Japan and Africa
日本与非洲
Catching up
赶赴非洲为盛宴
May 29th 2008 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition
2008年5月29日/东京
《经济学人》印刷版
It’s sushi for Africa’s leaders
为非洲领导人准备的寿司
THE copper is used in computers. The nickel is for batteries. Tungsten is used to fortify steel for cars. Japan buys much of its rare metal from China to feed its electronics and car industries. But as booming China has begun to close the spigot to safeguard its own supplies, Japan, the world’s second biggest economy, has been forced to look elsewhere for an alternative source—in Africa.
铜是制造电脑不可或缺的原料，镍可以用来造电池，钨可以使造车用的钢铁更坚 固。过去日本可以从中国进口大部分稀有金属来满足其电子和汽车工业的需要，但是当迅速发展的中国开始拧紧原材料出口的龙头来保障本国供给时，日本这个世界 第二大经济体不得不把目光转向其他地方以寻找替代来源——这个地方就是非洲。
On May 28th it hosted the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a quadrennial event since 1993. About 40 African heads of state or government attended. Japan’s prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, promised to meet each one individually, as well as Bono, a pop singer, without whom no such gathering on Africa is complete.
5月28号，日本举办了东京非洲发展国际大会，这个会议自1993年开始每四 年召开一次。大约40位非洲地区国家元首或政府首脑出席本次会议，日本首相福田康夫承诺会与每一位领导人单独会谈，他还会会见流行歌手Bono（U2成 员，热心于非洲公益事业）。几乎在每一次关于非洲的会议上都可以看到这位歌手的身影。
But whereas in previous meetings aid topped the agenda, this time it has been all about the hunt for natural resources—with Africa’s best interests at heart, of course. “If we are able to utilise Africa’s plentiful resources more fully by harnessing Japan’s technologies,” Mr Fukuda said, “this will surely be a major trigger for growth and without a doubt benefit Africa.”
但是与以往“援助”主宰会议进程不同的是，此次会议主要是为了获取自然资源，当然非洲人对此心知肚明。福田康夫说“如果我们能依靠日本的科技优势更充分地利用非洲丰富的自然资源，那么这肯定会极大的促进经济增长，而且毫无疑问，非洲会从中获益。”
This has become a familiar refrain from the leaders of Asia’s other expanding economies. Japan is following firmly in the footsteps of China and India, both of which have hosted lavish African summits in the past 18 months, both of them keen to buy Africa’s oil and metals.
这已经成了亚洲其他新兴经济体领导人的口头禅，日本只不过是在努力追赶中国和印度的脚步，这两个国家在过去的的18个月里都举办过慷慨大方的非洲峰会，他们渴望从非洲购买石油和金属等原材料。
Like the others, Japan is offering sweeteners to make itself a saucier commercial partner. This week it pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012, to $3.4 billion. It will also provide up to $4 billion in low-interest rate loans, which means easing its rules against lending to countries that have previously received debt relief.
像其他国家一样，日本为了把自己塑造成一个可以起到调和作用的商业伙伴而“广行善事”。本周日本承诺到2012年对非援助增加一倍达到34亿美元，它还会提供40亿美元低息贷款，这意味着降低了向此前享受过债务减免的国家提供贷款的标准。
Japanese officials stress that all this comes with no strings attached (except perhaps Africa’s support for a permanent Japanese seat in the UN Security Council), a not-too-subtle hint that the country hopes to compete on an equal footing with China. Its loans are never linked to improvements in governance or human rights, unlike many of those from Europe, which hosted its own Africa summit in Portugal last December, or America. This reflects the fact that Japan has come late to this second scramble for Africa—and knows it.
日本官方强调所有援助不附加任何条件（除了或许会要求非洲支 持日本成为联合国安理会常任理事国），不难理解这个国家只是想与中国在同一条起跑线上竞争。与大多数欧洲国家和美国不同，日本的贷款绝不会以政府治理和人 权为条件，去年12月欧洲在葡萄牙也举办了欧非峰会。以上反映出一个事实，日本在第二波争夺非洲的过程中已经落后了，而且日本人已经认识到这一点。
译者: jason http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=11739&extra=page%3D1