Why is Japan interested in developing its presence in Africa?
By Ahmed Askar – Interregional for Strategic Analytics
The Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8), hosted by Tunisia from 27-28 August 2022, as the second African country after Kenya in 2016, came to reflect the renewed Japanese interest in deepening relations with African countries at all levels, in a way that enhances the common interests between The two parties, along with Japan’s commitment to its responsibility towards Africa, in light of the acceleration of international changes that pose a challenge to African economies during the recent period, such as the continuing repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis in Eastern Europe. This conference is also a turning point in Japan’s view of Africa, especially as it seeks to transform the continent from a mere recipient of aid into an economic partner. This will enhance the partnership situation between the two parties in the coming years.
strategic interests
Japan’s orientation toward Africa has turned the continent into an integral part of Tokyo’s main strategic interests. The most prominent Japanese interests in the continent can be addressed as follows:
1- Balancing the rising Chinese influence in Africa: Japan fears the growing Chinese role in the continent for fear of threatening its strategic interests there, especially in light of Beijing’s economic weight, as well as the strengthening of the Chinese military presence on the African arena following the opening of the military base in Djibouti in 2017. Hence, Tokyo is trying to keep pace with China’s strong rise on the continent, despite its limited economic capabilities to gain superiority over Beijing, as well as at the military level, despite Tokyo maintaining a naval military base since 2011 in Djibouti next to the American Camp Lemonnier and housing about 180 Japanese soldiers. However, competition remains fierce between the two parties on the African arena in light of the Western and Japanese rejection of Chinese expansion in strategic areas for fear of threatening the interests of the West.
2- Benefiting from the African voting momentum in international forums: by seeking to strengthen political, diplomatic and strategic relations with African countries, with the aim of strengthening their foothold on the continent, and opening broad horizons for cooperation in various fields such as economy and security. Tokyo realizes that rapprochement with Africa will enhance its international position, which gives it more influence at the international level, especially since the Japanese move towards the continent is part of Tokyo’s campaign for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, given that Africa is the second largest voting bloc within the United Nations. after Asia; It represents approximately 30% of the total member states of the United Nations.
In the same context, the importance of opening channels of communication for Japan with African countries, as these channels are an important entry point for a stronger Japanese influence on the continent. Tokyo officials have visited many African countries over the past years, such as the two tours of the Japanese Foreign Minister between December 2020 and January 2021, which included Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa, Senegal and Tunisia, in addition to another tour in May 2019 that included Ethiopia and South Sudan, with the aim of strengthening Bilateral relations.
3- Protection of strategic waterways and straits: Tokyo realizes the importance of securing important sea lanes such as the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, for fear of security threats that may impede international trade, especially oil and gas. On the other hand, its strategic positioning in such areas allows it to approach the scene of events in some geostrategic neighborhood areas such as the Middle East, the Arabian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.
4- Promoting the Japanese development model in Africa: Japanese-African relations are mainly based on the economic and development aspect. Tokyo views African countries as a broad and important market of major growth markets that can be tapped into, especially in light of the expectations that the continent’s population will increase to 2.2 billion people by 2050 and the size of the African economy will reach $5 trillion by 2025; This is in the context of Tokyo’s aspiration to increase its commercial footprint on the continent by opening new horizons for Japanese investments and implementing more development projects in the areas of infrastructure, technology and technologies needed by the countries of the continent, which gives Tokyo an additional advantage over its international competitors there.
5- Securing access to African resources and wealth: Securing multiple sources of raw materials, mineral resources and energy is the core of the economic dimension of Japanese policy towards Africa; The energy and mining sectors are the two sectors that attract most Japanese investments in Africa, especially in light of Japan’s weak natural resources, which prompted it to search for them in different regions, especially Africa, and to secure access to those wealth and resources.
6- Pushing the Asia-Africa Corridor Project: The Asia Africa Growth Corridor aims primarily to counter Chinese economic influence, and the alliance against the development of the Belt and Road Initiative launched by Beijing in 2013. This project is a Japan-India alliance with investments of $200 billion, which has gained momentum in Following the third Indo-African Forum summit in India in 2015 as an attractive option for the countries of the Horn of Africa, especially as it mainly focuses on areas of importance to economic and social development in Africa, such as agriculture, food security, health care and natural disaster management. It aims to strengthen joint efforts to improve development assistance in the continent according to the principle of “win-win” and its implications for promoting peace and stability in the Indian Ocean region, including the Horn of Africa.
Japanese interest
There are a number of approaches that reflect Tokyo’s interest in strengthening relations with the African continent, which in turn are linked to a number of important tools on which Japanese policy was based in its orientation towards Africa. The most prominent of them are:
1- Supporting Africa’s issues at the regional and international levels: Tokyo promised during the recent “TICAD 8” conference to press for the African continent to obtain a permanent seat in the UN Security Council during its next membership in the UN Security Council in 2023/2024; This reflects its concern for African interests and the strengthening of its position on the international arena. Tokyo also expressed concern over the repercussions of some African countries’ borrowing from Beijing and the latter’s acquisition of some major African assets, as happened in Sri Lanka. As part of Japan’s efforts to engage in African issues with the aim of strengthening its influence there, Tokyo announced that it would appoint a special envoy for the Horn of Africa to contribute to confronting the droughts that hit a number of countries such as Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, and the worsening humanitarian situation in the region.
