Japan Africa investments: chronicle of a missed economic appointment.
Japan announced on Saturday a major investment plan of $30 billion in three years for Africa. A program that gives the impression that Tokyo wants to play a more important economic role in Africa, but that it must be placed in a complicated historical context.
China, India, the United States, Europe... but also Japan. Everyone wants to put an economic foot in Africa, including the former empire of the Rising Sun, which we too often tend to forget when it comes to talking about foreign interests on the African continent.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, took it upon himself to recall this on Saturday, August 27, on the occasion of the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development held in Tunisia, promising that his country would invest a record $ 30 billion in Africa in three years.
Japan Africa investments
This is more than the $ 20 billion that Tokyo had committed to putting on the table to help the development of African countries in 2019. And not far from the $40 billion in loans promised by China, Japan's major regional competitor, to African countries last year.
These investment promises tick the main boxes of the emergencies that Africa must face. Fumio Kishida announced more than a billion to help the continent cope with epidemics such as Covid-19, and to support projects to fight global warming. Finally, Tokyo also wants to help Africa overcome the food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.
The rest of the $30 billion is to be used to encourage Japanese companies to invest in Africa. A familiar score in the end for anyone who knows the history of Japanese-African economic relations. This mix of humanitarian aid and investment promises is a cocktail that "Tokyo has already presented to African countries several times in the past," says Kweku Ampiah, a specialist in economic relations between Japan and African countries at the University of Leeds.
Japan Africa investments development
This is even the main credo of the last Tokyo International Conferences on African Development - also called Ticad (Tokyo International Conference on African Development). They are the ancestors of the economic summits for Africa organized by most of the major powers.
Japan is, in fact, a forerunner in this area. The first Ticad took place in Tokyo in 1993, a little before France did the same in 1996, then it was the turn of China (2006), India (2008), the United States (2014) and, finally, Russia (2019).
A pole position in the race for the African market from which Japan has not benefited at all. "Except at the time of the Ticad, Japan is invisible in Africa and Africa is invisible in Japan," summarizes Seifudein Adem, a specialist in international relations of Japan at DÅshisha University in Kyoto, interviewed by the South China Morning Post.
Worse, Japan has even lost ground. "It was the 4th largest trading partner of sub-Saharan African countries in 2004, and is now only 6th," emphasizes the Financial Times. "At the continental level, he is no longer even in the top 10 of the most important investors. Japan has even been surpassed by Singapore and Switzerland," emphasizes Kweku Ampiah.
Japan Africa investments history
A sad assessment that comes from a historical misunderstanding. "The Ticads were originally dependent on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs alone. In fact, despite its name as a development conference, it was a much more diplomatic initiative than an economic one," explains the specialist from the University of Leeds.
In the 1990s, Japan "sought to increase its international prestige and aimed for a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations", recalls Bolade M. Eyinla, professor of international relations at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, in a study of Japanese diplomacy in Africa published in 2019. To do this, it needed the support of African countries ... which Tokyo hoped to obtain in exchange for financial assistance negotiated on the occasion of these summits.
The economic interest of investing in Africa also did not jump out of the eyes of the Japanese at the turn of the twenty-first century. At the time, "the development of trade relations with other Asian countries was enough for Japan," notes Kweku Ampiah.
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