The Japan International Cooperation Agency Volunteer Program, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, marked its 60th anniversary globally with a celebration in Manila on 28 August, highlighting six decades of grassroots cooperation and friendship between the Philippines and Japan.

Since its launch in 1965, the program has sent about 58,000 Japanese volunteers to 99 countries worldwide.

It deployed 12 volunteers to the Philippines the following year as one of the first country recipients, beginning a tradition of partnership that continues to shape communities across the country.

To date, more than 1,700 Japanese volunteers have been dispatched to the Philippines.

The anniversary ceremony, held at the official residence of His Excellency Endo Kazuya, Ambassador of Japan to the Philippines, was attended by distinguished guests including members of the Japanese Parliamentary Group for JICA, representatives of Philippines national government agencies, current volunteers and local partner institutions.

During the event, JICA accorded plaques of appreciation to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development, and the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency for their consistent collaboration with the program.

These agencies have long served as key counterparts in placing volunteers in schools, communities, and local institutions and so on where their expertise makes a direct impact.

Philippine officials echoed this spirit of partnership. DEPDev Undersecretary Carlos Bernardo Abad Santos praised the volunteers for their role in nation-building, noting Japan and the Philippines’ “shared purpose of helping communities thrive and building lasting friendships.”

He added, “The program has become part of our own story of progress. The true measure of this work is not only in the projects completed, but in the lives touched both in the communities served and among the volunteers themselves.”

In his remarks, JICA Philippines Chief Representative BABA Takashi referred to volunteers as “grassroots ambassadors” and emphasized that “working passionately with communities…is our driving force behind every classroom taught in, every field tilled, every clinic supported, and every local project strengthened.”

He also highlighted the program’s legacy of trust and friendship built over six decades, rooted in the Filipino spirit of kapwa, recognizing that we are connected through a shared identity; bayanihan, a concept of communal community, helping each other without expecting in return; and Japan’s tasukeai, cooperation with each other.

For JICA Volunteer Yamamoto Shion, serving at the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management of LGU La Trinidad, Benguet, the program’s 60-year success is rooted in volunteers’ close ties with their communities and their small yet meaningful contributions.

“At an event, a principal thanked me for teaching the students so much and said I am now part of the school family.

As a foreigner, I felt truly honored and moved by those words. It made me feel welcomed and gave me renewed strength and motivation for my JOCV activities,” Yamamoto shared.

The milestone celebration also revisited the achievements of the JICA Volunteer Program in the Philippines, from pioneering community-based disaster preparedness initiatives to promoting sustainable agriculture and inclusive social services.

Globally, it has become one of the world’s largest volunteer programs, with its work recognized in 2016 through the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award.

The event served not only as a commemoration of past achievements but also a reaffirmation of its enduring role in shaping people-to-people cooperation between the Philippines and Japan.