Evolution of Japan's foreign policy to Africa and the TICAD process

Abstract

Este artigo analisa a evolucao da politica externa do Japao para Africa de 1950 ate a actualidade. As relacoes Japao – Africa sao tratadas de forma detalhada centrando-se nos aspectos politicos, economicos, diplomaticos, e de assistencia economica, com especial atencao para a nova estrategia de desenvolvimento do Japao para Africa atraves da Conferencia Internacional de Toquio para o Desenvolvimento Africano (TICAD) a partir de 1993. O principal argumento e que da decada de 1960 ate meados da decada de 1980, a assistencia japonesa foi mais uma necessidade na defesa dos interesses comerciais e de investimento do que uma ajuda desinteressada para Africa de um membro da OECD. Mas o fim da Guerra Fria, permitiu ao Japao atraves do TICAD ampliar o raio de accao da sua politica externa ao implementar varias politicas simultaneamente. O artigo conclui que a politica externa japonesa no âmbito da TICAD representa uma alteracao fundamental da estrategia de politica externa centrada exclusivamente numa diplomacia economica para uma diplomacia centrada em multiplos aspectos, incluindo os canais tradicionais de ajuda e cooperacao economica, reconstrucao e manutencao da paz, e seguranca humana num contexto alargado de seguranca nacional. This article traces the evolution of Japan’s foreign policy to Africa from the 1950s to the present day paying special attention to Japanese aid policy instruments. It focuses on the political, economic, diplomatic, and aid relations between Japan and Africa paying particular attention to the new aid development strategy through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in 1993. It argues that from the late 1960s to the mid1980s Japan used its aid policy to African countries as a means to boost trade and investment ties than as an obligation of an OECD member. However, Japan’s efforts to raise its influence in Africa have increased with the end ofthe Cold War through the TICAD Process. This conference amplified the space of manoeuvrability in Japan’s foreign policy implementing several policy goals along a number of dimensions simultaneously. The article concludes that the Japanese foreign policy within the TICAD Process represents a fundamental departure from the one-dimensional state-centred economic interests towards a multilateral approach in foreign policy, which include the traditional aid channels, economic cooperation, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, and human security aspects in the broader context of Japanese national security. Palavras-chave / Keywords Japao, Politica externa, Assistencia economica, TICAD. Japan, Foreign policy, Aid, TICAD.

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