Progress in Development Studies 23, 3 (2023) pp. 275–293

Development Knowledge in the
Making: The Case of Japan,
South Korea and China
Soyeun Kim , Muyun Wang and Jin Sato
Abstract: Development knowledge sharing (DKS) by Japan, South Korea and China has rapidly
expanded over the last decade. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the nature andprocesses of their claimed-to-be ‘unique’ development knowledge production. To address this researchgap, we explore their international development studies (IDS) as key sites where researchers andresources are ‘mobilized’ under high-level policy initiatives. We find that processes of DKS are principally dictated by the governmental agenda. We also find that, in contradiction to three countries’
claim of ‘unique knowledge’, their IDS share common traits with Western IDS offering knowledge
that is decontextualized, depoliticized and which claims to be universally applicable knowledge.
Key words: China, development cooperation, international development studies, Japan, knowledge
sharing, South Korea

I. Introduction
Since the new millennium, the landscape ofdevelopment cooperation has been diversified
by many actors through their ideational,
material and financial contributions (Januset al., 2015). Much of this transformation has
been attributed to the absolute and relativerise of South–South Cooperation (SSC)—
particularly, the rapidly growing influence ofChinese SSC (Kragelund, 2015; Li and Carey,2014).
‘The earlier vision of traditional donors in
the West1 of development cooperation with
SSC partners, like China, was orientatedtowards ‘socializing’ them to internalizeinternational norms (Chin, 2012). Today,
however, these traditional donors in the Westhave embraced some policy narratives and© 2023 Sage Publications

practices of SSC, centred more explicitly
on the importance of ‘mutually beneficial’reciprocity (Mawdsley et al., 2018) and on
state-coordinated investment partnerships(Alami et al., 2021; Gonzalez-Vicente, 2019).
Such reorientation in development cooperation
has been referred to by some as ‘pivoting toAsia’ (Asplund and Söderberg, 2018). This rings
especially true if we consider how these SSC
features, once a much-discussed ‘unofficial
Japanese trademark’ (Söderberg, 2018: 4),
have become the prevailing characteristics
of various Asian development cooperation
partners (namely, China and South Korea).
These characteristics include, for example, theprinciples of non-interference (thus, requestbased), self-reliance, the critical importanceof infrastructure building with loans and10.1177/14649934231173824

276 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
mutual help or mutually beneficial cooperationthat also serves the donor’s national interests(Shimomura, 2020; Sato and Shimomura, 2013).
Moreover, this trend is discernible not only in
traditional donor policy and practice (Mawdsley,2018) but also in the Southern political elite’s ‘Look
East’policy initiatives. Southern leaders have begun
to seek development knowledge to emulate the‘East Asian miracle’ (Fourie, 2017) because they
consider the East Asian experience more directly
relevant owing to its relatively recent history(seeYi and Mkandawire, 2014). Following Southerndemands, the governments of Japan, China andSouth Korea have accelerated their development
knowledge sharing (DKS) while emphasizing their‘unique’ and applicable development knowledge.
With a surge in DKS, these three countries haveincreased their efforts and funding for researchand teaching in international development studies(IDS) to expedite knowledge production andto nurture experts in the field of development
cooperation.2
However, there has been relatively little
scholarly attention to the history, nature andconstellations of IDS and related knowledge
production for DKS in Japan, South Korea
and China. Filling the research gap is important for two reasons. First, IDS serves as a
key site where researchers are ‘mobilized’ to
produce ‘development knowledge’ for state-led
development cooperation activities that arelargely centred on the Official Development
Assistance (ODA) for Japan and South Korea
or SSC for China. Hence, the very nature of
IDS’ relationship with the state-led ODA or
SSC projects has undeniably impacted thetype of knowledge produced. Second, it highlights regional/national traits of knowledge
production in the three countries’ IDS where
the high-level policy initiatives are dominant
in dictating the nature and orientation of knowledge production. This aspect accentuates
the value of studying IDS by moving beyond
Western outlets and spaces to better understand ‘the politics of knowledge generation’ in
the field (Sumner, 2022: 12; see also Patel, 2022;
Patel and North, 2022; Schmoll, 2022).

Our article addresses this gap in three steps.
First, it begins with a brief discussion of thecontemporary semantics of ‘development’ inrelation to development cooperation as the ideationalfoundation of IDS. Hence, by exploring thecontext-dependent translation of development,
the study elucidates (a) how ‘development
at home’ is closely associated with the stateled planned intervention, (b) and how such a
notion of development at home is inextricablyintertwined with particular approaches andprinciples of development cooperation, that is,‘development abroad’. Second, the article traces
processes of the IDS’s evolution leading up to
its formal institutionalization and thereafter inchronological terms. In doing so, we highlightmultiplicities of such processes in which state-led
initiatives engendered preference to practicecentred instrumental knowledge in IDS. Finally,
the article explores two events to examine how
the above propensities of IDS have become
dominant in more detail: the rapid growth ofstate-led development cooperation, and theardent promotion their own unique development
knowledge via DKS amidst increasing donor
competition. In doing so, we argue that thecontent, focus and institutional/organizational
incarnation of IDS in East Asia is strongly shapedby high-level policy initiatives for state-led
development cooperation. Further, in contrast
to three countries’ claim to be producing ‘uniqueknowledge’, we find that related processes in IDS
share common traits with Western IDS offeringknowledge that is decontextualized, depoliticized
and which claims to be universally applicableknowledge (see Li, 2007; Ferguson, 1994).
Our use of the term ‘state-led’ is specific andrefers to the allocation and mobilization of wideranging resources to pursue high-level policy
initiatives by the central governments in the three
countries (see Haggard, 2018; Woo-Cumings,
1999). Although development cooperation
systems in the three countries are fragmented,
resulting in ministerial turf wars (Kim and Gray,
2016; Sato, 2015), our assessment is that thiscomplexity does not impinge significantly on
the higher-level processes whereby the state

