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Redirect Japan's ODA to humanitarian purposes
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

A governmental panel on overseas economic cooperation has begun discussing how to implement Japan's overseas development assistance (ODA) program.

The council, chaired by the Prime Minister and consisting of the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Foreign Minister, the Finance Minister, and the Economy, Trade and Industry Minister, was established as the "strategic headquarters" (Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo) to ensure centralized decision-making on and implementation of Japan's ODA programs. However, the panel is mainly interested in increasing the role of ODA in supporting the U.S. globalization strategy and serving the interests of Japan's large corporations making inroads into foreign markets, betraying the expectations of needy countries suffering from hunger and poverty.

Fallacy of argument about 'national interest'

Today, 1.2 billion out of the world's population of about 6 billion are said to be living on less than a dollar (110 yen or so) a day and about 400 million children are starving.

Japan should follow the constitutional principles of peace in order to play an active role in the area of humanitarian assistance.

However, the February 28 report that proposed establishing the council on Overseas Economic Cooperation called for an ODA to serve national interests. It is tantamount to forcing recipient countries to sympathize with Japanese foreign policy, and making ODA discriminatory and selective. It is obvious that the Japanese government is trying to extend ODA in return for votes supporting Japan as a United Nations permanent Security Council member.

It is serious that the report uses support for U.S. wars against terrorism as a criterion for receiving ODA. In February, the draft program of assistance to Pakistan, for example, evaluated the country as a frontline country that has opted to contribute to the international community in the war against terrorism and that it has improved its relations with developed countries including the United States. How outrageous it is for Japan to use ODA as a lever to urge other countries to support the United States!

The report is more blatant in its defense of the interests of large corporations. It uses the stretched logic that reducing poverty requires sustainable growth which in turn requires investments in the infrastructure. Thus, it particularly stresses the need for developing the economic infrastructure, including roads and ports, the main users of which are large corporations.

Among the 21 international aid donors, Japan is extraordinary in the high rate of its bilateral aid targeted for economic infrastructure projects. Performance in 2003 shows that Japan's rate was 21.7 percent, with the United States at 2.2 percent, and aid donors on average being 9.2 percent. No wonder that Japanese aid for humanitarian purposes is underfunded. The percentage of assistance in food is only 0.2 percent with Japan, while the U.S. shows 13.2 percent. Japan's rate is far below the average of aid donors at 8.4 percent.

Humanitarian aid must come first

In the Asia-Africa summit meeting last year, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro announced that Japan will increase its aid to Africa. However, it is Koizumi who has curtailed the percentage of aid to 33 poor African countries suffering from hunger and poverty from 7.3 percent in 2000 to 5.9 percent in 2004.
- Akahata, May 22, 2006