Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 04/2013

Understanding Japanese Democracy Assistance

Maiko Ichihara

March 2013

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

Despite being Asia’s most prosperous democracy and one of the world’s largest aid providers, Japan has a strikingly low profile in the field of international democracy assistance. Japan directs most of its democracy-related assistance to technocratic top-down governance programming, placing a low emphasis on civil society assistance. The reasons behind this choice stem from Japan’s history and its views of development.