Japan is now the world's largest donor of Official Development Assistance (ODA), distributing one-fifth of all world-wide foreign aid. Concentrating heavily on infrastructure projects in Asia, Japanese ODAs have predominantly taken the form of concessional loans, raising many questions about the aims and motives of the Japanese foreign aid programme.

The Business of Japanese Foreign Aid brings together five case studies focusing on the procedures, methodologies and business mechanisms at the implementation level of ODA, suggesting that there are many more factors influencing the process than might have been anticipated at the policy-making level in Tokyo.

Examining such countries as China, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, these studies explore the process not only of giving but also of receiving aid, arguing that many of the recipient countries exert considerable influence over the distribution of Japanese foreign aid.