Japan’s Africa aid rivals China in terms of ‘quality over quantity’: analysts

Name: Japan pledges US$30 billion of aid and investment for Africa to counter Chinese influence
Uploaded: 2022-10-02T03:00:23.000Z
Duration: 2 min 55 s
Description: Japan pledges US$30 billion of aid and investment for Africa to counter Chinese influence

Japan has been investing in the continent for longer than China and applies international standards to its infrastructure financing, analysts said

Its pockets may not be as deep, but its support of good governance and democratic principles makes it a tempting development partner for African states

Reading Time:5 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Engineers from China and Tanzania on a construction site in Dar es Salaam. Analysts said Japan focuses on providing training to African countries rather than exporting its workers like China does. Photo: Xinhua

Maria Siow

Published: 11:00am, 2 Oct 2022

Japan might not be able to rival China when it comes to exerting economic influence on the African continent, but analysts say Tokyo can offer an alternative model of development and compete with Beijing on providing infrastructure financing and good governance to international standards.

While it may currently seem like Japan is eager to play catch up with China in Africa, they said it has in fact long been one of the most important actors on the continent.

Late last month, at the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held in Tunisia, Japan pledged US$30 billion in public and private financial contributions to the continent over the next three years.

02:55

Japan pledges US$30 billion of aid and investment for Africa to counter Chinese influence

The move has been widely seen as an attempt to exert economic and diplomatic influence in Africa and counter China’s standing.

Speaking via video link, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to help Africa “urgently deal with issues such as … unfair and opaque development finance”, in what was interpreted as a swipe at China’s lending practices.

Beijing has denied that it aims to catch countries in a “debt trap” with its Belt and Road Initiative, as Japan and other Group of 7 members have claimed, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying last month that “the so-called Chinese debt trap is a lie made up by the US and some other Western countries to deflect responsibility and blame”.

Purnendra Jain, visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies, said Japan can offer an alternative development model for Africa.