2- Employing Japanese soft power tools: Tokyo relies on a number of important tools in its endeavors to enhance its presence and influence on the African arena. TICAD, which was launched in 1993, represents the main tool to project Japan’s soft power in Africa, and provides Tokyo with more investment and trade opportunities with the countries of the continent, which prompted the Japanese government to hold it every three years instead of five years, in line with the platforms Other international cooperation such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
The Japanese agency “JICA” is also one of the most prominent tools of Tokyo’s economic policy on the continent, and focuses mainly on implementing a number of projects in various fields such as infrastructure, such as financing the railway overpass between Tanzania and Zambia, and some agricultural projects in some countries such as Ethiopia, which witnessed The opening of the Human Resources Development Center for Business and Industry in the capital, Addis Ababa. JICA also focuses on alleviating poverty and improving livelihoods in a number of African countries such as Kenya, South Sudan and Somalia.
Japan provides many development assistance to Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa received nearly $1 billion in grants and $730 million in Japanese development assistance loans in 2015, which is being used to implement social projects such as building schools in Burkina Faso and a health sciences institute in Mozambique. In 2016, Japan also gave about $6.3 million for emergency damage relief in East Africa. Tokyo has supported Africa to protect its economies from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; The JICA Foundation agreed to lend the African Development Bank about 73.6 billion euros in 2021 due to the enormous pressures on African countries as a result of the global pandemic.
3- Focus on building African capacity: Tokyo is interested in building African human capacity by supporting training centers and conducting peacekeeping training courses in African countries, including the implementation of peacekeeping activities in South Sudan. Between 2008 and 2013, the Japanese government built about 1,321 primary and middle schools, improved about 4,778 health and medical facilities, and provided safe water to 10.79 million people on the continent. In 2016, Tokyo announced an investment of about $30 billion between 2016 and 2018 in developing infrastructure, strengthening health systems and laying the foundations for peace and stability.
Tokyo is also strengthening its policies to attract African students for political and economic purposes as part of its competition with China; Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched the African Business Education Initiative for Youth, which included Japan inviting about 3,000 African students to study at Japanese universities and conduct internships in Japanese companies by 2026.
4- Enhancing economic and development cooperation with African countries: Tokyo presents itself to Africa as an economic partner rather than as a donor or creditor; Part of the success of its strategy in the continent is related to its endeavor to form economic partnerships with the aim of diversifying its trading partners and encouraging small and medium-sized companies on the continent; It launched the Africa Investment Fund with a value of 18.3 million dollars, which includes the countries of Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as South Africa and Nigeria. On August 27, 2022, during the opening of TICAD, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed that his country wants to contribute to “growth coupled with quality” on the continent, announcing investments worth $30 billion to advance its development.
Japanese companies are making huge investments in Africa, such as Toyota Tsusho, which succeeded in generating revenues of $8.5 billion in South Africa in March 2022. Japan plays a prominent role in the field of infrastructure in African countries, which comes among its priorities to support economic development in the continent as it is necessary to link emerging economies in the five African regions; Tokyo committed $10 billion in investments in the sector between 2016 and 2019, as part of a $30 billion investment package that Shinzo Abe pledged at the August 2016 TICAD conference in Kenya.
The Japanese government is also developing some regional corridors that aim to build cross-border road networks with the aim of facilitating trade movement at the regional level and promoting development in the countries of the continent. The most prominent of them is the Northern Corridor in East Africa, which includes a number of African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The Japanese government is also initiating the inauguration of a 6,259-kilometre highway linking the port of Mombasa in the east of the continent and the Nigerian port of Lagos in the west of the continent.
5- Participation in efforts to confront terrorism and security threats: Japanese participation in Africa has expanded so that it no longer focuses mainly on the economic aspect and human security, but rather goes beyond that to concern itself with security issues in Africa, especially the Horn of Africa and the Sahel and Sahara regions. Its military presence in Djibouti through the military base aims to protect its nationals in the region, and to secure the passage of international trade in the Red Sea, which is a vital trade route for Japan, which imports most of its oil needs from the Middle East.
The Japanese military presence in the Horn of Africa opens the way for strategic expansion in the Indian Ocean region, allowing it to monitor Chinese movements in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Especially that Tokyo realizes that African waters are an essential part of its strategic vision for the Indo-Pacific regions, which extend from East Africa to western North America, according to the Japanese strategy, which is linked in some way to providing an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, which is the Asian-African Growth Corridor.
Tokyo has also strengthened its contribution to the fight against terrorism on the continent; Hundreds of Japanese soldiers are present in the UN peacekeeping forces in Juba, South Sudan, with the aim of providing logistical support. The Japanese government announced, during the August 8 TICAD conference, that it would inject 8.3 million dollars into the Liptako-Jourma region on the borders between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso for the reconstruction and improvement of administrative services for the region’s five million residents.
Japan’s support is still based on promoting peace and security in Africa bilaterally and multilaterally. Over the past decade, Tokyo has provided development and humanitarian assistance to the Sahel and Sahara region; In 2013, Tokyo pledged $1.3 billion to countries in the region, and in 2016 pledged $120 million to build African counter-terrorism capabilities. Tokyo joined the G5 Sahel as an observer member in July 2019.
All in all, Japan aims to continue building a new legacy in Africa in the footsteps of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, taking advantage of its unique advantages in Africa and giving it an advantage over many of its strategic competitors on the continent. In order to achieve its strategic goals, it employs many tools in order to enhance its presence in Africa amid a state of intense international competition as a result of strategic changes on the international scene, especially as it seeks to present itself as a global power through the Africa gateway, and to secure its access to the necessary African resources and wealth. to her.
