Coupled with expected corporate investments, Japan's public and private sectors look set to pour around three trillion yen (USD 30 billion) into Africa by 2018, as Japan Inc. Rushes for a piece of the promising African market, the Nikkei said.
Despite relatively long-standing connections, Japan's importance to Africa has slipped behind that of China, whose more aggressive approach has given it five times the trading volume and eight times the direct investment.
The three-day, five-yearly conference will kick off tomorrow in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, with leaders of more then 40 African countries and senior figures from international organisations expected to be present.
In Yokohama today, Abe started a marathon session of meetings with leaders from African countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Liberia. He was scheduled to meet about 40 of them in three days, 10 of them today.
In addition to the aid, the Japanese government will also double to 500 billion yen a fund earmarked for providing loan guarantees and investment for infrastructure and resource development projects tied to Japanese firms, the Nikkei said.
Earlier this month Abe pledged he would travel the world to promote Japanese road, rail and power grid technology in a bid to treble infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen a year by 2020 as he seeks to jumpstart Japan's slumbering economy.