The article provides a brief overview of the history of Japanese-African relations, examines in more detail the events of the last twenty years, as well as the latest trends in modern Japanese African politics. Special attention is paid to the activities carried out within the framework of the TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) conference, which has been functioning for more than 20 years as a platform for high-level dialogue, as well as a tool for coordinating Japanese investments and assistance to African countries. The article provides an overview of the Japanese government's initiatives in the field of economic cooperation with African countries and assesses the prospects for Japanese-African relations.

Keywords: Japan, Africa, Japan-Africa relations, foreign policy, TIKAD.

Japan-Africa relations are a relatively new component of international politics. An important role was played by the strategy of international isolation pursued by the Japanese rulers for almost two and a half centuries - from the second quarter of the XVII century to 1868, when as a result of the Meiji Restoration, Japan's foreign and domestic policy underwent drastic changes. During the entire period of isolation in Japan, the construction of large-capacity ships was prohibited, so after it ended, it took a considerable time to create a merchant fleet. This may partly explain the fact that direct trade links between Japan and Africa were established only at the beginning of the 20th century.Due to its geographical remoteness, Africa was not a priority region for the Land of the Rising Sun, and the volume of Japanese-African trade remained insignificant for a long time.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Japan's main trading partner in Africa was the Union of South Africa (UAC); Egypt was next in terms of trade. However, it was Egypt that became the first African country to establish diplomatic relations with Japan in 1922 (the second was Ethiopia - in 1930). The main items of Japanese imports from Africa were mineral resources and agricultural products (cotton and food crops), exports - industrial goods. During the entire period of the formation of Japanese-African relations, Japan's policy towards the countries of the continent was primarily determined by economic interests.

The noticeable expansion of Japan's political presence in Africa in the 1960s is explained by the fact that the countries freed from colonial dependence increasingly attracted the attention of Japan as sources of raw materials and rapidly growing markets for industrial products. Japan's main trading partner on the continent was still the South Asian Sea. Trade contacts between the two countries,

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severed in 1941 by the UAS and other members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, they were restored in 1948, and diplomatic relations, first established in 1937, were restored only in 1961, after the UAS withdrew from the Commonwealth and renamed it the Republic of South Africa (South Africa), although the Japanese consulate in Pretoria has been in operation since 1952. In the mid-1960s, Japan's trade with South Africa reached pre-war levels.

Post-war Japanese foreign policy, which was heavily influenced by the United States, changed markedly in the 1970s due to the improvement of US-Chinese relations and the 1973 oil crisis, which was triggered by a boycott of the United States and its allies (for supporting Israel), including Japan, by Middle Eastern oil exporters. The downturn in the Japanese economy that followed the jump in energy prices prompted the country's authorities to start reorienting the industry from energy-intensive to knowledge-intensive, thanks to which stagnation was avoided in the 1970s, and to search for new sources of oil imports, including in Africa.

By the mid-1980s, due to the international isolation of South Africa for several years, Japan became its main foreign trade partner [Morikawa, 1997, p. 79], and the volume of bilateral trade exceeded the total volume of Japanese trade with the rest of Africa [Ibid., p. 81], and the status of "honorary whites" was assigned to the Japanese in South Africa as early as the early 1960s [Ibid., p. 56]. However, by the late 1980s, the international community's condemnation of apartheid and Japanese cooperation with South Africa, the threat of economic sanctions against Japan, and evidence of the imminent fall of the Pretoria regime forced Tokyo to radically change its policy towards African countries. The formation of a new foreign policy course was also significantly influenced by the systemic shifts in the Japanese economy observed at the end of the 20th century, caused by global changes, the transition from an industrial economy to a post-industrial one, and changes in relations with developing countries.

After moderate economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s and the collapse of the "bubble economy" in the 1990s, Japan began a period of stagnation, which residents of the country often call the "lost decade" (). Currently, along with this expression, the designation "two lost decades" is quite widespread, implying that the situation did not change in 2000-2010.

New trends in Japan's African policy that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s were partly reflected in the organization in 1993. Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). Since then, this forum has been held every five years. TIKAD is organized by the Government of Japan, the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the UN Special Adviser on Africa. The main Japanese participant is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 1993 conference marked the beginning of a new phase of cooperation between Japan and African countries. This phase is generally characterized by an increase in investment and official development assistance (ODA).

