Japan’s Development Assistance: Foreign Aid and the Post-2015 Agenda

In the words of the editors, Kato Hiroshi, John Page, and Shimomura Yasutami, this book aims to reflect on past accomplishments and lessons from the 60-year history of Japan’s foreign assistance and look to the future, particularly the role of Japan in a rapidly changing aid picture. It draws on the results of a research project conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI). The publication of the book is timely, signaling the JICA-RI’s resolve to make an intellectual contribution to global policy debates at a turning point of international development. Globally, the international aid community was groping for the post-2015 development framework, which was later shaped into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted at the United Nations (UN) Summit in September 2015. Domestically, the year 2014 marked 60 anniversary of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had just begun the formulation of the new Development Cooperation Charter by revising the 2003 ODA Charter. Japan is the first, non-Western emerging donor with an early history of successful industrial catch-up. Therefore, I consider it appropriate and meaningful that Japan put forward lessons from its aid and development experiences for the emerging post-2015 development agenda, as well as its own future development cooperation policy.