Japan’s official development assistance should be directed at combating poverty

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Japan’s official development assistance should be directed at combating poverty

Akahata editorial (excerpt)

Japan’s budget for its official development assistance (ODA) program was the largest worldwide until 2000. It ranked fifth in 2007.

With the Tokyo International Conference on African Development scheduled for May under Japan’s initiative, followed by the G8 Toyako Summit in July, Japan will not escape severe international criticism for reducing its ODA budget.

Japan has reduced its ODA budget since 2001, the year after the U.N. Millennium Summit. Japan’s foreign assistance shrank by 42 percent in the 7 years since 2000. The actual amount of Japan’s expenditure on ODA almost halved to about 780 billion yen from 1.3 trillion yen.

Japan cannot escape international criticism for turning its back on the commitment made by the international community at the U.N. Millennium Summit in 2000 to halve by 2015 the number of people in extreme poverty and hunger, who are living on less than a dollar a day as part of the effort to eradicate world poverty and hunger.

Japan puts too much emphasis on arms

The reason the government gave for cutting its ODA budget has been financial difficulties. That’s nothing but an excuse.

In the seven years since 2000, Japan has reduced its 5-trillion military budget only by 2.8 percent. The Japanese Constitution states that it renounces war and prohibits Japan from maintaining war potential. It is unconstitutional to allocate tax money for anything that enables Japan to fight wars abroad. What should drastically be cut is not the ODA budget but the military budget.

The Constitution calls for Japan to contribute to world peace and social progress by peaceful means. The government should stop neglecting the Constitution and break away from the present policy of slashing the ODA budget. Efforts to defend the Constitution and expand the ODA budget are obviously consistent with what the international community needs.

More efforts for humanitarian aid required

Japan’s ODA has been devoted to serving the interests of U.S. global policy and Japan’s large corporations rather than serving humanitarian assistance. It is also important to not only provide yen loans for construction of dams but also increase grant aid in food and education.

Japan should put greater emphasis on humanitarian assistance and shift its ODA policy to one that pays more attention to combating poverty and hunger.

- Akahata, April 21, 2008