It should be noted that the form of TICAD, which serves as both a platform for dialogue and a tool for coordinating investment and ODA in Africa, corresponds to current trends - to increase mutual responsibility and expand mutual obligations between donor countries and recipient countries of aid and investment, with an emphasis on respect for human rights and the democratization of political processes in African States; to differentiate investment objects; to increase attention to environmental issues, etc. The TICAD organizational structure model has been used in the preparation of similar conferences by other countries interested in expanding economic cooperation with Africa, such as China (China-Africa Cooperation Forum) and India.

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According to political analyst Kweku Ampaya, " TIKAD implies a significant shift in Japan's attitude towards Africa and the region's development problems, expanding the set of tools for analyzing the situation and methods for possible problem resolution. It opens up prospects for applying models of economic development in East Asian countries in African conditions "[Ampiah, 2005, p. 99].

The first conference turned out to be a large-scale event, which was attended by about a thousand people, including representatives of 48 African states, including five heads of state and government, delegates from 12 European donor countries and a number of international organizations. The "Tokyo Declaration on African Development: Forward to the Twenty-first Century" was adopted, outlining the main priorities of the participants and outlining an approximate plan of joint action to address various issues of the continent's development.

The most significant areas of cooperation in the declaration were: maintaining peace and stability in Africa; stimulating economic growth, including through private sector development; regional cooperation and integration; developing labor and intellectual resources; increasing access to and improving the quality of education and health care [Tokyo Declaration..., 1993]. The declaration stressed the importance of using the Asian experience of industrialization in Africa, especially the Japanese one.

A special feature of the TIKAD-I forum was its holding during a period of relative decline in interest in Africa from European investors. The conference was held at a favorable moment for the development of a new direction of economic partnership - Asia-Africa.

The commitments made by the Japanese Government were both economic and political in nature. Support for democratization processes on the Black Continent was recognized as one of the most important political areas of cooperation. Japan participated in peace processes in Mozambique, deployed personnel to strengthen the UN mission there, and provided more than $ 1 million for elections; assisted in the 1994 general elections in South Africa, providing $ 300 million in grants, $ 1 billion in loans, and supporting the UN mission. in South Africa, it provided $ 10 million for judicial and law enforcement reform in Somalia and election observers in several African countries (Morikawa, 1997, pp. 276-277).

The second vector of Japan's activity in Africa was to support economic reforms on the continent. In particular, Tokyo contributed to the implementation of a special program of assistance to low-income and heavily indebted Tropical African countries initiated by the World Bank. Japan's participation resulted in financial assistance to ten countries, totaling $ 1.1 billion. $ 800 million in loans and $ 300 million in loans. in the form of grants for the period from 1993 to 1996.

Providing assistance in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources became a separate area of discussions and activities of the TICAD. At the first conference, only one significant initiative in this area was announced-financial assistance to several African countries in the research and development of underground drinking water sources. Japan pledged to continue the work already under way and to double the amount of funding planned for 1993-1994, increasing it to $ 300 million.

In comparison with subsequent conferences, TICAD-I was mainly a discussion event and focused more on identifying the most important priorities for the socio-economic development of African countries than on implementing specific projects. Nevertheless, the forum was an impetus for the emergence and development of many different initiatives in Japan and beyond. For example, in 1993, a student "Program for inviting African youth"was launched

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The African Youth Invitation Program, which provided 100 scholarships to African students and interns every year and held a series of symposia and forums on African issues in Japan in 1994-1995.

The holding of the conference predetermined a series of mutual visits of high-ranking Japanese and African officials. Among the most important are visits to African countries by the Deputy Foreign Ministers, the Minister and Deputy Defense Minister of Japan, and visits to Japan by the Presidents of Uganda, Benin, the Foreign Ministers of Burkina Faso and South Africa, the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Congo, and the Minister of Finance of Kenya.

The second TICAD conference was held in Tokyo at the end of October 1998. The number of participants increased: representatives of 80 countries attended, including 51 African and 11 Asian countries, as well as 22 non-governmental organizations and 40 international organizations. As a result, the program document "Tokyo Agenda for Action" was published, which focused on infrastructure development and external debt of African countries. At the TICAD-P conference, the Japanese Government announced an increase in grants to Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mauritania, Kenya, Mali and Zambia to repay loans. As a result, the number of countries that received grants from Japan for this purpose reached 28, of which 22 were at that time on the list of least developed countries in the world [Lumumba-Kasongo, 2010, p. 207]. Along with the export of manufactured goods, Japanese exports of capital, services, patents and innovative projects have become important.

