Author: Dennis T. Yasutomo.

The rise of economic aid policy in the 1980s is one of the most striking developments in Japanese foreign policy. Japan will enter the 1990s as the world's largest aid-giving nation, surpassing the United States. This paper will explore the reasons for aid's emergence as a foreign policy pillar from the inception of ODA (Official Development Assistance) in the 1950s through the 1980s. It finds that aid for the Japanese has been a convenient, effective and popular diplomatic tool. Aid policy's continued centrality is explained by its gradual integration in Japan's vision of a future international role for Japan as an activist nonmilitary power.