During the half century from the 1950s to the year 2000, Japan emerged as a major international aid donor. In 1989 it became the largest bilateral air donor in the world. How did Japan emerge as a top education aid donor? What external and internal pressures shaped the development of aid policies? What Japanese interests were served? How has the Japanese government exercised a global leadership of education aid policies? This study addresses these questions by tracking the evolution of education aid policies as they have been revealed by subgovernments as specialized decisionmaking units within a government.