New JICA head envisages ‘effective approach’ for ODA

Shinichi Kitaoka, the newly appointed president of Japan International Cooperation Agency, said he wants to carefully study the needs of recipients and work to provide development aid effectively given the country’s limited financial resources.

“I want to take a steady approach toward Japan’s proactive contribution to peace,” Kitaoka said in a news conference Friday following the Cabinet approval of his appointment earlier in the day.

Kitaoka, who now heads the body responsible for Japan’s official development assistance, praised Tokyo’s criteria for providing aid, including whether recipients respect democracy and the rule of law. But he said that sometimes “we cannot just force our values without knowing the realities” in recipient nations, emphasizing the need to understand local needs.

Kitaoka said he believes Japan’s approach in international aid has been successful thanks to its efforts to focus on making partner countries owners of the aid and working with them on an equal footing.

JICA has operated in more than 150 countries, providing aid and assistance in fields such as infrastructure, disaster prevention, energy and agriculture.

In 2013 its aid totaled about ¥1.2 trillion ($9.9 billion).

In Nepal, JICA assisted the country’s reconstruction efforts, such as rebuilding schools, after last April’s catastrophic earthquake.

Kitaoka, a former president of International University of Japan and an expert on Japanese politics and diplomacy, was Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2004 to 2006. He said he played a key role in making “human security” a key component of Japan and the United Nation’s strategy for maintaining peace and security in the international community.

In 2008, he founded Millennium Promise Japan, a nonprofit organization supporting poor African countries hoping to reach the Millennium Development Goal, a set of U.N.-led poverty-fighting targets.

He chaired an advisory panel for the government that worked out the legal basis for reinterpreting war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution to enable the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense. He asserted the previous constitutional interpretation was too constricting for the Self-Defense Forces to effectively cooperate in international peacekeeping operations.

The panel’s recommendations eventually became the basis of the Cabinet’s decision over collective self-defense, which was followed by the recent passage of controversial security bills.

At Friday’s news conference, Kitaoka expressed concerns that fewer people these days are interested in international affairs, and that Japan appears “closed” to the outside world. He said he hopes to build a constructive relationships with the media to change people’s mindset.

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