In the turbulence and uncertainty of the post-Cold War world, Japan has confronted serious challenges while attempting to contribute to the international political economy. Japan, often characterized as a nation incapable of demonstrating global leadership, has stepped up its diplomatic activism with Official Development Assistance. Whereas bilateral foreign aid policy has received much attention in recent years, multilateral aid has been relatively neglected.

Yet it is in international financial institutions that Japan has been forging an activist global diplomacy.

Dennis Yasutomo provides the first look at Japan's emerging activism in its multilateral diplomacy. He analyzes, from a comparative perspective, Japanese policies toward three of the flagship multilateral development banks: the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Through the prism of Japan's behavior toward international organizations, developing nations, and the former Soviet Union, this study will introduce the reader to a major stepping stone in understanding Japan's twenty-first-century diplomacy.