Abstract: After World War II, Japan joined the “Colombo Plan” and started its assistance to Southeast Asian countries in the form of quasi compensation. Throughout the post-war development of Southeast Asian countries, until the financial crisis in 1997, the economy basically maintained a rapid growth rate. This paper studies the influence mechanism of ODA on the economic growth of recipient countries from five aspects: material capital, human capital, trade opening, technological innovation, and organizational efficiency, and analyzes the actual effect of ODA on the economic growth of five Southeast Asian countries by using panel data fixed effect model. The research shows that Japans ODA is conducive to the economic growth of the recipient countries in the long run. The accumulation of material capital, the accumulation of human capital and the promotion of scientific and technological innovation ability all significantly promote economic growth. On the contrary, abundant resource endowments have become an obstacle to the economic growth of recipient countries. In addition, trade liberalization has a positive impact on the economic growth of recipient countries, which is in line with expectations, but fails to pass the significance test.

Key words: Japan, Southeast Asia, economic growth, ODA