## Section 3 Substantial Policy and Philosophy Shaping Period (1992-2002)

Formulation of the ODA Charter

Japan had made efforts to systematize its philosophy of assistance in response to ODA's quantitative expansion and its heightening position and increasing responsibility in the international community. Entering the 1990s, Japan was so much more required to clearly express the policy and view of assistance domestically and abroad.

During the Gulf War of 1990, Japan contributed a total of 13 billion dollars, consisting of 2 billion dollars in 1990 and additional contributions until 1991. Consequently, discussions within the country arose on the desirable form of Japan's international contribution after the Cold War. Particularly, in relation to ODA, the issue of assistance and democratization of recipient countries, as well as relationships between such aspects as policies of assistance and for human rights, that of military expenditures or arms export and import attracted attention both in Japan and abroad. Regarding these issues, the government adopted the Four Key Principles for implementing ODA $ ^{26} $ in 1991 and clarified Japan's aid policy.

Moreover, in order to accurately meet the diversification of assistance needs, it is essential to establish clear philosophies and principles, to increase understanding both in Japan and abroad and to gain broad support. In this regard, Japan adopted the ODA Charter, which summarizes medium and long-term aid policy comprehensively, at the Cabinet in June 1992, in line with the Four Key Principles. As well as international trends in assistance, the ODA Charter spelled out the following four points as basic philosophies of assistance, determined based on Japan's uniqueness and positive attitude in light of the history, record, experience, lessons, etc. of Japan's ODA: (1) humanitarian viewpoint, (2) recognition of interdependence, (3) environmental conservation, and (4) support for the self-help efforts of developing countries towards their take-off. In addition, the ODA Charter specified Asia as the priority region while it listed such areas as the approach to the global problems, assistance to the BHN sector, human resources development, infrastructure improvement and structural adjustment, as priority issues. It also specially noted the intensification of policy dialogues, consideration to the socially weak including women and children and to redressing the gap between the rich and the poor, injustice and corruption and so on, as well as clarifying the idea of promoting information disclosure.

In this way, it had great significance for the history of Japan's assistance that Japan actively presented its own aid policy, including relationships between assistance and military expenditure, democratization, etc., to the international community in the form of the ODA Charter. This presentation was on the basis of its own achievements and experience in its nearly 40-year history of assistance to developing countries, while recognizing the changing times heralded by the end of the Cold War. Since then, Japan has strengthened political responses in ODA and enriched its aid policy in line with the philosophies indicated in the ODA Charter.

Strengthening Policy Formulation of Japan's Regional and Country Assistance

Entering the 1990s, Japan had strengthened political responses in region/country-specific assistance policies.

Representative examples of the region-specific ones are promotion of development cooperation for Africa through the TICAD process and active efforts for the development of the Mekong region mainly targeting new ASEAN members. In Africa, the rate of the population living in poverty is highest in the world, and conflicts, famine, infectious diseases, accumulating debts and other serious problems are concentrated there. Japan recognized the seriousness of African issues, and has provided support focusing on Grant Aid since the early 1990s for the poverty and social development sectors while taking active initiative in development cooperation for Africa in the international community. Concretely, when international interest in Africa waned along with the end of the Cold War, Japan held three TICAD meetings starting in 1993 (1993, 1998 and 2003) to rekindle the interest of the international community. Through these meetings, Japan advocated the importance of the self-help efforts (ownership) of African countries and partnership with the international community. And since Japan invited the leaders of African countries (South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria) to the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit in 2000, chaired by Japan, and held the talks between African and G8 leaders, African issues has come to be one of the key agenda items of G8 summits. As a result of