White Paper on Development Cooperation 2021
Japan's International Cooperation

The Development Cooperation Charter and Development Cooperation of Japan

The foundation of Japan’s development cooperation policy is the Development Cooperation Charter (decided by the Cabinet in February 2015). The Development Cooperation Charter defines Japan’s basic policies as contributing even more proactively to securing the peace, stability, and prosperity of the international community from the perspective of “Proactive Contribution to Peace” based on the principle of international cooperation, and securing the national interests of Japan through these efforts. The ever more strategic and effective use of Official Development Assistance (ODA) is required as one of the most important foreign policy tools (the Development Cooperation Charter is published on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website 1).

1. Japan’s basic policies of the Development Cooperation Charter

The Development Cooperation Charter identifies the following three basic policies for Japan’s development cooperation for the aforementioned objectives: contributing to peace and prosperity through cooperation for non-military purposes, promoting human security, and cooperation aimed at self-reliant development through assistance for self-help efforts as well as dialogue and collaboration based on Japan’s experience and expertise.

2. Priority issues of the Development Cooperation Charter

In line with the basic policies described above, Japan will promote cooperation in accordance with the following three priority issues: “quality growth” and poverty eradication through such growth, sharing universal values and realizing a peaceful and secure society, and building a sustainable and resilient international community through efforts to address global challenges.

Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Figure of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA)

● What is ODA?

Development cooperation refers to international cooperation activities that are conducted by the government and its affiliated agencies for the main purpose of development in developing regions (the Development Cooperation Charter), and ODA is the public funding for those activities. The government or its implementing agencies provide financial and technical assistance to developing regions, international organizations, or the private sector through ODA for “development,” including peacebuilding, governance, promotion of basic human rights, and humanitarian assistance.

The ODA recipients are designated in the list (see Chart I-10) developed by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

● What types of ODA are there?

ODA can be divided into grants and government loans. There is also bilateral aid, which directly assists developing regions, and multilateral aid, which is contributions and subscriptions to international organizations, etc.

Grants in bilateral aid are cooperation provided without repayment obligation to developing regions. The assistance scheme implemented by Japan is comprised of grant aid, which provides necessary funds for the socio-economic development of developing regions without an obligation of repayment, and technical cooperation, which develops human resources that will be the actors in the socio-economic development of developing regions by utilizing the know-how, technology, and experience of Japan. Among contributions and subscriptions to international organizations, contributions for specific countries and projects are counted as bilateral aid for statistical purposes (see Chart I-1).

Additionally, Japan’s government loans, etc. (loan aid) in bilateral aid include ODA loans for lending the necessary funds to developing regions under concessional terms such as low interest rates and long repayment periods, and private-sector investment finance, which offers loans and investment to corporations and other entities in the private sector responsible for implementing projects in developing regions.

Multilateral aid includes contributions and subscriptions to the UN organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), international organizations as well as international financial institutions including the World Bank. Most of the contributions are provided as grants, but in recent years, government loans, etc. (loan aid) have also been used for international financial institutions.

(Various information about ODA is available on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website 2.)


  1. 1: https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/page_000138.html
  2. 2: https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/index.html