Japanese Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro's first-ever visit to the continent in 2001, when he visited South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, confirmed the growing importance of the African direction of politics and foreign trade for Japan. During the visit, Yoshiro stated that "in the twenty-first century, stability and prosperity around the world will depend on solving Africa's problems" [Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Visit ..., 2001].

The third TICAD conference was held in September 2003, ten years after the first one. It was organized by the World Bank. The forum's political significance and scope continued to grow: in 2003, 23 African heads of State took part (5 in 1993, 15 in 1998). Representatives of 89 countries and 20 international organizations attended TIKAD III. The number of conference participants again exceeded one thousand.

At the forum, the idea of "anthropocentric" development (humancentered development) was expressed, which not only became one of the principles of TIKAD's activities, but also influenced Japan's foreign policy rhetoric, primarily in relations with developing countries. The innovation of this approach was the interconnectedness of the economic and social problems of developing countries-poverty, social inequality, conflict and instability-and the impossibility of solving them separately.

The program document of the third TICAD Conference was called the "TICAD 10th Declaration" and indicated the participants ' intentions to continue cooperation for the development of African countries, including jointly with the African Union and within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa's Development - NEPAD.

The Japanese government has announced plans to invest about $ 750 million (90 billion yen) in education, health and drinking water supply. According to the Congolese researcher Tucumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, a year earlier (in 2002), about $ 60 billion was already allocated for similar purposes. yen [Lumumba-Kasongo, 2010, p. 209].

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During the conference, the organizers of TICAD and NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) signed a joint declaration on cooperation, in which they expressed their intention to contribute to achieving maximum efficiency in addressing the main issues of Africa's development. Among other things, it noted the importance of interaction between the private and public sectors of the economy [TICAD-NEPAD Joint Policy..., 2004].

The fourth TICAD Conference, held at the end of May 2008, lasted three days and again surpassed the previous forums in terms of both the number of participants and political significance. This time, the conference venue was moved to the port city of Yokohama, although the name "Tokyo" was not changed. TIKAD IV was attended by representatives of 51 African States (no Somalis), including 40 heads of State and Government; delegations from partner States, 74 international and regional organizations (17 from Africa), representatives of the private sector and NGOs. In total, more than 2.5 thousand people participated in the conference, and the three-day program included, in addition to the main sessions and meetings, many bilateral and multilateral meetings, speeches, lectures and other events.

Opening the conference, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced his intention to double the amount of grants, technical assistance and ODA to African countries in the next five years (by the end of 2012) to $ 4 billion. in the form of loans, mainly for infrastructure development [Summary by the Chair..., 2008]. Fukuda announced plans to increase the volume of Japanese investment, including private investment, to $ 2.5 billion and boost trade activities between Japan and African countries [Lumumba-Kasongo, 2010, p.211].

TICAD-IV adopted two policy documents - the Yokohama Declaration and the Yokohama Plan of Action, which set out the positions of the conference participants on key issues and a plan of practical action for the coming years. The main objectives of TICAD-IV were to mobilize international assistance to Africa and create conditions and mechanisms to accelerate the process of integration of the continent's States into the global economy.

The Yokohama Declaration calls for "accelerating and diversifying economic growth; developing the labor force; accelerating industrial development; agricultural development; increasing the share of African countries in world trade and investment; large-scale tourism development; developing the private sector and increasing its role, including in public activities" to meet these challenges [Yokohama Declaration 2008].

Specific initiatives have been put forward in each of these areas, such as ensuring duty-free entry of all products from the least developed countries of Africa, as well as supporting existing and launching several new programs aimed at developing agriculture and improving the competitiveness of African products [Yokohama Action Plan 2008]. Of course, most of the initiatives are local in nature and represent not so much an attempt to solve a global problem as a demonstration of the possibility of applying the Japanese experience of modernization in African conditions. Some programs, after being successfully tested in one country or region, were further developed in other places. An example is the "Farm Support Project", which has been successfully implemented in Kenya since 2009 with about 95% of its cost financed by Japan [Summary of Terminal..., 2009] and has been further developed (since 2013) in ten other African countries.

