Polynesia, and Micronesia, $ ^{31} $ each of which has distinctive ethnic and traditional social systems and geological characteristics.

The Melanesian region includes some countries suffering bad economic conditions such as low national income where a demand for development is high. In particular, the Solomon Islands have been making vigorous efforts to conduct reconstruction since the end of its long domestic political turmoil. To provide the Solomon Islands with assistance, Japan dispatched Japanese personnel to the country in May 2003 for the first time in about three years. At the donors' meeting held in November 2003, Japan announced its plan to provide assistance for conflict prevention, peace building, good governance, and infrastructure building, and also its support for the Solomon Islands' efforts for reconstruction. On the other hand, some countries in the region are large in terms of population and economic scale and relatively well developed, having headquarters of regional institutions such as USP (University of the South Pacific) and PIF (Pacific Islands Forum). One such country is Fiji, which is a famous tourist resort in the Pacific. Japan has been supporting the development of Fiji to help the country achieve economic independence. For this purpose, Japan gave USP cooperation for the development of distance education and information and telecommunications technology and also dispatched experts to Fiji in order to promote tourism.

Before the Second World War, the Micronesian region was put under Japanese mandate by the League of Nations. Japan ruled the Pacific islands in the region until the United Nations made them into trust territories of the U.S. after the Second World War. Some countries became independent nations thereafter. They are, however, still dependent on financial support from the U.S. As the U.S. will stop providing such support on the day agreed in advance, Japan is expected to play a more important role in providing assistance to Micronesian countries for their financial independence. Economic development of the Micronesian region is extremely difficult because the region has many countries consisting of atolls and coral islands very widely dispersed in the region with little underground resources. Assistance is therefore still necessary for the region to achieve economic independence. In fiscal year 2003, Japan provided the region with grant assistance to build the basis structures of Micronesian countries. The assistance included the construction of infrastructure under such plans as the Project for Improvement of the Circumferential Road in the Pohnpei Island in Micronesia and also the dispatch of experts on marine product marketing to Micronesia in an effort to develop the fishery industry, which is one of the main industries of Micronesian countries.

In the Polynesian region, some countries such as Tonga and Samoa are volcanic islands with relatively fertile land suitable for farming, while other countries are small islands such as Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, and Niue. The Cook Islands and Niue are part of the Dominion of New Zealand.

Japan has cooperated with the PIF (Pacific Islands Forum), which is a framework for regional cooperation established by the heads of Oceanian countries. Japan held a Japan-Pacific Islands Forum Summit Meeting in 1997 and 2000 respectively, which is a summit between Japan and PIF member countries. In May 2003, the third Japan-Pacific Islands Forum Summit Meeting was held in Okinawa, which has the same characteristics as Oceanian countries in terms of climate and oceanic environment. In the meeting, Japan adopted the "Okinawa Initiative," which reflects the cooperation between Japan and Oceanian countries in the past, the discussions at the WSSD (World Summit on Sustainable Development) in September 2002, and the Koizumi Initiative, which is about specific measures to take for sustainable development. The Okinawa Initiative gives us the guidelines and an action plan to follow when Japan and Oceanian countries cooperate in planning and carrying out the development of Oceania. Japan and Oceanian countries have been performing respective responsibilities in five important areas: security, trade, health, education, and the environment.

Taking into consideration the geographically dispersed national territory of Oceanian countries, Japan has been giving assistance that benefits not only a specific country but also the whole region in order to make its assistance more efficient and effective. Japan's assistance has been targeted at the fields of environmental protection and education services. Regarding assistance for environmental protection, Japan established the Training and Education Center for SPREP (South Pacific Regional Environment Programme), which is a regional institution, and dispatched experts to the Center and also offered training for waste treatment. Furthermore, Japan helped island countries set guidelines for waste treatment. Through these efforts, Japan has been contributing to solving environmental problems in the region. With regard to assistance for education services, Japan helped USP establish distance education networks in order to provide people in island countries with wider opportunities to receive higher education.