Japan's Official Development Assistance in the 2010s: a Return to Economic Infrastructure and Private Sectors.

Japanese aid has been continuously criticized as its modalities are focused on economic infrastructure via loans. However, support for economic growth and infrastructure has become more important due to the growing influence of recipient needs and emerging donors. Accordingly, Japan's perception and implementation of its aid in the changing international regime in the 2010s are a salient factor. This study clarifies the common and different features between the official development assistance before the 1990s and the 2010s to identify which characteristics "returned" from the "Japan model" in the past. The domestic background and factors were examined to explain the alteration concentrated on the meaning of aid in the Abe administration's policy directions and domestic actors. The results indicate the aid modalities in the 2010s are similar to the aid in the 1980s in some aspects, putting emphasis on economic growth, infrastructure, and cooperation with private sectors. But "quality growth" came into the slogan in the 2010s, as Japan is not the largest donor anymore. The Prime minister's office (Kantei) led the aid policy as a part of priority policy "Abenomics" to support the prime minister in the 2010s, while collaborations among Liberal Democratic Party members, bureaucrats, and private actors led the aid policy in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]