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Kim et al.
influences the production of IDS (see also
Notes 9 and 14). Hence, we focus on thosestate-led policy initiatives as top-down
agendas for which both governmental andnon-governmental actors (albeit with divergent
approaches and motivations) are mobilized
to achieve the set objectives specified in theinitiatives (Kim and Kang, 2015: 782–86).
The article primarily relies on and integrates
the authors’ previous research conducted
between 2014 and 2019. Our analysis of thethree countries’ IDS is based on literature
reviews and fieldwork in China, Japan,
South Korea and beyond (Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines andThailand). For the literature review, we primarily
considered secondary materials publishedin local languages—including academic andprofessional research and policy documents.
As for the fieldwork, our account derives from:first, participatory observation of academic
conferences/workshops, work meetings at aid
agencies and relevant government ministries
and, second, informal conversations and 31
semi-structured interviews with researchers
and teachers in IDS, aid bureaucrats andnon-governmental professionals (consultants
and NGO workers) in state-led development
cooperation.
II. Understanding Development
Through Cooperation
We begin our discussion on knowledge production in IDS with locally specific understandingsof development and development cooperation
as an ideational basis. This is because they
foreground what constitutes ‘desirable’
approaches and principles for each respective
aid/SSC provider (see Sumner, 2022; Powell
and Cummings, 2019; Mawdsley, 2018, 2012).
For example, the English term ‘development’
was first translated into Japan in the 19th
century. And the Japanese context-dependenttranslations—kaihatsu (開 発 ) and hatten(発 展 ) —were later ‘borrowed’ into theChinese and South Korean languages (Wang,2020). Despite the etymological diversity in

277

Table 1. Translating ‘Development’.
OriginJapanese Chinese Korean

Intransitive
verb
Transitiveverb

hatten/発展
kaihatsu/
開発

fazhan/发展
kaifa/
开发bahl-jeon/
발전, 發展
gae-bal/개발,開發meanings and usages owing to the differentiated socio-historical background of the three
countries, there are still some generalizable
traits relevant to our analysis (see Table 1).
Kaihatsu/kaifa/gae-bal are used to indicate
intentional practices as part of state-led plannedintervention that advances industrialization or
improves material existence by making use of(i.e., exploiting) natural resources (Wang, 2020;
Kim and Kang, 2018; Nishikawa, 2004). Hatten/
fazhan/bahl-jeon refer to broad processes ofsocietal change and connote a more progressive
view of history with a vision of improving thequality of life (see Kim, 2009: 29–30).3 And,
these locally specific notions of development
naturally informed approaches and principles
of development cooperation—as highlighted
in the remark of Hiroshi Sato, the former
president of the Japan Society for International
Development (JASID):
For Westerners, development is [intended]
for Others. But for Easterners, development is more about ourselves. [Although] we[East Asian donors] distinguish spontaneousdevelopment (hatten) from development as[state-led planned] intervention (kaihatsu),
kaihatsu [abroad] is intrinsically by/of local
people, so we as outsiders only support hatten
by/of local people [through] … ‘international[development] cooperation’ … [rather than]international development. (Sato, 2014,
emphasis added)

Sato’s remarks accentuate how locally specific meanings promulgate development as
the critical task for both Easterners’ andSouthern partners to catch up with Westernadvanced economies through mutual help
(i.e., cooperation). This point is also clearlyobservable in the naming of aid agencies, such as

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278 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
the Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA), China International Development
Cooperation Agency and South Korea
International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Thus, this notion of development throughcooperation led to specific approaches andprinciples to achieve the goal of development athome and abroad simultaneously (Shimomura,2013). This is because Japan, China andSouth Korea ‘have long pursued commercial/
capitalist development objectives [at home]through, within, and alongside what could be
regarded as their (international) Development
interventions [i.e., development abroad]’(Mawdsley and Taggart, 2021: 12). Suchapproaches are showcased in the trinity(sanmi-ittai) model—in which development athome to catch up with advanced economies
is inextricably intertwined with development
abroad. Originally promoted by Japanbetween the late 1980s and the 1990s, thetrinity model is a comprehensive economic
cooperation package built on a nexus of aid,
direct investment and trade in Asia (Abe,2011: 799). This model was later used asa benchmark for South Korea, and alsoborrowed and reformulated by China as a key
approach for their development cooperation(Shimomura and Wang, 2012; Brautigam,
2009). Hence, development cooperation
informed by such approaches and principles
further highlights the importance of DKS for
mutual help via cooperation.
III. Tracing the Genealogy of IDS
By tracing the evolution of IDS, we elucidate
the significance of fuller-scale state-led
development cooperation en route to theformal institutionalization of IDS in all three
countries. In doing so, we first highlight how
diverse forces, paths and sources originallyconstituted the field of IDS in three countries.
This underpins an analysis of how high-level
policy initiatives have increasingly become asalient determinant for knowledge productionin IDS—as some researchers and Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) have chosen to either

work with, or distance themselves from, stateled projects.
Towards Formal Institutionalization:
Diverse Forces at PlayJapan
Among the three countries, Japan has thelongest history of IDS-related knowledge
production, beginning in the late 19th century,
through modernization (‘development at home)and colonial administration (‘development
abroad’). The pre-war ‘colonial policy studies’
emphasized Japan’s mission as a ‘doerof development’ equipped with practicalknowledge and technology to govern ‘natives’in colonized territories, rather than abstraction/
theorization of development and modernization
processes (Sato, 2021). One such practicalcurriculum was first taught at the nationallyestablished Kyoto Imperial College in 1903
and later at Tokyo Imperial College in 1909
(Kitaoka, 1993). Thus, knowledge productionin the pre-war colonial policy studies was‘practice-centred’ with a strong state-led
planned interventionist drive to acceleratemodernization via territorial expansion.
The early years of post-war era (1950s–
1960s) witnessed both continuity anddiscontinuity from the pre-war era. Those
who were part of the pre-war and war-timebureaucracy and IDS-related studies continued
their work into post-war IDS-related knowledge
production (Nakauchi, 2010; Ohno, 2004). For
example, the former foreign minister Okita
Saburo, an economist and a statesman, playeda key role in designing the policy for Japan’s
economic reconstruction as well ­­as for advising
many governments in Asia and international
institutions in formulating development
strategies (Kosai and Van Tho, 1994).
Thus, knowledge from the pre-war andwartime laid a foundation for IDS despite abrupt
administrative and social changes brought about
by the defeat in the Pacific War. Simultaneously,
the legacy of the pre-war ‘colonial policy studies’
was deliberately muted in post-war IDSrelated knowledge production (Matsuda, 2020;

