The G8 leaders were in a position to discuss the "full range of issues relating to African development". The need to address long-term planning for African development has been a G8 agenda item for a number of years. In 2008, Japan hosted both the G8 summit and the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-IV) -— a pentannual (recurring in five-year cycles) meeting for African leaders and their development partners. This meant that Japan had the opportunity to help Africa into the spotlight of international attention. Africa, which has been on the G8 agenda since 2000 when Japan last chaired the G8, has continued to lag behind on progress towards meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while Asia has made considerable strides during the same period. Unanswered questions remain about why what has happened in Asia has not happened in Africa.