Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers

Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (青年海外協力隊, seinen kaigai kyōryokutai^?) is a system of dispatching Japanese volunteers overseas operated by JICA. The offers include wide range of fields as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, education, health, etc. and more than 120 technical fields. More than 30,000 volunteers have ever been dispatched to more than 80 countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Oceania. The recruitment is held on April to May, and October to November every year. Japanese citizens aged from 20 to 39 are eligible for the application. It is commonly known by the acronym "JOCV".

The plan was started in 1957 after Japan joined Colombo Plan in 1954. After the Peace Corps was established by United States in 1961, the JOCV was established in 1965. The first volunteers dispatched to Laos in Southeast Asia.

After while, some related project was started. The Senior Volunteers (シニア海外ボランティア, senior kaigai volunteer^?) who are consisted elder citizens was established in 1990, the Youth Volunteers for Nikkei Communities (日系社会青年ボランティア, nikkei syakai seinen volunteer^?) and the Senior Volunteers for Nikkei Communities (日系社会シニア・ボランティア, nikkei syakai senior volunteer^?) who target Japanese emigrants in Latin America was established in 1996. As of 2000, the total number of JOCV was over 20,000. As of July 2013, the total number of JOCV was 38,300 and the number of countries was 88.

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