After losing from the Second World War, Japan was under the U.S. occupation, led by General Douglas MacArthur. Since then, Japan was periodically driven by the U.S. policies to demilitarize its military and maximize its capability in economy aspect. In order to recover Japan’s economy, the United States offered the financial assistance to Japan. This assistance was known as the Official Development Assistance (ODA). Thus, Japan was actually the recipient country of ODA in prior, then, along with its capability, Japan became the member of ODA donor countries and started to distribute the ODA to the developing countries. As continuation, Japan played a significant role in the phenomenon of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998. Japan put deep concern and took an active role by offering its ODA to most of the countries in the Southeast Asia region that were hit by the crisis at that time. This undergraduate thesis aimed at explaining the motive behind Japan’s ODA disbursement to the region. Besides that, the methodology of this research used explanative analysis and qualitative method by using secondary data from articles, journals, books, and other literary sources. As the findings, this undergraduate thesis had proven that the motive of Japan was described by its position in Southeast Asia might help Japan to gain its international respect as it had before losing in the World War II. This was achieved by Japan’s capability to be the Asian Hegemony.