In the 1990s, Japan officially launched its first legal-assistance projects in Asia, becoming the first Asian donor to offer bilateral assistance in the legal field in the post-Cold War profileration of rule-of-law assistance movements. This paper reviews the process of re-shaping the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) policies in Japan leading up to the adoption of the ODA Charter in 1992 and its subsequent amendments which underlie the changes in importance and relevancy of legal assistance in the overall Japanese foreign-aid policy over the years. The paper also argues that Japan’s rule-of-law assistance projects were initially launched with pragmatic considerations but had to be continuously justified for their sustainability with increasingly sophisticated philosophical foundations and practical responses to respond to the changing trends of international co-operation and national political pressures.

中文翻译：

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日本官方发展援助的法律援助：新时代的火花

1990年代，日本正式启动了其在亚洲的第一个法律援助项目，成为冷战后法治援助运动形象中第一个在法律领域提供双边援助的亚洲捐助国。本文回顾了日本在 1992 年通过 ODA 宪章及其随后的修订后重塑海外发展援助 (ODA) 政策的过程，这些修订是法律援助在整个日本对外发展中的重要性和相关性发生变化的基础。 -多年来的援助政策。