JAPAN'S OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE AND ITS IMPACTS ON MYANMAR

Abstract

Nowadays Official Development Assistance has played a major role in international relations. Japan started to give ODA as war reparation exclusively to Asian countries in 1955 and it has been gradually developed to present day assistance. The framework of Japanese assistance is the ODA charter which was declared in 1992 and was revised in 2003. However, Japan’s ODA has impacted recipient countries in one way or another. This research focused on Japanese ODA to Myanmar. This selection is based on the fact that both countries have had a long and deep relationship since World War II. Moreover, since Tokyo has close relations with Washington, it is interesting to examine why Japan has been provided her aid towards the country while there were many pressures from the U.S and other Western countries. The analysis was based on Japanese ODA Charter a as well as statements made by Japanese government and other policies concerning with Myanmar. The analysis on the impact of Japanese ODA was divided into 3 areas; economic, political and social. For Myanmar’s and the Western countries’ point of view Japanese assistance towards Myanmar was quite unsuccessful as some projects concerning with ODA led to human rights abuses and indirectly supported the Burmese military junta government. However, in the Japanese point of view, the assistance was rather successful especially in terms of democratization and infrastructure development.