Tokyo: The Japanese government in an annual report Tuesday vowed to strengthen its assistance for emerging and developing countries in the so-called Global South, such as those in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, many of which face serious energy and food shortages.

The 2022 White Paper on Development Cooperation, submitted by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi to the day’s cabinet meeting, referred to the term Global South, comprising mainly Southern Hemisphere nations, for the first time.

“As this year’s chair of the Group of Seven major countries, Japan will lead the efforts to strengthen our engagement in the Global South by actively contributing to the solution of issues such as climate change, energy, food, health and development,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at the day’s press conference.

In 2022, Japan decided a total of some 1.6 billion dollars in aid after Russia started to invade Ukraine in February that year, according to the white paper.

On the current situation regarding development finance, the report took note of so-called debt trap diplomacy, in which a country increases its influence over developing nations by making them heavily indebted. “Japan will urge China and other emerging donor countries to provide assistance in a transparent way,” it said.

In 2021, Japan’s official development assistance excluding repaid yen loans grew 8.4 pct from the preceding year to 17,634.14 million dollars. Japan thus surpassed Britain to become the third-largest ODA donor after the United States and Germany.

JIJI Press