Development assistance is based on a combination of solidarity and enlightened self-interest, and the clear guiding principle of Japanese development cooperation is “to contribute to the peace and development of the international community, and thereby help to ensure Japan’s own security and prosperity”.
Japan draws on 60 years of experience and sees foreign aid as being in its own long-term interests and an important part of its foreign policy. However, Japan is increasingly going beyond this to show more and more solidarity with other parts of the world. The devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011 brought a renewed sense of the role that Japanese aid plays in strengthening that trust and solidarity across the world.
Development cooperation is a chance to exert leadership in the world. According to the latest peer review by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Japan has unique disaster risk reduction experiences and competence in handling disasters, both with respect to advancing the international agenda and its own national programs.
About the author
Erik Solheim
Erik Solheim is chair of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee since January 2013, and incoming executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. With a solid background in climate, the environment and peace building, Solheim was also Norway’s minister for international development from 2005 to 2012.
