A Critical Assessment of Japan’s Foreign Aid Sanctions Policy: Case Studies of Latin American Countries

The Japanese government introduced new foreign aid guidelines in 1991 and it pledged to impose aid sanctions on those aid recipient countries whose governments violated human rights or democratic principles. The introduction of the new aid guidelines is expected to produce a certain effect on Japan’s foreign aid policy. This paper examines Japan’s aid sanctions policy toward Latin American countries as a case study. Since new ODA guidelines were introduced, Japan implemented three positive reinforcements in Latin America, i.e. in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Peru, while negative reinforcements were introduced twice, i.e. in Haiti and Guatemala. The findings indicate that Japan apparently pledges to promote human rights and democracy with the aim of showing solidarity with other aid donor countries while the pursuit of economic interests seem to remain a driving force behind Japanese aid policy.