Japan's dependence on raw materials from South Africa made it impossible for Tokyo in the 1970s and 1980s to support other African States in their fight against the minority government and its policy of apartheid. Kweku Ampiah's detailed analysis of Japan's political, economic and diplomatic relations with sub-Saharan Africa from 1974 to the early 1990s makes it clear that Japan was lukewarm in the struggle against apartheid. Case studies of Tanzania and Nigeria dissect Japan's trade, aid, and investment policies in sub-Saharan Africa more widely. Ampiah concludes that Japan successfully employed economic diplomacy in its relations with Africa and was able to reconcile its interests in resources in South Africa with its diplomatic interests in other sub-Saharan states.