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Kim et al.
Sato, 2018). This selective mutism, stemmed
from historical sensitivity for Japan’s war guilt,
was particularly designed to address antiJapanese sentiments in neighbouring Asia
(Suehiro, 1995). For example, the Institute ofDeveloping Economies (IDE) was originallyestablished under the auspices of the Japanese
government in 1958 to provide knowledge tosupport the overseas expansion of Japanesecompanies (Interview, 2022c). However,some key members of IDE then were criticalof actively partaking in state-led development
cooperation projects (Sato, 2021; Karashima,2018). Their distancing efforts aimed to pave
the way for Japan’s (more welcomed) re-entry
into international society (Interview, 2022c).
Thus, while some IDE researchers actively
partook in projects guided by the high-level
policy initiatives, others were trained to become
developing country (area) specialists throughmore locally grounded field research in the global
South (Interview, 2022c). The majority of area
specialists emphasized the contribution of IDSrelated research to the people of developing
countries rather than Japan’s business and themercantilist ODA policies and practices (seeKarashima, 2015).4
Such area specialists’ apathy towards themercantilist ODA gained more ground in the late1980s as the widely reported Marcos Scandal
in the Philippines5 exposed corruption andembezzlement in Japan’s ODA projects (Tsuda
and Yokoyama, 1999). Field-based research byarea specialists began to raise concerns about
Japan’s large-scale ODA-funded projects.
Hence, the scope and volume of researchincreased which was critical of development
cooperation, in relation to corruption, and(adverse) impact on local environments,
livelihoods and human rights (Murai and ODAchosakenkyukai, 1989; Sumi, 1989). Suchreflexive knowledge production was further
strengthened by Western-trained academics
whose research casted a critical eye on Japan’s
own development at home (Nishikawa, 1990;
Tsurumi, 1990) and by campaigns for Japan’s
ODA reform by CSOs (Sato, 2021).

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South Korea
The genesis of South Korea’s IDS can be traced
to the state’s (re)building and industrialization
process between the 1950s and 1970s,
after the South Korean War (Kim, 2011).
Propensities towards the nascent ‘plannedinterventionism’ were clearly observable in
IDS-related knowledge production at thistime. Hence, research focused on economics,
engineering, international trade and public
administration—largely as a practical tool for‘development at home’. Although limited,
there was some IDS-related academic researchon the socio-economic effects of foreign aid ondeveloping countries—in particular, the effectof US aid to South Korea (Lee, 1956 citedin Zoo et al., 2016: 16). Until the 1960s, theUS assistance was the major form of foreign
capital inflow (Han, 1980), which was criticalfor state (re)building and industrialization.
However, IDS-related research grewthrough the 1980s and 1990s, driven by South
Korea’s graduation from being an ODA recipient
and its achievement of lower-middle-income
country status (Calleja and Prizzon, 2019).
As an emerging economy undergoing rapid
growth, South Korea embarked upon its
own SSC (development abroad) to respondto the increasingly challenging climate of theinternational political economy in the 1980s(Gills, 1996). Thus, IDS-related researchduring this period began to focus on twoareas. The first was SSC, with the purpose of
exploring the topics of the mutually beneficial
economic and technical cooperation amongdeveloping countries (Zoo et al., 2016). For
economic SSC, IDS-related research aimed tohelp South Korean firms/industries diversify
their markets in, and secure resources from,developing nations (Kim, 2016)—mainly bylearning from Japan’s aid diplomacy (Zooet al., 2016). Thus, research reflected the South
Korean government’s intention to utilize SSC
as statecraft for commercial advancement indeveloping countries (Zoo et al., 2016). For
technical SSC, a state-funded think-tank, theSouth Korean Development Institute (KDI),

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280 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
played a key role in operating the International
Development Exchange Program (IDEP) toshare South Korea’s development experience(KDI, 1998: i). 6 Ultimately, IDEP’s main
activities were to produce tailor-made practicecentred knowledge to meet the specific needs ofdeveloping and transitional economies, throughwhich the South Korean government shared its
experience based on major development policies(e.g., industrial and trade).
China
The root of China’s IDS can be traced
back to related fields of research—including
development economics and area studies 7
and its early experience both as a donor and arecipient since 1945.8 However, this extensive
experience in development cooperation has
neither systematically informed nor shaped theknowledge production specifically for IDS until
the 1990s (Zhang, 2012:7). IDS was introduced
to China in the 1990s with the inflow ofvarious international aid activities. ‘Advanced’and ‘progressive’ Western approaches weremainly adopted to improve China’s domestic
development—for example, participatory
development and gender-mainstreaming (Wang,
2021: 110; Li, 2019). The import of the Westernknowledge has been mainly led by agronomists
from China Agricultural University (CAU). For
example, Li Xiaoyun, dubbed ‘the father ofChina’s IDS’, first learned about IDS throughhis work with West Germany’s aid projects
in China in the late 1980s, and later received
academic training in IDS in Germany and theNetherlands (Wang, 2021). Funded by theFord Foundation, the first Chinese academic
department in IDS specializing in the ruraldevelopment, and which later became one partof the College of Humanities and Development
Studies, was established primarily through theintellectual endeavours of individual scholars at
CAU in 1998.
Since the turn of the millennium, China
resumed fuller-scale SSC (development abroad)
via the Forum on China-Africa Cooperationand the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). During

