Japan's plans sour in Africa

Diplomacy is not simple math. By ignoring this fact, Japan again failed to trade checks for political payout from African countries at the recent Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development summit in Nairobi.

Japanese diplomats had burnt the midnight oil to lobby African countries to put issues beyond Africa's development in the Nairobi Declaration, which was issued on Aug 28. What Japan expected were remarks on United Nations reform and the South China Sea issue to counter China.

But the fact is, less than half of the African countries participated in the summit and the talks on drafting the declaration stuttered as some delegates were unhappy with Tokyo's plan to make the declaration political.