May 20, (LPAC)—In an anticipated development of what Lyndon LaRouche has identified as a strategic shift, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda moved to further align himself with the leading Eurasian nations of Russia, India, China (RIC). Following the May 14 RIC and BRIC meetings in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, LaRouche made the critical point that the RIC group has formed an active alliance against the British, and against the present government of the United States, while drawing in other regional powers, such as Japan, and Korea. This international fight has emerged increasingly around the food crisis.

At the May 28-30th International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV), Prime Minister Fakuda will announce his pledge to double aid and private investment to Africa by 2012. This pledge coincides with a similar drive by China and Russia to aid in African development.

He expressed his intention to double Official Development Assistance (ODA) during a meeting of the Overseas Economic Cooperation Council Tuesday morning. What is significant, is the increase of funds for development, whereas, much of the previously pledged 100 billion yen ($1 billion) had been slated for debt relief.

Fukuda will pledge to allocate a "considerable portion" of $100 million that Tokyo had promised in April as emergency assistance to alleviate the effects of the global food crisis, including plans to double rice production in Africa in the next decade from 14 million tons produced in 2006.

Fukuda's new pledge involves raising the amount of fresh yen loans and grant assistance to Africa to 200 billion yen in 2012. Japan hopes to bring the total net increase to about 300 billion yen over a period of five years. The government plans to focus the increased amount of yen loans on construction of infrastructure, such as highway networks, power generation and port facilities, and encourage direct investment from overseas.

The Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) is also planning to set up an "African investment facility," a new program to fund development projects. Through such efforts, the Japanese government hopes to increase the outstanding balance of direct private-sector investment in Africa by Japanese companies, which averaged $1.7 billion between 2002 and December 2006, to $3.4 billion by the end of 2012.

Intense Japan-African diplomacy will be part of the TICAD IV conference. Prime Minister Fukuda plans to hold talks with 45 African leaders over three days on the sidelines of the meeting. The meetings will run for about 17 hours in total, an exceptionally long period for talks of this kind, according to a senior Foreign Ministry official. Fifty-two out of the 53 African states will participate in TICAD4, which is due to be attended by 35 heads of state, seven prime ministers and three vice presidents.