this period, Chinese scholars began to morethoroughly question previous practices of simply
borrowing and learning from the West. Threefactors drove this change. First, researchers grew
more confident in China’s own experience andknowledge since China recorded ‘uninterrupted’
growth despite the 2007–2008 global financial
crisis. As such, researchers began to revisit andrevalidate China’s development experience(Cheng and Liu, 2021; Lin and Wang, 2017). The
second factor stemmed from the rapid expansionof China’s SSC (King, 2013; Taylor, 2010). The
phenomenal growth of China’s SSC to Africa
has naturally attracted international attention—
particularly from Western critics such as Naím
(2007). An increased number of critical studies
have also investigated the negative effects ofChina’s SSC, including trade imbalance, resource
grabbing and its neo-colonial nature (Alden andAlves, 2009; Brookes, 2007; Naidu and Davies,
2006). Hence, Chinese researchers have madeconcerted efforts to refute the criticisms (Li,2006; Liu, 2006). Their works highlight how
China’s SSC values ‘learning by doing’ andfeasible practice-centred approaches in contrast
to the traditional DAC donors’ overemphasis on
theory-led policy prescriptions underpinned byneoliberal norms (Li et al., 2014). The third factor
relates to the introduction of poststructuralist
and post-developmental critiques from Western
academia. After the introduction of Arturo
Escobar’s work (1995) in the mid-2000s, Chinese
scholars began to critique development as achimeric construct of the West (Ye, 2015, 2011).
Thus, a significant number of development
experts began to work with Southern partnercountries to find their own locally suitableapproaches as opposed to working with universal
development models (Li, 2019).
Institutionalizing the Field: The State-led
Initiatives at WorkJapan
Reaching the world’s largest donor status in1989 precipitated a dire need to improve thecapacities and human resources of Japan’s‘aid industry’, including ODA-implementing

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Kim et al.
agencies and development professionals (Sato,2022). The aid industry was unequipped
to handle rapidly expanding budgets andoperations (see Araki, 2020). Thus, think-tanks
were organized within ODA implementing
agencies to address these needs. For example,
the Institute for International Cooperation(JICA-IIC) was established within JICA in 1983
to provide knowledge and skills of immediate
relevance to its technical cooperation (JICA-RI,
n.d.b). The Research Institute of Development
Assistance (RIDA) was established within
the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund
(OECF—handling bilateral loans) in 1993 tosupport developing countries by providing
knowledge based on Japan’s development
experience (Nishigaki, 1994). Further, agovernment-commissioned advisory group—the ‘Study Group on the Optimisation ofODA Implementation’—stressed the urgencyof higher education programmes to expand/expedite human resource training for theaid industry (MOFA, 1986). Hence, theJapanese government instituted various
research and teaching/training organizations
and university programmes in IDS. They
included the Foundation for Advanced Studies
on International Development (FASID) in
1990, the IDE’s Advanced School (IDEAS)
in 1990, the National Graduate Institute for
Policy Studies (GRIPS) in 1997 and graduate
IDS degree programmes at major national
universities at Nagoya in 1991, Kobe in 1992,
Hiroshima in 1994 and Tokyo in 1999 (Interview
2022c; Ito 2017; GRIPS, n.d.; IDE, n.d.).9
Japan’s IDS formally took shape when
JASID, established in 1990 with Okita Saburo
as its first president, gathered 500 members
ranging from consultants and practitioners toacademics and representing various disciplinesof study. JASID contributed not only topromoting interdisciplinary research andteaching in IDS but also to creating a platform
for development practitioners to share theirprofessional experiences (Nishikawa, 2010).
However, IDS as an emerging academic field
failed to reflect on Japan’s own development

281

experience. This was because the aid industry
prioritized instrumental knowledge to assist
Japan’s expanding ODA operation. Sucha tendency deprived Japan’s development
experts of opportunities to fully reflect upon
Japan’s development experience spanning fromthe colonial policy studies, to becoming an aid
recipient and then to promoting economic
development (Sato, 2021).
Since the mid-2000s, the above tendency
has become stronger with the greater
participation of IDS scholars in state-led
development cooperation projects, which was
further underpinned by two developments.
First, JICA-IIC was upgraded to the JICA
Research Institute (JICA-RI) in 2008 throughits merger with RIDA. This constitution waslargely due to the late Ogata Sadako’s visionof research as a foundation for development
activities which would in turn strengthen
the institutional capacity of JICA.10 Second,
the government funded some universities
to establish graduate programs on Japan’s
modernization experience in partnershipwith JICA. These courses were designed toshare Japan’s development knowledge with
policymakers and practitioners from developing
countries (JICA, 2022, n.d.)South Korea
South Korea’s IDS was formally institutionalized
during the 2000s. Not only did the volume
of IDS research increase, but its scopealso diversified to include issues of humanrights, poverty reduction and education (Zooet al., 2016) by importing relevant theoreticaldebates from Anglo-American academia (Kimand Kang, 2015: 785–89). It was during thisperiod that the South Korean government
started its full-fledged preparation for entry inOECD-DAC scheduled for 2010. Therefore,
IDS shifted to focus on the mainstream aid
discourse (e.g., the OECD-DAC norms, theMillennium Development Goals) as well as on
ODA architecture (Zoo et al., 2016). Witha rapidly increasing aid budget, there was astrong state-led initiative to forge and expand

