Foreign Policy Opinion Poll in Japan on Development Cooperation

Foreign Policy Opinion Poll in Japan, which has been conducted by Japanese government since 1977, shows that the public support for "Development Cooperation" (or Official Development Assistance) has dynamically reflected series of historical events under three socioeconomic dimensions. The three dimensions are (i) Japanese economy, (ii) Japan-China relationship (China was one of the largest recipients of Japanese ODA), and (iii) international contribution by Japan. Since 1990 until 2004, "Development Cooperation" has lost support from citizens because of (i) economic recession and growing public debt after burst of bubble economy in 1991, and (ii) negative Japanese sentiment toward China after Tiananmen Square Incident. However, the public support toward "Development Cooperation" has been recovered since 2005 up to now although Japanese economy was hit by Lehman's shock in 2008 and pulled down by the huge earthquake in 2011. Why this recovery of the public support happened and has been sustained? Termination of new financial ODA to China in 2007 might be one answer. However, this paper suggests that this recovery can be explained mainly by rising expectation of Japanese citizens toward international contribution from Japan. After 2005, Japanese citizens began to expect that the soft power of Japan should be strengthened through its international contribution, while they noticed comparative decline of economic power of Japan. "Development Cooperation" is expected to be implemented not merely based upon humanitarian purpose nor obligation as developed countries, but more importantly should be conducted based upon “national interests” in a broad sense, such as fostering international trust to Japan, achieving mutual prosperity of Japan and the developing countries, securing access to energy and natural resources, and so on. The continuous cut of ODA budget for more than two decades is no longer justified under the matured public opinion.