Japan’s Official Development Assistance in Southeast and South Asia: Strategy for Economic Revitalization and Regional Security Cooperation

Abstract

This paper examines Japan’s development cooperation policy, with a regional focus on Southeast and South Asia. In the 1990s, Japan embraced global norms and values in implementing development cooperation through the adoption of the Official Development Assistance Charter in 1992, in response to the criticisms of the international community against its economic interests-centered approaches. However, under the pressures of Japan’s protracted recession and the rise of China, Japan has reformulated its development cooperation policy so as to serve the country’s strategic interests, especially in the regions of Southeast and South Asia, since the early 2000s. This paper argues that Japan has endeavored to utilize its development cooperation as a policy tool to bring forth the country’s economic revitalization and build the regional security cooperation mechanism.