Commonwealth Manoeuvres Behind Japan’s 1954 Inclusion in the Colombo Plan: The Case of Australia and Canada

• Published in: 영미연구, 53(0) pp. 111 - 138
• Main Author: 원태준
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 영미연구소 01.10.2021
• Subjects: 학제간연구
• ISSN: 2508-4135; 2508-5417

In early 1952, the possibility of Japan joining the Commonwealth-initiated Colombo Plan was first raised. This attempt was blocked by Australian concerns that, due to Japan’s precarious balance-of-payments situation, Colombo Plan capital aid would flow into Japan rather than Japanese capital flowing into the Southeast Asian recipient members. However, with increasing pressure from the United States to allow Japan to join, the Canadian government came up with a compromise in the summer of 1954 whereby Japan would join the Plan as a member of the Council for Technical Co-operation but would only be given ‘observer status’ at the Consultative Committee and therefore have limited access to Plan capital. Although the major donor members were in agreement with this compromise, Japan’s sudden request to remove herself entirely from the Consultative Committee in effect jeopardised this agreement amongst the donors, and was of sufficient impact for them to discard the compromise altogether and to grant Japan full membership at the Ottawa Consultative Committee in October 1954. KCI Citation Count: 0