contents.

Meeting the press recently, Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima emphasised the need for Japan to “share with African countries their various problems and difficulties”.

Experts say Mori’s trip will highlight Japanese commitment to the poorest of the world’s poor — and also help Tokyo court the support of the 53 nations in the African continent in its bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

“There is no doubt that winning Africa’s favour is a big part of the unusual new year diplomatic decision,” said Kaneko.

The trip also comes on the heels of the government’s new year resolution to reduce Japan’s budget for overseas development assistance — a 3 percent cut in fiscal 2001 — but raise the quality of aid that has been criticised for not being effective in eradicating poverty in developing countries.

Asia is the biggest recipient of Japanese ODA, getting 63.2 percent of its aid pie in 1999 compared with only 9.5 percent for Africa during the same year.

In trade, Africa makes up only 8 percent of Japan’s export market compared to 32 percent for Asia, according to official figures.

The foreign ministry adds that Mori’s African trip follows Japan’s move during the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa in July to create a dialogue between the world’s richest countries and Africa.

At the time, Japan invited the leaders of South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria to Tokyo for a pre-summit meeting. There, the government expressed its desire to cooperate with Africa in areas including development, conflict prevention and fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

But Yu Tanaka, a development author and critic of Japan’s ODA policies, points out that in reality Mori will be visiting the three African countries in the interest of the Japanese economy.

South Africa remains Japan’s largest trading partner in Africa, with two-way trade reaching 1.85 billion U.S. dollars in 1999.

Nigeria is an important source of crude oil for energy poor Japan, and petroleum and related products are their top export commodities.

Kenya, formerly a top exporter of ivory to Japan until the international ban on its trade, is the highest recipient of Japanese aid in Africa. Loans to Kenya reached 1.7 billion yen (15.45 million dollars) in 1997.

There are plans to construct a dam there, funded partly by the Japanese government, but they have been delayed due to local opposition.

Kenya recently decided not to apply for debt relief after fearing a reduction of aid funds, based on Tokyo’s official policy of not lending to countries that are not paying their debt. Kenya’s external debt currently stands at around 4.6 billion dollars.

“If Mori is touring to promote Japan’s desire to reduce poverty, he should be talking about canceling debt,” argued Tanaka.

But professor Ryokichi Hirano, an adviser to the Japanese government, says the visit aims mostly to offer a Japanese leader first-hand experience about problems in Africa.

“He will be paving the path for Japanese leaders to learn about the refugee problem caused by regional and internal disputes and other issues”, among others, Hirano explained.

Any which way, analysts agree that a visit by the prime minister is long overdue given Japan’s neglect of Africa.

“Africa has a high potential for major development and we should consider our relationship from a long-term perspective,” said Muneo Suzuki, chairman of an association of Japanese and African parliamentarians and a leader in the Liberal Democratic Party.