Nigeria-Japan Trade Relations and Economic Development in Nigeria, 1999-2014

Abstract Current scholarly endeavours have revealed that trade relations between Nigeria and Japan is understudied. While emphasis have been laid heavily on the trade relations between Nigeria and Western nations, not much have been done to investigate the impact of bilateral trade relations between Nigeria and Japan. This study seeks to address the gap by examining the following research questions: Did the volume of trade between Nigeria and Japan impact on Nigeria’s economic development? Did the foreign direct investment (FDI) from Japan to Nigerian iron and steel industry enhance economic development? This study is anchored on the Marxian strand of the theory of political economy. It obtained the data from secondary sources, and analysed same using the qualitative descriptive method. We found that the volume of trade between Nigeria and japan impacted on the economic development of Nigeria. We also found that FDI from Japan to Nigerian iron and steel industry enhanced economic development. We recommend, therefore, that government should invest more in exploring and improving trade and technological exchanges between Nigeria and Japan to boost local capacity and guarantee sustainable economic development. And also to sustain and improve on the aspects of the trade that have been very mutually benefiting.