Japan

Twenty-five years after its foundation in response to devastating Ethiopian famines, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), a Japanese-funded non-governmental organisation, is looking beyond crop yields to the challenges...

A new ambassador arrived in Algiers this October and began by giving his honest opinions on the country’s bureaucratic, political and economic challenges. Much perturbed by the fact...

A decision by the Namibian state-owned port operator to pre-award an estimated US$285 million contract for the Walvis Bay harbour expansion to the China Harbour Engineering Company ahead...

The newly appointed foreign minister faces an uphill struggle in maintaining Japan’s image as a powerhouse of the global economy. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government must...

In June, Sumio Kusaka led a delegation to New Delhi for the second India-Japan Dialogue on Africa. With his counterpart Gurjit Singh, Additional Secretary at India’s Ministry of...

Japan played a diplomatic blinder in Dakar in May, collecting not just a sackful of goodwill but solid sub-Saharan support for two of its key international priorities –...

A month after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated its northeast coast, Japan faces a humanitarian tragedy, a drawn-out nuclear crisis and an expensive reconstruction. In the tightly...

The World Bank’s African team dispatched a delegation to Tokyo in mid-March to boost its Japanese personnel, as part of Bank President Robert Zoellick’s ongoing reform of the institution. Some...

In his 27 January address at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Takeaki Matsumoto outlined three pillars of Japan’s African diplomacy: peace and stability; expanding assistance and...