By early next year, the West African country of Guinea will broadcast Japanese programs on its public television station, becoming the 17th African country to embark on a co-operation that has benefited a continent increasingly being courted by Asian interests.
Through television programs, "we want people around the world to better understand Japan and develop an emotional connection, even if it's just a little," said Yoshio Ueno, director of program supplies and purchases at NHK International Inc, an arm of Japan's public broadcaster.
Interviewed in Dakar, Ueno and Michio Nemoto, chief producer at NHK International, concluded a recent tour of West Africa to introduce program options to public broadcasters in Senegal, Mali and Mauritania and to sign a contract with Guinea.
"Guineans know Japan through the country's technology, but they know little else. (The programs) will be a good way for Guineans to discover the culture," said Alseny Bangoura, technical director of Radiodiffusion-Television Guineenne (RTG), the country's state-run TV station.
Since 1987 NHK International has supplied over 4,000 educational and documentary programs dubbed in English, French and Arabic to 16 countries across the African continent, including Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco.
The grants, which target developing countries around the world, are funded through the Japan Foundation, a public-private non-profit organisation, and the Japanese foreign ministry's Official Development Assistance (ODA) program. As one of the top aid donors to Africa, Japan pledged to double ODA to the continent over three years at last year's Group of Eight summit.
Other programs include science and maths programming for children not enrolled in school and for schools lacking lab facilities for science experiments, as well as programs introducing traditional Japanese arts such as tea ceremony and Kabuki theater.
Nemoto regrets that annual cultural grant issues, about 2 billion yen (17 million dollars), have been shrinking in recent years due to budgetary constraints. "You hear about Iraqi youths who want to study in the US despite the war, which seems counterintuitive. I think that comes from (exposure to) American movies, Macintosh products, Levis," he said, adding that such "soft power" cultural diplomacy could help reduce stereotypes of the Japanese he has encountered in his travels.
Nemoto also noted that the current minister of foreign affairs, Taro Aso, is an advocate of "soft power," especially in further popularising Japanese "anime" or cartoons. Japanese press have reported that Aso does not hide the fact that he reads ten anime magazines a week.