Japan's Diplomatic Double Whammy: Hosting TICAD-IV and the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit

In 2008 Japan hosted the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) and the Group of Eight (G8) Summit. This coincidence provided a high-profile diplomatic opportunity within both Japan's relations with Africa and its summit diplomacy to shape regional and global agendas respectively and, to these ends, the Japanese government sought to connect the two international meetings. While Japan maintained its commitment to international society by fostering South–South dialogue and high-level contact between the G8 and Africa through these forums, the linkage of the two 2008 events was dominated by Japanese efforts to gain African endorsement for its ‘Cool Earth 50’ policy on global climate change. In the event, African leaders resisted Japan's efforts to place priority on discussion of climate change. The government also hoped that the conjunction of the two meetings would improve perceptions of, and interest in, Africa among the Japanese public, but evidence suggests little was achieved in this regard.