The fifth TICAD conference, held from 1 to 3 June 2013, did not have any fundamental differences from the previous one. The venue was the city of Yokohama, and it lasted three days. However, TIKAD-V has become the largest international conference in the world.-

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the largest competition ever held in Japan-the number of participants exceeded 4.5 thousand. Among them were representatives of 51 African States and 31 partner States, including 39 heads of State and Government, representatives of 72 international and regional organizations, as well as the private sector and NGOs.

Since 2013, the African Union has joined the ranks of the conference's organizers. According to the new action plan adopted by TIKAD-V, which, like the previous one, was called the "Yokohama Action Plan", and the statement of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made in a speech at the plenary session, Japan plans to invest $ 32 billion over 5 years in various projects related to the economic development of Africa, This includes approximately $ 14 billion in ODA. Another adopted document, the Yokohama Declaration 2013, set out the main strategic guidelines and objectives of the TICAD [Yokohama Declaration 2013].

The TICAD-V program documents emphasize the intention of the Japanese government and other participants to finance projects aimed at developing the private sector, creating new jobs, improving infrastructure, strengthening food security, protecting the environment; related to education, research and tourism development.

It is assumed that the growth of foreign trade contributes to the development of the economy as a whole, creating new jobs and reducing poverty, which, thanks to the expansion of markets, will also be beneficial for foreign partners. Increased trade between African countries should lead to a reduction in the cost of goods, and therefore to an increase in living standards. Currently, the share of trade between the countries of the continent reaches only 12% of the total volume of their foreign trade, which remains quite low [Yokohama Action Plan 2013-2017].

The TICAD-V documents proclaim the participants ' desire not only to increase the total investment volume, but also to diversify the facilities, attracting investors who usually focus on the extractive industry to less popular areas - agriculture, tourism and infrastructure. Of the announced amount of $ 32 billion, It is planned to allocate 6.5 billion rubles for infrastructure projects. as ODA and as loans from the Japan Bank for international cooperation.

They also announced the launch of several programs in the field of education, and plans to create specialized employment centers in 25 African countries. Another initiative was the Japan-African Business Women Exchange Program.

Security and counter-terrorism issues in Africa were discussed at the forum. In particular, plans were announced to allocate funds to strengthen the combat potential of African units fighting terrorism and piracy in North Africa and the Sahel zone. Off the coast of Somalia and adjacent territories, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces and Coast Guard are planned to be built up and their anti-piracy activities intensified. They also expressed their intention to continue supporting UN peacekeeping forces in conflict zones and African Union initiatives.

The scale of TIKAD's initiatives is regarded by most researchers as evidence of the growing importance of African countries for Japan's foreign policy. Indeed, over the past twenty years, Japanese diplomatic and financial activities in Africa have experienced a relative increase. This is confirmed by Prime Minister Abe's visit to Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Ethiopia in January 2014, which was the second ever visit by a sitting Japanese Prime Minister to the African continent. The Prime Minister was accompanied by about 50 heads of large industrial enterprises [Japan PM begins..., 2014].

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During the visit, Abe made several important political statements, in particular about financial assistance to maintain peace and stability in Africa. It is planned to allocate $ 320 million for this purpose, including $ 25 million to stabilize the situation in South Sudan and $ 3 million to help resolve the crisis in the Central African Republic [Japan's Shinzo Abe..., 2014].

* * *

Thus, over the past two decades, Japan's foreign policy strategy in Africa has undergone significant changes. New methods and areas of cooperation have been added to the standard schemes of interaction, the main coordination tool of which has become the TIKAD conference, which oversees many projects at the same time and has the potential to become an important means of translating the foreign policy decisions of the Japanese government in the African direction into specific programs and methods of their implementation. The TICAD format opens up new opportunities to address certain challenges by bringing together government, the private sector, international and non-governmental organizations to ensure the greatest effectiveness in addressing issues of socio-economic development in African countries.

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Japan's Shinzo Abe woos Africa with funds for peace and security // Japan Times, 14 January 2014. URL: http://www.japantimcs.co.jp/news/2014/01/14/national/japans-shinzo-abe-woos-africa-with-fund s-for-peace-and-sccurity/#.UwzU-vl_vQc.

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