Country_12_Japan_EN

Japan

Commitment to Development Index 2012

Japan

David Roodman and Julia Clark

The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries based on their dedication to policies that benefit poor nations.

Looking beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid flows, the CDI measures national policies in seven areas that are important to developing countries: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security and technology. This report reviews Japan’s performance on the 2012 CDI. For more details, visit cgdev.org/cdi.

Denmark Norway Sweden Luxembourg Austria Netherlands Finland New Zealand United Kingdom Portugal Canada Germany Belgium France Spain Australia Ireland Switzerland United States Italy Greece Hungary Slovakia Czech Republic Poland Japan South Korea

Overall Score

Japan’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 26 n Overall score 2012: 3.4 n Change since 2003: +1.3 (using 2012 methodology) Japan ranks 26th overall in 2012. Japan’s barriers to exports from developing countries are the highest in the CDI (driven mainly by rice tariffs), and its foreign aid is one of the smallest as a share of income. Japan also admits very few immigrants from poor countries, and makes small financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned security operations. Japan’s strongest contribution to development comes through government support for research and development, earning it a high score on the technology component. The Japanese government also hosts a large number of students from developing countries and does not export arms.

www.cgdev.org/cdi

Japan’s CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003

Aid

2012

Trade Investment Migration Environment Security Technology Overall

-8

-4

0

4

8

Japan Country Report

Aid

Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GDP adjusted for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes “tied” aid that makes recipients spend aid only on donor goods and services, rewards aid to poor but relatively well-governed recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.

n Score: 1.6 n Rank: 21

Investment

Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy investment in developing countries.

n Score: 5.2 n Rank: 13 Strengths

- Small share of tied or partially tied aid (6.4%; rank: 10)

- Provides insurance against political risk for both domestic and foreign firms - Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad

Weaknesses

Weaknesses

- Low net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.16%; rank: 21) - Allows project proliferation; small average project size (rank: 26)

- Negligent in identifying bribery and corrupt practices on the part of home country firms abroad - Does not support the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)

Strengths

Trade

International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.

n Score: 0.1 n Rank: 26 Strengths - Low agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 4.2% of the value of imports; rank: 3) - Low tariffs on textiles (5.0% of the value of imports; rank: 2)

Weaknesses - High tariffs on rice (498.0% of the value of imports; rank: 27) - High tariffs on wheat (114.5% of the value of imports; rank: 26) - High tariffs on dairy (82.7% of the value of imports; rank: 24) - High tariffs on corn (21.6% of the value of imports; rank: 24)

Center for Global Development

Migration

The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income, and knowledge. This increases the flow of money sent home by migrants abroad and the transfer of skills when the migrants return.

n Score: 1.9 n Rank: 22 Strengths - Large share of foreign students from developing countries (77%; rank: 8) - Tuition for foreign students the same as for nationals

Weaknesses - Bears small share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 26) - Only a small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Japan (rank by share of population: 21) - Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering Japan (rank by share of population: 21)

Japan Country Report

www.cgdev.org/cdi

Environment

Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources and poor countries are most vulnerable to global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of policies on the global climate, fisheries, and biodiversity.

n Score: 4.5 n Rank: 22

Technology

Rich countries contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and penalizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.

n Score: 6.1 n Rank: 5

Strengths - Low greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel production rate per capita (9.3 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 9)

Weaknesses - High tropical wood imports ($23.8 per person; rank: 27) - High consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 25) - Low gas taxes ($0.59 per liter; rank: 22) - Poor compliance with mandatory reporting requirements under multilateral environmental agreements relating to biodiversity (rank: 21)

Security

Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, military protection of global sea lanes, and participation in international security treaties. It also penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.

