Japan and Africa: The Ambiguous Ally.

Japan’s active political interest in the continent is comparatively recent and there has been a concerted push in policy towards Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. It seems that Tokyo views the African continent as a useful (albeit latent) buttress to political and diplomatic goals in the international system. In Africa, Japan has tended to seek enhanced relations with states rich in minerals and raw materials. Alternatively, political relationships have been built up with states that carry perceived political influence on the continent and in multilateral fora. The latter is the product of Japan’s UN-centred diplomacy, one of the cornerstones of the country’s post-World War II foreign policy. To garner such support, Japan has often invoked an Afro-Asian identity in its diplomacy with prominent African states. Given Japan’s own identity as a member of the developed world, and its outsider position vis-à-vis the offspring of the Afro-Asian bloc, the Non-Aligned Movement, the incongruity of this purported common identity with African countries, has borne surprising success. This chapter examines the ways in which Tokyo has advanced it foreign policies in Africa and achieved limited success in the promotion of itself as a concerned friend of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]