Japan will provide $60 billion to the International Monetary Fund's effort to expand its resources and shield the global economy against any deepening of Europe's debt crisis.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi unveiled the commitment Tuesday in Tokyo before semiannual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington from April 20 to 22. Azumi said he hopes for an early agreement among Group of 20 members, who will also be gathering in Washington, on contributions to the IMF.

Japan is now the largest donor yet outside of Europe to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde's campaign to bolster the fund's resources for the second time in three years. Azumi said that the stance of China, the world's largest holder of foreign exchange reserves, is in the same direction as Japan's and that he hopes Tokyo's pledge will accelerate the commitments of others.

"It's very important," said Martin Schulz, a senior economist at the Fujitsu Research Institute who has done research for the Bank of Japan. "Despite any trouble it is in domestically, Japan remains internationally engaged."

Lagarde said last week that she would scale down her request for $600 billion of additional resources as threats to the global economy diminished. The boost was designed to enable an additional $500 billion in lending. While eurozone nations have committed to pitch in ?150 billion, the U.S., the fund's largest shareholder, has refused to join in.

"Some of the dramas that were envisaged at the end of 2011 or very beginning of 2012 not only have not materialized," but some "good news" has "restored a little bit of confidence," Lagarde said in Washington last Thursday. The IMF is reassessing risks, "which will bring me to probably reassess a lower number of additional resources needed," she said.

The IMF chief welcomed Japan's pledge on Tuesday and called on other nations to follow its lead.

"Europe's sovereign debt crisis has clearly eased from last year's critical situation following the region's policy efforts, but we can't be optimistic about the situation at all," Azumi said. "It's important to strengthen the IMF's financial resources to ensure the crisis is contained, and this is important not only for the euro region but also for Asia as well as Japan."

He added that Europe needs to do more itself to strengthen financial firewalls.

Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd., said Tuesday's announcement may partly be intended to defuse criticism of Japan for unilateral interventions to weaken the yen.

"Japan wants to show its cooperation in the global economy," Nishioka said.