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282 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
the ‘international development sector’ (Kimand Kang, 2018).11 The industry lacked both
institutional capacity (of aid agencies) andwell-trained professionals to handle expanding
operations (Interview, 2020). Thus, theSouth Korean Association of International
Development and Cooperation (KAIDEC) was
formally established out of necessity in 2007
(Interview, 2020).
As a multi-disciplinary association encompassing diverse actors from academia, government, business and CSOs, KAIDEC’s
aim was to promote research and teaching
to better support policy development forstate-led development cooperation (KAIDEC,
2015). KAIDEC’s annual conference themes
were, until recently, decided by South Korea’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), which
also financed the conferences. Key membersof KAIDEC (i.e., presidents and various committee chairs) have been important contributors at the MOFA-organized international
ODA conferences and meetings. Further,
the South Korean government establishedfunding to expand undergraduate training in
IDS under KOICA through which universities
bid and run undergraduate introductory IDS
courses to train future ODA workers (Park etal., 2015).12 As curricula were in the making,they remained largely ad hoc and disparate
in character, including basic introductions to
the ODA architecture and key policy issues
concerning OECD-DAC norms (Park et al.,2015). Hence, both research and teachingin IDS lacked a systemic approach to a wide
range of epistemological debates and criticalissues concerning development cooperation(Kim and Kang, 2018). As such, some South
Korean students chose to study abroad toreceive their postgraduate IDS degrees fromuniversities in anglophone countries—mostly
the US and the UK.
With South Korea’s DAC entry in 2010, astronger drive was made by the government tosynthesize knowledge from South Korea’s own
development experience (mainly centred on
the state-planned intervention) to share with

developing countries (Doucette, 2020; Jeong,2013).13 The drive led to rapid growth of IDS
research in volume and thematic focus (Zooet al., 2016).14 Further, some critical scholarship
emerged mainly from individuals trained in
anglophone countries. Yet, even with drasticchanges in South Korea’s IDS since 2000s,
the nature of knowledge production still
remains practice-centred for the effective
implementation of ODA (Kim and Kang,
2018). As some commentators in the field havepointed out, there is a grave need to develop
IDS as an independent academic disciplineby building a shared theoretical ground (Zooet al., 2016: 26–27) as well as emphasizing
more critical and reflexive research away fromstate-led development cooperation projects(Kim and Kang, 2018).
China
With China’s irrefutable importance andinfluence as an SSC provider, an increased
number of Chinese scholars from various
disciplines have begun to work in IDS since
the early 2010s (Cheng and Liu, 2021). Despite
this change, neither formal establishmentof academic associations (as in Japan andSouth Korea) nor debates on the nature of
IDS have been observed (Interview, 2022a).
Instead, more loosely formed fora/networks
were established to facilitate academic
discussion on international development.
For example, CAU has coordinated the
China International Development Research
Network (CIDRN) since 2012. CIDRN was
funded by the former UK Department forInternational Development (DFID) to advancedialogue and share knowledge between
Chinese and international scholars (Li et al.,2015).15 These dialogues through CIDRN havecontributed not only to a deeper understandingof China’s SSC but also to easing the escalating
tensions fuelled by the politicized debates on
China’s SSC. Published mainly in English,
CIDRN research titles have pursued a morecomprehensive approach to researching
China’s development cooperation through its

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Kim et al.
history, policy decisions and economic effects(CIDRN, 2017).
Particularly since the initiation of BRI in
2013, the government initiative established
new IDS-related institutes to strengthen
research and teaching in IDS (Cheng andLiu, 2021). For example, a national research
institute—the Centre for International
Knowledge on Development (CIKD)—was
established in 2017 to accelerate knowledge
production in China’s IDS to support economic
growth in developing countries (CIKD, 2020).
Such activities highlighted how China’s SSC
valued ‘learning by doing’ and feasible practiceoriented approaches in contrast to DAC
donors’ overemphasis on policy prescriptions
based on abstract and universal development
models (Li et al., 2014). Hence, with strong
state guidance to support China’s geopoliticaland geo-economic strategies, its IDS reflects arather strong ‘anti-West’ orientation to assert
and justify China’s position in the world (CIKD,
2020; Xu and Li, 2020).
IV. The Relationship Between IDS
and State-led Development
Cooperation ProgrammesThis section traces processes culminating in
the formal institutionalization of IDS while
highlighting how high-level policy initiatives
engendered preference to practice-oriented
instrumental knowledge in research andteaching. In what follows, we focus on two
events in more detail through which theabove propensities of IDS can be better
understood. The first is the rapid expansionof state-led development cooperation. The
second is the ardent promotion of knowledge
sharing programmes amidst increasing donor
competition.
IDS Amidst Expanding State-led Development
Cooperation Programmes
All three countries witnessed the drastic
increase in instrumental knowledge
production driven by rapidly growing stateled development cooperation operations.

283

Various state-led initiatives and funding-guided
research and teaching in IDS were initiatedto meet the needs of government operations
by providing knowledge relevant to policy for
immediate application. Since IDS in the three
countries were being ‘built on the fly’, thespeed of knowledge production was as vitalas its applicability. Thus, the utility of researchand training largely suited the ‘practical’ needsof policymakers and development workers in
the aid industry. Simultaneously, both criticaland collaborative engagements from CSOs
have also been important in shaping some key
debates in IDS, although the state remained
the major force behind the institutionalizationof IDS.
On Applicability and Speed
In terms of research, government initiatives
demanded knowledge of immediate andpractical use to support state-led development
cooperation activities. Since becoming theworld’s largest donor in 1989, the Japanese
government has made explicit efforts toexpedite policy/professional research via
state-funded institutions. In addition to GRIPS
and JICA-RI, ‘International Cooperation
Centres’ were instituted at five national
universities between 1997 and 2002 topromote education and technical cooperationin areas of agriculture, education, medicine,etc. (Kayashima, 2019: 12). Since beginning
to prepare for DAC membership, South
Korea has launched various governmentcommissioned projects (yong-yuk sa-eop) tostrengthen research in IDS since the mid2000s. Priorities of government-commissioned
projects stressed the applicability and speedof knowledge production that explored policy
ideas, programmes and the institutionalsettings of DAC donors. Many South Korean
academics and professional researchers havebeen key bidders in these projects that aimed
for predominantly instrumental knowledge
production (Interviews, 2019, 2017). As for
China, its growing SSC via BRI has led to morestate funding for new research institutions

