Japanese PM starts weeklong African tour

Japanese PM starts weeklong African tour

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan's leader departed for a weeklong African tour Thursday, Jan 9, keeping up a busy travel schedule designed to restore Japan's global influence in the face of China's rise, as well as help Japanese companies win business overseas, the Associated Press reports.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will make a short visit to the Mideast state of Oman before heading to the Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Ethiopia, is taking a different approach to foreign policy than his immediate predecessors, visiting a wider range of countries to try to broaden Japan's diplomatic reach.

Abe touched down in 25 countries in 2013, his first year in office. He was the first Japanese leader to go to the Philippines since he visited in 2006, and made it a point to hit all 10 Southeast Asian countries. Other stops ranged from major Persian Gulf oil producers to Turkey, Poland and Mongolia.

Abe told reporters before his departure that Africa can be seen as "a frontier for Japan's diplomacy." Japan is a longtime aid donor to Africa, and it has stepped up its assistance over the past five years. In June, Japan hosted a meeting attended by nearly 40 heads-of-state of African nations, and pledged another $14 billion over the next five years, as well as promises of billions more in private investment.

Those efforts have been overshadowed by China's imports of raw materials, massive infrastructure projects and exports of affordable consumer goods that are widely credited with helping lift African economies in the 21st century, the AP says.

Business executives will accompany Abe in Africa, with the biggest delegation of 29 companies going to Mozambique, a resource-rich country where Japanese companies are investing in coal and natural gas development.

Africa's recent economic growth has also raised hopes that one of the world's last major untapped markets is starting to realize its potential. Japanese officials paint the Ivory Coast, Abe's first stop in Africa, as the gateway to a west African market of 300 million people.

Abe is likely to talk about Japan's role in Africa when he gives a policy speech at his last stop in Ethiopia. The venue: The $200 million headquarters of the African Union that opened two years ago, paid for by China.

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