Japanese competition in the Congo Basin in the 1930s

Japan has recently built a sophisticated network of international relations. However, Africa has been a blind spot, because of the low level of economic interaction Japan has had with the countries there.2 So to bring Africa into Japan’s world view, it is necessary to investigate Japan’s economic relations with Africa. This chapter is part of a wider study of Japan’s trade relations with Africa in the inter-war period, based on pre-war British and Japanese consular reports about economic conditions in Africa.3