As Africa, now widely seen as a continent of vast potential, has come to attract the attention of the world and particularly of many Asian powers, Japan is seen by many observers as grossly lagging behind its Asian peers and even as hardly visible in the landscape. Moreover, when discussing Japan’s engagement in Africa, the media almost always seem to frame the topic only in the context of the rivalry between Japan and China. Against this backdrop, while admitting that such discourse contains more than a grain of truth, this article attempts to provide a different perspective from which to look at the roles Japan has been playing and could play in the future in Africa. The case is premised on the argument that Japan has certain assets which cannot be found in other actors involved in Africa, be they the Western countries, emerging countries, or international organizations. To support the argument, the article discusses the characteristics of Japan’s international development cooperation implemented through its official development assistance programs, business models employed therein, and Japan’s engagement paths with Africa, all of which are somewhat different from other actors and could work to Japan’s advantage.

中文翻译：

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日本在非洲的比较优势是什么？历史和比较视角的讨论

由于非洲现在已被广泛认为是一个潜力巨大的大陆，已经吸引了世界，尤其是许多亚洲大国的关注，因此许多观察家将日本视为远远落后于亚洲同行的国家，甚至在地形上也几乎看不到。此外，在讨论日本在非洲的参与时，几乎所有媒体似乎总是仅在日中之间竞争的背景下来构想这个话题。在这种背景下，尽管承认这种话语不仅仅包含事实真相，但本文还是试图提供一种不同的视角，来审视日本在非洲未来可能发挥的作用。该案的前提是，日本拥有某些资产，而这些资产在涉及非洲的其他参与者中是找不到的，例如西方国家，新兴国家，或国际组织。为了支持这一论点，本文讨论了通过其官方发展援助计划实施的日本国际发展合作的特征，其中采用的商业模式以及日本与非洲的接触途径，所有这些都与其他参与者有所不同，并且可能对日本有利。 。