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Diplomacy
Fukuyama to Organize Afghan Aid Allocation
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Tetsuro
Tokyo -- Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama is expected to take charge of a new office, run out of the Kantei, which will make specific decisions about the allocation of Japanese aid to Afghanistan.
Putting a deputy chief cabinet secretary in charge of an aid program for a specific foreign nation is an unprecedented move.
Tokyo has long pledged US$5 billion in aid to Afghanistan, but by the end of this year only about 20% is expected to have been committed to specific projects.
Presumably, Fukuyama's main job will be to determine aid priorities in consultation with JICA President Sadako Ogata and other experts, and then direct funds to those priority areas.
The first meeting of Fukuyama's group is expected to take place by the end of this month.
Tetsuro Fukuyama, 48, is one of the young stars of the DPJ. He is a third-term member of the House of Councillors who hails from Kyoto. He served as Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs under the Hatoyama administration and moved to his current post in the Kantei with the advent of the Kan administration.
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