Japan's Strengthened Alliance with Africa

After having already made a $32 billion pledge to Africa over a five-year period at the last Tokyo International Conference on African Development, Japan’s decision to invest $30 billion in Africa over the coming years, could not have come at a better time. With dwindling oil revenues, other badly affected commodity prices, and several new conflicts, Japan’s contribution to African states may serve to provide greater balance to their economic climates.

For African states to meet their economic potentials, infrastructure development is imperative. $10 billion of the investment will be used for the development of the continent’s electrical power, urban transport systems, roads and ports. The African Development Bank will play a key role in the execution of the investments. The remaining $20 billion will be utilised in Africa through Japan’s private sector. Japanese Prime Minister, Abe is confident that in Africa, “Japan can grow vigorously”. 

It is clear that Japan has embraced the opportunities for mutual benefit that partnering with African states offer. For this reason, Japanese government officials and top business leaders will be visiting the continent every three years. With further collaboration and deliberation, Japan’s trade with the continent could be increased from the $24bn it achieved in 2015.

After the 2011 Fukushima natural disaster shut almost all of Japan’s nuclear reactors, Japan’s surging dependence on oil and natural gas means that it has even greater interests in gaining access to Africa’s natural resources. Africa will certainly gain from an exchange of resources. It’s deficit in electric production capacity, may be reduced by Japan as its Foreign Ministry stated its intentions to increase production capacity to 2,200 megawatts. This however, may not be the only reason for the recent interests by Japan in direct investments in Africa. 

In contrast to China’s $2 billion investment in Equatorial Guinea, Japan’s overall direct investment in Africa in 2015 was $1.24 billion. In 2014,China pledged $60 billion to interest-free loans, preferential financing and funding to support development in Africa. China’s incessant pursuit of successful investments in Africa have put pressure on other Asian economies to pay closer attention to the fruits that the continent may bare for investors. Japan’s involvement in Africa, however is nothing new. In as early as 1927, Japanese healthcare professionals such as Dr. 

Dr. Noguchi were deeply involved in contributing to the progression of healthcare in Africa. Since then,at least 15,000 Japanese young people have contributed to the transfer of technology across Africa. These are some of the key factors that Prime Minister Abe believes to be guiding principles for Japan’s engagement with Africa. 

Africa’s significant youth population of over 200 million (19 per cent of the global youth population) is almost equalled by the disappointingly low deficit in resources allocated to education and healthcare across the continent. Japan’s collaboration with African states will lead to expenditure on training 20,000 mathematics and science teachers and 20,000 disease experts in Africa. 

As Prime Minister Abe has stated, Japan’s involvement in helping African states form “homegrown industries” will reduce the effects of the depression in wages resulting from volatile commodity prices. This will involve the adoption of some of the aspects of Japanese culture that have made many of its companies global giants in their industries. Ethiopian employees are already embracing the Japanese Kaizen initiative that empowers workers to continuously improve working methods and productivity. 

The continued growth in collaboration between African and Asian states may be welcomed with more positive reception as both continents are home to many of the world’s fastest growing economies in similar stages of infancy. A common vision may be shared in some respects which may be complimented by different approaches to transforming such visions to reality. As history has shown us, the face of the global economy would be very different without the sustainable expansion of Asian nations like Japan. With first hand experience of this, Japan with its actions, has acknowledged that the state of global development will not be the same without African development.