Progress in Development Studies 23, 3 (2023) pp. 275–293

284 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
since the early 2010s. These new institutions
were designed to produce immediately
applicable knowledge to support China’s SSC
operations. Further, a large number of existing
institutes have reoriented their research focifrom China’s domestic/rural issues to thoseof international cooperation to better support
China’s efforts to improve the effectivenessof its SSC (Cheng and Liu, 2021).
Guided by state interests, teachingfocuses on training students as future workers
capable of ‘effective’ ODA delivery (i.e.,
implementation, management and evaluation).
This government drive was apparent inall three countries. For Japan, particularly
note-worthy was the Ministry of Education’s
initiatives since the 1990s towards practicecentred curricula at the university level(Kayashima, 2019). These degree courses
also provided teaching on (standardized)
techniques for ODA projects to improve
development effectiveness including project
cycle management and DAC evaluation
schemes. 16 The ministry emphasized thecontribution of well-trained professionals fromboth Japan and overseas (Kayashima, 2019:10).17 For South Korea, along with practicecentred curricula at the university level, thegovernment gives preference to candidates
well-versed in technical knowledge for its ODA
operation. For example, the KOICA-run testbased system known as the ‘ODA certificate’sets key ‘hiring’ standards for the aid industry.
Hence, by preparing for the test, young
graduate jobseekers and ODA-contractors
learn/memorize largely practice-oriented
knowledge useful for running, managing andevaluating projects (Kim and Kang, 2018). For
China, the state-led initiative gave preference
to university courses nurturing talent tosupport and work for China’s SSC in a highlyinternational setting. Greater efforts have been
made to enable these courses to build students’capacity to inform policymaking as well as
learning practical skills of project management,planning, implementation and evaluation(Li et al., 2015, 2012). Thus, graduates of

IDS courses are often considered as essential
human resources to make an immediate
contribution to both policy and practice in
China’s SSC (see Cui and Huang, 2021).
On CSOs’ Engagement
There is a clear disparity among the three
countries in the manner of engagement by
their CSOs with state-led operations—particularly in CSOs’ response to the issues ofdevelopment cooperation projects, including
those of corruption and socio-environmental
impact. Although the majority of CSOs in thethree countries have been active participants ofstate-led development cooperation as service
providers, some CSOs in Japan and South
Korea maintained their distance from the stateand its projects. For Japan, advocacy CSOs
campaigned for ODA reform through theirrigorous public engagement research between
the 1970s and 1990s. They used insights fromresearch by area specialists and critical scholars
in IDS who were well-versed in the local impact
of Japan’s development cooperation in the global
South. The CSOs’ campaign to reform ODA
not only successfully secured public interest
during the late 1980s—but also culminated in
the ODA Charter in 1992 and a series of socioenvironmental guidelines for ODA projects (Kim,
2009). Between the late 2000s and the early2010s, South Korean CSOs—in particular, ODA
Watch—provided a much-needed critical voiceon and informed assessment of South Korea’s
ODA through its public engagement research(ODA Watch, n.d.). Such research targeted
two consecutive administrations (Lee MyungBak and Park Geun Hye: 2008–2016) that not
only instrumentalized ODA in pursuit of South
Korea’s own ‘national (business) interests’
but also rendered South Korea’s ODA more
susceptible to collusion and corruption. These
works by South Korean CSOs were largely
influenced by critical debates on international
development within Western academia as wellas international CSOs.
For China, the impact of state-led
strategies is most visible in dictating theProgress in Development Studies 23, 3 (2023) pp. 275–293

Kim et al.
nature of CSOs’ relationship with the stateled development cooperation under one-party
rule (Interview, 2023). Despite the limited
space in this country for critical engagementwith state-led SSC projects, as comparedwith that in Japan and South Korea, thesegroups have managed to work as service
providers for state-led SSC and to engage with
Chinese policymakers through a ‘consultative’
relationship (Teets, 2013; Fulda et al., 2012).
Particularly under BRI, their knowledge(in the form of expertise and professional skills)
has been absorbed into state-led SSC projects
to better counter international criticism by
improving SSC on the ground (Interview,2023). Yet, due to the political and selective
process of absorption into state-led SSC
projects, the range of knowledge in China’s
IDS remains lacks reflexivity.
DKS Amidst Increasing Donor Competition
A more competitive development cooperation
landscape in the ‘age of choice’ (Greenhill
et al., 2013) has driven all three countries todevote significant efforts towards promoting
and sharing their own ‘unique’ development
experience. Japan, South Korea and China
promoted their development knowledge as
more relevant and practical for developing
countries than traditional donors’ abstractdevelopment models (see Doucette, 2020;
Ohno and Ohno, 2013, 1998). Such policy
narratives about DKS evoke both images of
empathy/solidarity and high expectations
from Southern partners (see Watanabe,
2019; Mawdsley, 2018). However, they lacka systemic knowledge base of development
experience that is immediately applicable for
DKS. Thus, to accelerate DKS programmes,
the governments stressed both the utility andthe urgency of turning past experience into
sharable knowledge.
For example, since the mid-2000s, theJapanese government has begun to re-examine
and revalidate its development experience for
DKS as part of its ‘international contribution’.
State-led DKS has taken many different forms

