Thus, even if yen spending remained flat dollar denominated spending would have doubled. Moreover, this promise to do something at some unset date in the future about international responsibilities is the usual Japanese response. Only recently does it appear that others are losing their patience on unfulfilled international promises. Thus it should come as no surprise that the Japanese Foreign Ministry has had to announce that well, after all, it looks like this fabulously wealthy nation, with minuscule defense spending, is not really going to be able to meet its national commitment to aid. Now once again, as they have gotten five years of great PR out of more promises on Japan's international responsibilities.
Japan is about to quietly sweep it under the rug and hope everyone forgets about it.
Not that the total amount of such aid is a huge burden on Japan. This wealthy nation has regularly ranked 13th o 14th out of 17 OECD nations in terms of percent of GNP spent on such aid. Nor are the private citizens trying to make up for this. Not to belittle those who were kind enough to give, but that certainly says a lot about national characteristics. In addition, it can also not be said that the Japanese are giving developing nations the opportunity to make it on their own by not using aid, but by selling goods made by their own people's hands in the Japanese market.