Strengths - Significant government support for R&D (rank: 11) - Provides patent exceptions for research purposes - Restricts copyrighting of databases

Weaknesses - Allows patents on plant and animal varieties - Allows patents on software programs

For More Visit cgdev.org/cdi for the complete 2012 edition of the Commitment to Development Index. There, you can explore the numbers with our interactive graphing tool, view additional publications and background papers, and dive deeper into the CDI methodology by downloading our data and code.

n Score: 4.5 n Rank: 17 Strengths - No arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 1) - Participates in major international security treaties and regimes

Weaknesses - Small financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 26) - Provides little protection of global sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 17)

Center for Global Development

Japan Country Report

www.cgdev.org/cdi

Commitment to Development Index 2012 Country Denmark Norway Sweden Luxembourg Austria Netherlands Finland New Zealand United Kingdom Portugal Canada Germany Belgium France Spain Australia Ireland Switzerland United States Italy Greece Hungary Slovakia Czech Republic Poland Japan South Korea

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 13 13 15 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Aid 11.5 13.0 12.6 13.0 3.1 9.5 6.6 3.3 6.8 3.1 5.0 3.9 6.4 4.2 4.0 4.3 7.5 5.2 3.2 1.3 1.6 0.8 0.8 1.1 0.7 1.6 1.0

Trade 5.3 1.1 5.8 5.3 5.6 5.9 5.8 8.1 5.5 5.6 6.2 5.5 5.5 5.6 5.5 7.4 5.2 1.5 6.7 5.7 5.3 5.4 5.8 5.5 5.6 0.1 -1.3

Investment 4.7 6.1 5.3 4.2 4.8 6.3 5.1 4.3 6.3 5.2 6.1 6.3 5.3 6.1 5.9 6.1 2.9 4.4 5.0 5.4 4.0 3.6 2.9 3.9 4.1 5.2 5.6

Migration 6.2 9.9 7.8 6.8 11.7 5.5 4.4 6.4 4.7 4.0 7.0 6.9 5.0 4.0 5.4 4.2 2.8 8.6 5.2 4.7 6.4 1.7 0.6 1.3 0.6 1.9 1.3

Environment 6.8 3.2 7.3 5.5 6.2 6.7 7.4 6.2 7.2 7.2 2.5 6.9 7.0 6.9 6.4 3.8 6.5 5.8 4.3 6.7 5.9 7.9 8.3 7.2 7.4 4.5 4.2

Security 7.7 7.6 1.2 5.0 6.1 3.2 6.6 7.3 5.4 6.0 5.7 3.7 3.6 3.7 3.4 5.1 6.9 4.4 4.6 5.0 5.7 5.4 5.5 1.6 3.8 4.5 1.4

Technology 6.6 5.7 4.7 4.2 5.7 5.4 5.9 4.8 4.3 7.4 5.5 5.0 4.6 6.6 5.8 5.2 3.9 4.8 4.9 4.2 2.8 3.4 2.6 5.3 2.7 6.1 7.0

Overall Score 7.0 6.6 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.0 4.8 4.7 4.5 4.0 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.4 2.7

Change since 2003 -0.2

+0.7 -0.3

n/a +0.7 -0.1

+0.1 0.0 +0.7 +1.1 +0.3 +0.5 +0.5 +1.0 +0.7 +0.2 0.0 +0.2 +0.8 +0.7 +0.7 n/a n/a n/a n/a +1.3 n/a

The above table lists scores for each of the 27 CDI-ranked countries across seven policy areas. A country’s overall performance is the average of its seven component scores, each of which are scaled so that an average score in 2012 equals 5.0. The final column shows the change in each country’s overall score since the CDI began in 2003 (using 2012 methodology).

About The CDI The Commitment to Development Index has been compiled each year since 2003 by the Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. CGD senior fellow David Roodman is the chief architect of the CDI, and collaborators have included William R. Cline on trade; Theodore H. Moran on investment; Jeanne Batalova, Kimberly A. Hamilton, and Elizabeth Grieco on migration; Amy Cassara and Daniel Prager on environment; Michael E. O’Hanlon, Adriana Lins de Albuquerque, Mark Stoker and Jason Alderwick on security, and Keith Maskus and Walter Park on technology. The Index is supported by the CDI Consortium.

Center for Global Development

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