Japan’s changing official development assistance: How institutional reforms affected the role of Japan’s private sector in ODA delivery
Author
Summary, in English
Despite its OECD membership and transformation from aid recipient into a major donor of official development assistance (ODA), Japan has long been
criticized for pursuing commercial interests through its infrastructure-focused ODA, which has heavily relied on its own corporate private sector for implementation. Throughout the last two decades, institutional reforms have altered the structure and principles of Japan’s foreign aid; yet not much knowledge has been produced on how these reforms have changed the prominent role of Japan’s private sector in its aid implementation. This thesis undertook this question and applied the theoretical model of the iron triangle, native to political and development studies, to first establish the internal power relations between the involved corporations, bureaucracy and government prior to the reforms. Triangulation of quantitative data from MOFA and OECD statistics with qualitative data from interviews with non-commercial and business professionals in ODA was then conducted to determine how the role of the private sector has changed within the triangle. Further, changes within the private sector were
explored. While the ODA-affiliated firms comprising the corporate part of Japan’s private sector have become less influential as a consequence of the reforms, the civilian non-commercial part has gained more weight in aid implementation.
criticized for pursuing commercial interests through its infrastructure-focused ODA, which has heavily relied on its own corporate private sector for implementation. Throughout the last two decades, institutional reforms have altered the structure and principles of Japan’s foreign aid; yet not much knowledge has been produced on how these reforms have changed the prominent role of Japan’s private sector in its aid implementation. This thesis undertook this question and applied the theoretical model of the iron triangle, native to political and development studies, to first establish the internal power relations between the involved corporations, bureaucracy and government prior to the reforms. Triangulation of quantitative data from MOFA and OECD statistics with qualitative data from interviews with non-commercial and business professionals in ODA was then conducted to determine how the role of the private sector has changed within the triangle. Further, changes within the private sector were
explored. While the ODA-affiliated firms comprising the corporate part of Japan’s private sector have become less influential as a consequence of the reforms, the civilian non-commercial part has gained more weight in aid implementation.
Publishing year
2016
Language
English
Publication/Series
Working papers in contemporary Asian studies
Volume
2016
Issue
52
Full text
Document type
Working paper
Publisher
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
Topic
- Public Administration Studies
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Asian studies
- Official Development Assistance
- Foreign aid
- Japanese ODA
- Bilateral aid
- Aid implementation
- Private sector
- Reforms.
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1652-4128
- ISBN: 978-91-981692-2-5