This was emphasized by Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Ryuichiro Yamazaki at the 40th anniversary celebration of JOCV at Dusit Hotel in Makati where he also stated that since its inception 40 years ago, the Philippines was the top recipient of Japanese volunteers.
JOCV’s first batch of 12 volunteers (five of whom attended last night’s anniversary rites) were assigned to agriculture (rice, vegetable growing, bamboo craft, orchards, livestock, agricultural engineering/installations and agricultural machinery); marine products (teaching Filipino fish farmers on fishing gears and fishing methods like fish culture); vocational training (machine tools, electronics and automotive mechanics); public health, nursing and clinical examination; sports (judo, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics, volleyball and swimming); and education and culture (computer technology, Japanese language, audio visual education, math and science).
Yamazaki said a total of 1,283 volunteers have been sent since 1965 to the Philippines (each serving 2 to 3 years), "which is the largest number of volunteers ever sent to a country." Currently, Japan sends volunteers to 69 countries.
Yamazaki said the reason for deploying the largest number of volunteers to the Philippines is because of the historical ties between two countries "dating back to feudal ages" and the close economic and personal relations between the people of our countries," he added.
Currently, there are 77 JOCV volunteers in the country dispatched in a wide range of activities in various fields. Yamazaki said the decision of what kinds of Japanese volunteers to send rests on the request of the Philippine government, like the Department of Education and the National Economic and Development Authority, which JICA endorses to the Japanese government.
Yamazaki likened the JOCV as the Peace Corps Volunteers of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) although he said Japanese volunteers are highly proficient and skilled.
Among the notable projects undertaken by JOCV are the mango project in La Union (now called the Botanical Garden in San Fernando, La Union) that spanned four generations of volunteers and the artificial insemination (AI) project where several generations of JOCV volunteers cooperated to develop and popularize it by rolling it out to the entire country. This led to the establishment of the 19-year-old Philippine Animal Science Association (PASA).