COSMOPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES ON JAPAN'S OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
COSMOPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES ON JAPAN'S OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

Summary/Abstract: The Japanese ODA policy transformation ended, or rather began, with the introduction of the Human Security doctrine in its narrative, allowing the Japanese approach to be encompassed within the international development architecture. However, while having as main pillar human security promotion, the Japanese aid structure maintains a strong view to what regards national interest and its importance in the ODA Charter. This has therefore started up worldwide debates on the actual purpose and rationale of the Japanese aid.This paper presents a different perspective in what regards development assistance policies and Japan is chosen as case study precisely because of the particularities of the Japanese society and Japanese policy. Under the theoretical model proposed by this paper - taking into account human security as reflecting cosmopolitan ideas - I have investigated the Japanese Official Development Assistance policy. The main assumption is that domestic attitudes have paved the way for cosmopolitan approaches in the Japanese aid policy.Thus, it was observed that altruism, morality and ethics, elements which have already existed inside the Japanese society long before the beginning of coining the ODA policy, have strongly influenced the current ODA practice of Japan; therefore it would be wrong to assume that the human security doctrine, a result of the convergence between domestic forces and international pressures, is used as a tool to hide national self-interests.

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