Abstract: At the end of the 19th century, Japan began to have economic exchanges with Africa, and the leadership in business and politics put forward some strategic blueprints concerning how to develop African market as well as competing with European and American powers. The strategies included establishing a favorable image of Japan in Africa taking advantage of the conflicts among European powers, conducting promotions aiming at specific customer groups, and not arbitrarily intervening in the social problems in Africa. Such blueprints were not taken by Japanese government at the time as a complete set of diplomatic strategy, but still some of the ideas were considered as a prelude of Japans strategy in Africa after the Cold War. Combing through the development history of Japan's economic relationship during the end of the 19th century to the Second World, this paper summarizes the features of Japan's economic relationship with the colonies in Africa during this period based on the research on Africa conducted by both Japan's official and nongovernmental institutions, and the paper also analyzes the importance of these features in Japan's strategy in Africa after the Cold War.

Key words: Japan, strategy in Africa, influence of the Cold War, colonial economy, trading strategy