Institutional structure, volume of aid, partner countries
After restructuring in 2001, the coordinating institution for development cooperation now is the Foreign Ministry (MOFA), which consults the Ministry of Finance in the process.
Two organisations are responsible for development cooperation in Japan:
- Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) was founded in 1999 id responsible for the financial cooperation and reports to the Ministry of Finance. It is the largest bilateral institution in development cooperation with a yearly budget of 25 to 30 million US$. It had 889 employees in March 2000.
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is responsible for the technical cooperation and has around 1.200 employees working in Headquarters or in one of the 50 field offices.
Main partner countries are all in Asia: China is by far the most important partner country, followed by India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Cooperation with these five countries sums up to 4.2 billion US$ taking a share of over 45% of the whole development cooperation of Japan.
In 2003 the relation of aid volume to GNI sank from 0,28% to 0,20%. But Japan still is the unchallenged second largest donor of the DAC with an aid volume of more than 8.9 billion US$. Following chart of OECD highlights Japan's development cooperation activities.
