nation-building of its countries.

(3) From the standpoint of striving to achieve Japan's economic development and the prosperity of its people, Japan will ensure the country's development while contributing to the prosperity of other countries through measures including the provision of reparations and economic cooperation.

The above comments clearly express the objective of Japan's initial economic cooperation when it started to provide aid. At that time, improving its position in the international community was the top priority for Japan, which had just reintegrated into the community. From this perspective, Japan strived to participate actively in the Colombo Plan and settle rapidly the issue of reparations as part of its atonement for the war. Meanwhile, reparations and the economic cooperation provided in tandem therewith, as clearly indicated in the foreign policy speech mentioned above, were also deeply tied to "Japan's economic development and the prosperity of its people." For Japan at that time, in which income per capita was less than 400 dollars, the burden of payment of reparations was very severe. Japan's reparations and disbursement of Yen loans in the 1950s and 1960s had the objectives of expanding export markets for Japan and securing imports of important raw materials. In addition, there were high expectations of a beneficial effects from these actions for the Japanese economy. $ ^{12} $ This stance was also reflected in the fact that the rate for tied aid was almost 100% until the end of the 1960s.

In the 1960s, the international community attached importance to the existence of a North-South problem. To assist in its resolution, the first Conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was held in 1964. Japan was promoting its assistance at that time in fields such as agriculture and small and medium enterprises, and could not respond actively to requests from developing countries for liberalization of trade and expansion of aid. This attitude of Japan drew criticism from developing countries.

Development of aid implementation systems

Japan's aid implementation systems were gradually developed in line with the start of such provision of reparations and aid. First, the Society for Economic Cooperation in Asia was established in 1954 as the implementation agency for technical cooperation, in addition, the Reparations Division and the Asian Affairs Bureau were established in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 1955. Meanwhile, then Prime Minister Kishi announced the Asian Development Fund Foundation Plan $ ^{13} $ in 1957. This plan itself never materialized, but it was against such background that the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) Law was enacted in 1960, and the OECF was established in March 1961 as the implementation agency for Yen loans.

In the process of Japan's ODA becoming full-fledged, the Council for Foreign Economic Cooperation (CFEC) $ ^{14} $ was established in 1961 as an advisory body to the prime minister; the Economic Cooperation Bureau was established in MOFA in 1962; and in the same year, the Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency (OTCA) was founded. OTCA was the predecessor to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The development of aid implementation systems also progressed in foreign countries during this period. In the United States, for example, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was established in 1961 in line with the enactment of the Foreign Assistance Act, and in West Germany, the Ministry for Economic Cooperation was established. This was also a period when Japan, while developing its domestic implementation systems, actively participated in the activities of international organizations as a donor country. In March 1960, Japan joined the Development Assistance Group (DAG), and in 1961, when DAG was reorganized and became the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD-DAC), Japan joined as one of the founding member countries.