285

of cooperation between agencies/ministries inJapan and recipient countries, including policy
dialogues through development planning,
joint research, seminar/lecture series, training
and site visits (Ohno, 2011). To strengthen
Japan’s intellectual presence globally, thestate-led initiative further mobilized various
sector specialists in IDS to advance researchand training programmes for DSK (IDE, n.d.;
JICA-RI, n.d.b). Topics of these programmes
included industrial development, pollution
management, rural livelihood improvementand disaster mitigation (GRIPS, 2022; JICARI, n.d.a, 2022). More recently with theheightened aid competition with China(Trinidad 2019), Japan has increasingly aligned
its ODA principles with its diplomatic visionof the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)
strategy (MOFA, 2022; Nishida, 2022) thathas rendered knowledge production for DKS
increasingly receptive to the government
strategy (Interview, 2022b).18 Hence, Japan’s
IDS runs the risk of selecting, interpretingand packaging its development experience
consistently with those geopolitical strategies
highlighted in the FOIP (Interview, 2022d).
With the growing demands for DKS
from Southern political elites since theearly 2000s, the South Korean government
co-/sponsored various research projects
promoting South Korea’s case (Doucette,2020). The thematic focus is on a strong
state-planned interventionist drive toaccelerate modernization and industrialization(Yi and Mkandawire, 2014). With supportof President Lee Myung-Bak, a knowledge
sharing programme (KSP) was inaugurated asa national flagship programme in 2009. Thus,
greater efforts and resources have been poured
into KSP. These produced around 150 casestudies on South Korea’s development
experience between 2010 and 2015 (KSP,
2018a, 2018b; Jeong, 2013). Yet, because of theoverly short production time, KSP studies werecriticized as ‘low quality’ technical reports,
each comprised of a list of stylized ‘facts’ thatlacked crucial historical and political economic

Progress in Development Studies 23, 3 (2023) pp. 275–293

286 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
contexts (Jeong, 2013: 43). Such omissions
are due to processes of KSP ‘selecting,interpreting and packaging development
facts’ to highlight the master narrative ofSouth Korea’s miraculous development
past (Taniguchi and Babb, 2009: 277). Such
post-hoc reconstruction in the processes of
KSP leaves out inconvenient histories, suchas the oppression of labour movements,
environmental and public health harms fromindustrial pollution, and forced displacement.
For China, DKS is a relatively recent
activity that is seen as a way to counterinternational criticism (e.g., Naím, 2007)
towards the growing influence of its SSC
in the global South (Meng and Li, 2022). In
deterring criticism, on the one hand, China’s
DKS places a greater emphasis on aligning its
contents with the UN agenda (i.e., Sustainable
Development Goals) and mutual learningand sharing with international community
to strengthen China’s soft power globally(see CIKD, 2022). On the other hand, theChinese government attempts to share its own
stories more competently via DKS. Its DKS
includes topics ranging from China’s experiencein modernization, poverty reduction andscience/technology cooperation (see WorldBank and Development Research Center of
the State Council, 2022).19 The strong stateled initiative has shaped the research agenda
for IDS as the latter’s thematic focus has led
to a growing number of Chinese academic
papers echoing the policy narratives of BRI
and a ‘Community of Human Destiny’ 20(Interview, 2022a). However, there has
been some disagreement among Chinese
researchers discussing how their Southern
partners approach China’s development
experience. While some stress the importanceof learning/adopting lessons from China(i.e., the central role of the state’s plannedintervention economic development, see Tang,
2021; Li, 2019), others maintain the criticalityof partner countries’ ownership in determining
their own development paths (CIKD, 2020).
The former’s emphasis—principally reflecting

priorities of the state-led DKS—renderknowledge production prone to more selective
interpretation and packaging as the socioecological costs of rapid economic growth arelargely muted in DKS (Interview 2022a). In
addition to the selectivity in DKS processes,
DSK-related studies mostly lack in-depth
knowledge of partner countries’ local contexts,
as this research is largely generic desk-based
and macroscopic with little direct input fromlong-term fieldworkers (Liu et al., 2018).
V. Conclusion
The article examined little-studied cases of
IDS and their related knowledge production in
Japan, South Korea and China. In doing so, we
analysed processes culminating in the formal
institutionalization of IDS as a key site where
researchers and resources are mobilized to
produce knowledge for state-led development
cooperation operations. Our analysis revealed
that the field of IDS was originally constituted
by divergent forces, processes and sources(specific to each country). Hence, we foundthat both proximity to and distancing fromstate-led projects were initially important
forces in determining the nature of knowledge
production in IDS—particularly with respect
to the role of area specialists and CSOs in thecase of Japan. Although the state has been the
major force behind the institutionalization of
IDS, critical engagement from CSOs in Japanand South Korea have also been crucial in
shaping some key debates in IDS.
Further, two traits were commonly notedamong the three countries’ IDS. One is theprevalence of practice-centred instrumental
knowledge. The other is the role of the highlevel policy initiatives in determining patterns
and propensities of development knowledge
production. Our findings highlight how these
traits were brought about. First, we found thatthese common traits are inherent to the three
countries’ notion of development—catching
up with the Western advanced economies—
through mutual help with their partner countries.
This idea stressed the importance of pursuingcommercial/capitalist development at home

Progress in Development Studies 23, 3 (2023) pp. 275–293

Kim et al.
through, within and alongside development
abroad (i.e., development cooperation).
Second, with rapidly growing state-led
development cooperation operations, thisarticle demonstrates that both the applicabilityof knowledge and the speed of knowledge
production have become vital. As IDS in three
countries were being ‘built on the fly’, theknowledge produced was required to be of
relevance to policy and immediately applicable.
Thus, research and training in IDS responded
to ‘practical’ needs of the expanding state-led
operations for development cooperation.
Third, our analysis elucidates that increased
donor competition precipitated greater efforts
devoted to promoting DKS. Despite the lackof systemic knowledge bases for DKS, thegovernments of Japan, South Korea and China
promoted their own development experienceas ‘the one’ with more relevant and practicalknowledge. Such state-driven DKS renderedknowledge production prone to more selective
interpretation and packaging—consistent
with either the master narrative of their
miraculous economic growth or the state’s
geopolitical strategies. Hence, the post-hocreconstruction of processes in IDS ends up
largely decontextualized and depoliticized—
therefore, ‘one-size-fits-all’ development
knowledge.
While regional/national traits of knowledge
production were found, the politics ofknowledge generation in the three countries
suggest similarities with those in Western IDS.
The priority given to producing immediately
applicable knowledge in Japan, South Korea
and China rendered knowledge productionin IDS technical. Such knowledge production
decontextualized and depoliticized thecomplex historical and political economic
contexts behind the ‘miraculous’ growthof the three countries. More recently, thegovernments of Japan, South Korea andChina have increasingly asserted their ‘unique’development experience as a solution that isuniversally applicable. This recent trend inJapan, South Korea and China’s IDS seems tocontradict their policy narratives about theirown DKS programmes being ‘distinctive’ from287

