Hi,

Our readers will agree that 2025 really has been about understanding how foreign policy unfolds in global health, among other changes.

This watershed year has seen a fundamental shift in the way some countries think about Official Development Assistance (ODA). So it makes sense to view donor countries’ foreign policy through the lens of ODA in an evolving geopolitical landscape.

While much of our journalism is through the prism of Geneva, it is also refreshing to look at the field from afar.

In today’s edition, I am happy to bring you a perspective on Japan’s role in global health, also seen in the larger context of its ODA across areas of security, strategy and military objectives in Asia and beyond.

As a part of the G7 bloc, Japan has also been influential in the Preparedness, Prevention and Response agenda to govern health emergencies.

My colleague Alyssa Chetrick (who fluently straddles both the U.S. and Japan), formerly a part of our annual fellowship program, brings her expertise to bear on this reported opinion piece. Chetrick is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health with a focus on infectious disease epidemiology and global health policy.

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More soon!

Best,

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com or Follow us on Twitter: @filesgeneva

I. ANALYSIS

Japan: In the Transition of Global Health

By Alyssa Chetrick

Priti Patnaik & Nishant Sirohi contributed to this analysis

Chetrick (MPH) is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health with a focus on infectious disease epidemiology and global health policy. The author gratefully acknowledges Professor Shiga Hiroshi, (Yokohama National University) for sharing his insights on conceptual issues. All omissions and errors are the author’s.

In response to the major shift in geopolitics, Japan has tailored its foreign policy approach and has used Official Development Assistance (ODA) for economic development. It has also deployed the ODA as a diplomatic and strategic bargaining chip to achieve geopolitical security with China. This piece takes a close look at how Japan’s ODA has changed over time.

In addition, in the context of global health, the recent adoption of the Pandemic Accord at the WHO this year, also provides opportunities for Japan. We examine Japan’s role in shaping new legal instruments including the Pathogen Access Benefits Sharing System – an annex to the Pandemic Agreement currently under negotiation. Without the U.S. in these negotiations, Japan will play a key role, along side other G7 members.