MATSUURA: New Japan-Africa partnership seeks resilient Africa with strategic autonomy

The ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development took place in Yokohama, Japan, from August 20 to 22.

Representatives of 49 African countries, including 33 heads of government equivalents, participated, together with many international organisations, NGOs and business entities from Japan, Africa and the world. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan and President Joao Lourenzo of Angola (chairman of the African Union) co-hosted it.

The TICAD 9 summit set the tone for the Japan-Africa relationship in the coming years. What is the key tone? This is the reaffirmed partnership to walk together through the present-day volatility in the world. Its main theme ‘Co-create innovative solutions with Africa’ captures the spirit of this resolve.

Since the beginning of the year, Japan and Africa, together with the rest of the world, have been exposed to hitherto-unknown volatility in geopolitics and geoeconomics. TICAD 9 was the first major international conference in which the whole African continent got together for discussion with an external partner in this context.

Both Japan and Africa are more exposed than ever before. We face shared challenges. We should join forces. Common challenges include peace, stability, economy, food, energy, finance, trade, minerals, health, climate, waste, governance, youth, disaster preparedness, and many other issues, as discussed by the attending leaders who signed the TICAD 9 Yokohama Declaration.

Prime Minister Ishiba led the discussion by pledging to accelerate Japan’s undertakings in seven areas, namely: 1) facilitating investment in Africa, 2) facilitating mobilisation of private funding sources, 3) promoting industrial cooperation including better use of artificial intelligence and Digital Transformation and creating more resilient mineral supply chains

Also: 4) strengthening the connectivity of Africa both internally and externally, 5) strengthening health policies, 6) developing human resources with a focus on youth and women, and 7) building peace and stability in Africa.

Other three cross-sectors were emphasised in discussions: 1) sustainable growth led by private sectors, 2) youth and women and 3) regional integration and connectivity. Under this setting, the leaders of the 49 African countries and Japan discussed these issues head-to-head in a single space for three days, forging renewed comradeship.

What are the net outcomes of TICAD-9? In my view, they are three-fold.

First, the new Japan-Africa partnership aspires for a more resilient Africa, Africa with more strategic autonomy.

Japan announced initiatives to further these goals, such as the Indian Ocean-Africa Economic Zone; the Nakara Corridor Greater Region Cooperation; Industry-Government-Academic Study Committee for Strengthening the Japan-Africa Economic Partnership and the Package for Facilitating Health Investment in Africa.

Neither flip-flops nor hegemonic competition are part of Japan’s business in Africa. It will stay committed to stable and steady development of Africa, hoping to be a trusted partner to be relied upon by Africa, even at a time when Africa needs to deal with flip-flops or hegemonic competition by others.

Second, the new Japan-Africa partnership will engage in the core issues around sustainable growth. Africa needs employment, including for the youth and women, and increased productivity. It must have enough employment and increasing productivity to realise the rise of income levels en masse that will result in the creation of a significant middle class in each African nation’s economy.

We should use investment and trade to crack open the choke points to this goal. That will be the key to sustained growth in demand, and thus, sustained growth of the economy.

At TICAD 9, the Public-Private Business Dialogue and the TICAD Business Expo and Conference were organised precisely to address these core issues. The seriousness of the engagement is seen in none other than the signing of more than 300 business agreements between Japan and Africa that took place over the three days.

Third, and finally, the new Japan-Africa partnership opens a period of more comprehensive relations between Japan and Africa beyond diplomacy and the economy.

It is now 32 years since the first TICAD summit meeting was held in 1993, and the relations between our countries have attained maturity.

On the sidelines of the plenary meeting, international organisations, private businesses and civil society groups arranged more than 200 thematic events. The events promoted human contacts, exchanges and mutual understanding that went far beyond their original themes.

Concurrently, Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai is ongoing. Each day, more than 130,000 people visit the Expo displaying the exhibitions of 158 countries, including African nations.

Through the visits, the Japanese people collectively revisit the importance of feeling the touch of the international community learning from it. For example, the number of the visitors to the Kenyan exhibition is reported to be, on average, 13,000 per day. No less than 10 per cent of all the expo visitors deepen their affinity with Kenyan culture through the exhibition.

The expo, in effect, significantly extends the wing of Japanese interest in Africa toward culture. The power of African culture, through the expo exhibition, works on the minds of the Japanese to be more open to the totality of the African reality, including culture. The expo and the TICAD side events reinforced each other.

Africa and Japan, now stand at a new starting point. The challenges ahead of us are not easy to overcome. But together, we can surmount them. And, indeed, we will.