those of traditional donors’. This reorientation
towards promoting a universally applicable
solution raises two vital questions. One is
how far the contents and methods of theircurrent DSK programmes really are ‘unique’(through shifting their reference point to East
Asia, see Kim, 2023). A strong emphasison differentiation through the (implicit
or explicit) critique of traditional donors’
policy prescriptions may not automaticallyqualify their development knowledge as an‘alternative’. Claiming uniqueness on thisbasis further strengthened instrumental
universal logics in DSK programmes. The
other question is whether such a growing
emphasis on ‘one-size-fits-all’ development
knowledge could be read as a further marked
shift towards an interventionist approach todevelopment (kaihatsu/gae-bal/kaifa) withinboth state-led development cooperation and
IDS. These questions merit further enquiry as
a future research avenue to better understandthe rapidly changing landscape of knowledge
production for global development.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest withrespect to the research, authorship and/or publication ofthis article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research,authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Affiliations

Soyeun Kim is the corresponding author (soyeunkim@
sogang.ac.kr) and affiliated with Institute for East AsianStudies, Graduate Programme in Southeast AsianStudies, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. Muyun Wangis affiliated with Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. Jin Sato isaffiliated with Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

ORCID iD
Soyeun Kim

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5579-9142

Notes

1. The West in this article refers to the member
countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Assistance Committee(OECD-DAC) excluding Japan and South Korea.

Progress in Development Studies 23, 3 (2023) pp. 275–293

288 Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China
2. Our analysis focuses on international development
studies because DKS activities are primarily
with developing countries eligible for the Official
Development Assistance (OECD, 2022).
3. We are keenly aware that locally specific understandingof development seemingly echoes the often-cited
debates on the ‘big D’ Development and ‘little d’development dialectic (Cowen and Shenton, 1996;
Hart, 2001; Rigg, 2004; Lewis, 2019; Mawdsley and
Taggart, 2021). However, contributing to this debate isneither the main focus nor aim of this article. We rather
focus on highlighting how locally specific understandingof development naturalizes particular ideas and practices
at the heart of knowledge production in IDS fordevelopment cooperation (see Mawdsley, 2012, 2018).
4. Reviewing published articles from the 1970s and1980s in two major area studies journals in Japanese—Ajia Kenkyu (Asian Studies) and Ajia Keizai (Asian
Economies)—confirms area specialists’ disinterest inissues of economic cooperation and development
policy (Sato, 2021).
5. During the Filipino President Fernando Marcos’s
fall from power in 1985, leaked secret documents
revealed how contractors of Japanese ODA projects
paid huge kickbacks to Marcos (Tsuda and Yokoyama,
1999).
6. IDEP has been essentially a knowledge-sharing andcapacity-building programme, inviting government
officials and policymakers from developing countries
to participate (KDI, 1998: i).
7. Development economics has been introduced toChina since 1945 while area studies was prompted by
Zhou Enlai’s 1964 state visits in 14 countries of Asia
and Africa (Mönks et al., 2017).
8. China’s experience includes its receiving of the Soviet
assistance and its provision of military aid to Vietnam
and North Korea in the early years of its establishment(Shen, 2009). Since 1979 with the implementationof the ‘reform and open-up’ policy, China began toreceiving foreign aid from Western donors including
multilateral providers (Zhou et al., 2013).
9. This process was impacted by turf wars among
ministries with ODA budgets. For example, due tothe fragmented aid system (Aoki, 1998), FASID wasfounded by the Foreign Ministry and IDEAS by the
Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The
university programmes were established by funds
and initiatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (Ushiogi, 2013).
10. President of JICA between October 2003 and March2012.
11. This sector includes both governmental and nongovernmental actors, for example, aid agencies,
academic institutions, businesses and CSOs.
12. Between 2009 and 2018, 96 universities participatedin the KOICA programme (KOICA, 2018).

13. South Korea has two IDS-based academic
associations: KAIDEC working closely with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and KOICA;
and the South Korea Development Policy Studies
Association, established in 2012, under the auspicesof the Ministry of Finance and Strategy (MOFS) andKorea Exim Bank.
14. Research themes included both sectoral (e.g.,
agriculture, education, health) and stakeholder issues(e.g., the role of business and CSOs).
15. Compared with China’s national research institutes,
CIDRN is more likely to lean more on DFID’s goals
and interests than national research institutes close
to the state (Interview, 2022a).
16. The change was also partly driven by the increasing
external pressure on the country to further comply
with international aid norms and practices (Katada,2002).
17. These IDS programme—originally intended to nurture
Japanese experts—have become major centres foroverseas students. As of May 2022, international
students, mostly from Asia and Africa, from 47
countries represented 70% of the total enrolled at
Nagoya University’s IDS programme (GSID, 2022).
18. FOIP promotes good governance in the Indo-Pacificregion by (a) establishing rule of law, freedomof navigation, free trade; (b) pursuing economic
prosperity; and (c) committing to peace and stability(MOFA, 2018).
19. For instance, Peking University founded the Instituteof South-South Cooperation and Development in2016 to offer courses to study Chinese development
experiences for students largely from BRI partnercountries (Guo et al., 2016). These courses promote
DKS not only through in-class teaching but also
by site-visits to its big cities, military facilities andultramodern infrastructure projects.
20. A diplomatic concept by President Xi Jinping’s
government (a) to resolve territorial disputes throughcooperation among nations, (b) to promote sharedinterests on the five pillars of political partnership,
security, economic development, cultural exchanges
and environment (Zhang, 2018).

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