Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-7drmj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-04T14:57:27.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Motivates Japan’s International Volunteers? Categorizing Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Yasunobu Okabe Open the ORCID record for Yasunobu Okabe [Opens in a new window] ,
Sakiko Shiratori  and
Kazuya Suda
Yasunobu Okabe*
Affiliation:
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan JICA Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Sakiko Shiratori*
Affiliation:
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan
Kazuya Suda
Affiliation:
JICA Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan
*
okabe@law.tohoku.ac.jp
Shiratori.Sakiko@affrc.go.jp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The literature on international volunteer motivation has highlighted mainly Western cases, while almost ignoring Asian volunteers. Through an analysis of the motivations of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs), this study aims to identify who they are and to contribute to our understanding of individual behavior in relation to international volunteering. This is the first quantitative study of their motivation, and we surveyed them using a series of questionnaires. We obtained 1507 responses from the volunteers, and a cluster analysis of the revealed motives categorized them into six types, labeled as: (I) curious; (II) business-minded; (III) development assistance; (IV) quest for oneself; (V) change-oriented; and (VI) altruist. The results show that each of these groups tends to have a different set of motives, and these can be characterized according to their socio-demographic and behavioral information. The results confirm that JOCVs have the same altruistic and egoistic motivations that have been observed in the Western studies. From a practical perspective, our six clusters of volunteers match the three purposes of the JOCV program, and show that, to a certain extent, the program has been successful in recruiting young Japanese people. Moreover, the classifications will be helpful when the JOCV Secretariat managers wish to target specific types of volunteers for special recruiting and training.

Keywords

Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs)MotivationInternational volunteersTypologyCluster analysis

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , October 2019 , pp. 1069 - 1089
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

All authors contributed equally to this work.

References

Andreoni, J. (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of warm-glow giving. The Economic Journal, 100(401), 464–477. doi: 10.2307/2234133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brassard, C., Sherraden, M. S., & Lough, B. J. (2010). Emerging perspectives on international volunteerism in Asia. FORUM research paper presented to IVCO 2010: Innovation and challenges in international volunteerism & development, an Asian perspective.Google Scholar
Clary, E. G., Snyder, M., Ridge, R. D., Copeland, J., Stukas, A. A., Haugen, J., & Miene, P. (1998). Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1516–1530. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dolnicar, S., & Randle, M. (2007). What motivates which volunteers: Psychographic heterogeneity among volunteers in Australia. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 18, 135–155. doi: 10.1007/s11266-007-9037-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujikake, Y. (2011). Seinen Kaigai Kyouryoku Tai no Shakai Kouken Katsudo (Philanthropies of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers). In Utsumi, S. & Nakamura, Y. (Eds.), Kokusai Borantia Ron (Study of international volunteering). Tokyo: Nakanishiya Shuppan. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Georgeou, N. (2012). Neoliberalism, development, and aid volunteering. New York: Routledge doi: 10.4324/9780203100028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, J. (1973). Making vocational choices: A theory of careers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Houle, B. J., Sagarin, B. J., & Kaplan, M. F. (2005). A functional approach to volunteerism: Do volunteer motives predict task preference?. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27(4), 337–344. doi: 10.1207/s15324834basp2704_6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, J. (1996). Multiple comparisons: Theory and methods. New York: CRC Press doi: 10.1007/978-1-4899-7180-7.Google Scholar
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). (2005). Tokutei Tema Hyouka, Borantia Jigyo (Seinen Kaigai Kyouryoku Tai Jigyo): Maraui, Banuatsu, Honjurasu no Jirei yori, Jirei Kenkyu Hen (Assessment of Specific Theme, Volunteer Program (Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers Program): The Cases of Malawi, Vanuatu, and Honduras), December. Tokyo: JICA. (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). (2015). Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs). http://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/types_of_assistance/citizen/volunteers.html.Google Scholar
Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). (2011). Study of reorganizing WFK domestic training course (Vol. 1: Domestic training of KOICA volunteers). Research Document, WFK Recruitment and Training, 2011-01-143: KOICA/World Friends Korea. (in Korean).Google Scholar
Lough, B. J., & Tiessen, R. (2018). How do international volunteering characteristics influence outcomes?: Perspectives from partner organizations. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29, 104–118. doi: 10.1007/s11266-017-9902-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGloin, C., & Georgeou, N. (2016). ‘Looks good on your CV’: The sociology of voluntourism recruitment in higher education. Journal of Sociology, 52(2), 403–417. doi: 10.1177/1440783314562416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menchik, P. L., & Weisbrod, B. A. (1987). Volunteer labor supply. Journal of Public Economics, 32(2), 159–183. doi: 10.1016/0047-2727(87)90010-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meneghini, A. M. (2016). A meaningful break in a flat life: The motivations behind overseas volunteering. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(6), 1214–1233. doi: 10.1177/0899764016630834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA). (2015). Dispatch of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, a guide to Japan’s aid. http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/guide/1998/2-6.html.Google Scholar
Okabe, Y. (2016). Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers: Its genesis and development. In Kato, H., Page, J., & Shimomura, Y. (Eds.), Japan’s development assistance: Foreign aid and the post-2015 agenda (pp. 222–236). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Omoto, A. M., & Snyder, M. (1995). Sustained helping without obligation: Motivation, longevity of service and perceived attitude change among AIDS volunteers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(4), 671–686. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rehberg, W. (2005). Altruistic individualists: Motivations for international volunteering among young adults in Switzerland. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 16(2), 109–122. doi: 10.1007/s11266-005-5693-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sembiring, R. W., Zain, J. M., & Embong, A. (2011). Dimension reduction of health data clustering. International Journal on New Computer Architectures and Their Applications, 1(4), 1018–1026.Google Scholar
Sherraden, M. S., Stringham, J., Sow, S. C., & McBride, A. M. (2006). The forms and structure of international voluntary service. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 17(2), 156–173. doi: 10.1007/s11266-006-9011-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiessen, R. (2012). Motivations for learn/volunteer abroad programs: Research with Canadian youth. Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education, 2(1), 1–21.Google Scholar
Unstead-Joss, R. (2008). An analysis of volunteer motivation: Implications for international development. Voluntary Action: The Journal of the Institute for Volunteering Research, 9(1), 12–24.Google Scholar
UNV (United Nations Volunteers programme). (2015). State of the world’s volunteerism report: Transforming governance. UNV.Google Scholar
Wymer, W. W. (2003). Differentiating literacy volunteers: A segmentation analysis for target marketing. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 8(3), 267–285. doi: 10.1002/nvsm.217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, D. R. (1983). If not for profit, for what?: A behavioral theory of the nonprofit sector based on entrepreneurship. Lanham: Lexington Books.Google Scholar