For Sadako Ogata, president of the Japan International Co-operation Agency, making the case for overseas aid at a time of domestic economic distress is a matter of showing her compatriots where their wider interests lie.
“You cannot really be safe unless other countries are safe, secure and not destitute,” says Mrs Ogata, 81, a former United Nations high commissioner for refugees who has led Jica since 2003 and last year stewarded the agency through a merger with the development loan operations of the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBic).
