Impacting society even after returning home. Giving back to society through JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers’ experience, which shines in many fields.

Impacting society even after returning home. Giving back to society through JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers’ experience, which shines in many fields.

JICA’s Overseas Cooperation Volunteers work in developing countries to solve various problems. Over the past 58 years, 55,379 JICA members (as of March 2023) have been dispatched to 99 countries around the world.

Even after their two-year term of service, the problem-solving and cross-cultural communication skills they have developed through their experience in the Japan International Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) are being put to good use in fields such as entrepreneurship and community activities. JICA has conducted the first “Award for Giving Back to Society”(*1) to introduce and disseminate a wide range of examples of activities that give back to society, and announced the winners this past April. Yuka Oku, the winner of the “Community Revitalization Award” from among 107 entries.

Innovative 3D printed prosthetic leg born of anger at inequality The Grand Prize was unanimously awarded to Mr. Yasushi Tokushima, CEO of the start-up company “Instalim. The company uses 3D printing technology to provide prosthetic legs to people in developing countries at low prices and with short delivery times. The price is about 40,000 yen, about one-tenth of the conventional price, and delivery time is as short as 24 hours. The award was given in recognition of the uniqueness of the innovation and the significant impact it has on society.

In developing countries, there are many people who suffer from diabetes due to unbalanced nutrition and other factors, and are forced to have their legs amputated due to vascular disorders and other problems. If they cannot afford to buy a prosthetic leg after the amputation, they cannot work and cannot support their families. The anger against the unfairness of the situation is what motivates us to promote the Instalim project.

Promoting Manufacturing with Digital Technology in the Philippines Having attended university (graduate school) three times and started his own business twice, Mr. Tokushima joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) in 2012 at the age of 34 and was dispatched to the Philippines. In 2012, at the age of 34, he joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) and was deployed to the Philippines, where he worked for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, providing design support to local small and medium-sized enterprises in everything from designing packaging for woven palm-leaf bags to building kindergartens.

Many local people had never attended school properly and could not read drawings, but many had smartphones and other digital devices. Therefore, Mr. Tokushima decided that digital fabrication (2), rather than analog manufacturing, was best suited for developing countries, and with the cooperation of JICA, he launched the first FabLab (3) in the Philippines. He also held Asia’s first FabLab conference, and Mr. Tokushima’s series of activities won the Good Design Award in 2014.

At the time, while the Philippine government and local companies were visiting the lab for inspection, he was asked repeatedly if he could make a prosthetic leg. Sensing a potential need, he produced the first prototype of a prosthetic leg during his dispatch period. After returning to Japan, he entered graduate school at Keio University, where he worked as a JICA expert on ODA projects while also developing the software needed to produce the prosthetic leg. Then, in 2018, he founded Instalim.

What I learned the most from being a member of the cooperative was my project management skills. Until then, I was good at creating things on my own as an engineer or designer, but this was the first time for me to take the lead in executing a large project while involving others.

He is currently the CEO of Instalim, but laughs that “CEO stands for chief everything officer” (4). (4) “In short, I take the initiative and do everything, the ultimate scullery maid. I am also a member of the cooperative team, and I can understand their attitude of humility in their activities while asking for help and guidance from those around them.

The production of prosthetic legs by 3D printing is based on machine learning by AI, and the more samples are used, the more optimal shapes can be output, resulting in higher quality. In addition, the creation of digital manuals makes it possible to manufacture prosthetic legs without the need for specialized training. We can also adapt to the situation in each country, such as designing and manufacturing locally, or designing in Japan and manufacturing locally. In addition to the Philippines and India, where we are currently operating, we also plan to share our technology with Ukraine, Egypt, and other countries to support people in need of prosthetic legs.

Whenever I see a person who is happy to finally have a prosthetic leg, or a family member who is shedding tears saying, ‘Now I can work again,’ I promise myself that I will definitely continue Instalim’s business. I am proud to have found a social issue that only I can solve.”

In April 2023, Instalim launched a project to provide 100 prosthetic legs to citizens whose legs were amputated due to the Ukrainian conflict, and is now crowdfunding for project expenses (until June 19 of the same year).

Toward a society where no one is left alone The winner of the “Community Revitalization Award” is Ms. Yuka Oku. Ms. Oku established “Minna no Ie Colorful” in Taketa City, Oita Prefecture, in 2006. Colorful” is a community exchange space where anyone can gather, from 0 to 103 years old, including people with disabilities and those in good health. The award was given to Okusan because “the style in which she operates the facility while connecting with and involving schools, the government, and the local community is typical of a cooperative worker.

In today’s Japan, the elderly tend to gather in senior citizen facilities, the handicapped in facilities for the handicapped, and children in schools and school children, and so on. Instead, we want to create a place where everyone can gather as a single person and not be left alone.

When she was 20 years old, Mrs. Kato became a care worker and was involved in the care of people with severe physical and mental disabilities. Next, while also working as a teacher at a special needs school, she wondered why discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities occurred, and what she could do to change the current welfare system. Anyway, she made it her goal to gain experience in various fields for 10 years, and also applied to be a member of the Cooperation Corps, and was sent to Malaysia in 2014 as a member of the Support Corps for children and people with disabilities.

With the humble attitude he learned during his time as a cooperative worker, he has been working together with the local community. However, he says that prejudice against handicapped children and people with disabilities was strong even in the local community. Feeling frustrated by their situation, he desperately thought about what he could do to help, and struggled to create teaching materials, share information on special needs education, and hold forums. This experience gave him great confidence, saying, “I was able to do so much in the limited time of two years and with no language skills, so I can do anything when I go back to Japan.

After returning to Japan, he became a member of the Takeda City Community Development Cooperation Volunteers and started Carafour. However, Mrs. Takeda herself says, “It is presumptuous to say, ‘I will revitalize the community. As a 0-year-old resident of Takeda City, I was in the position of being accepted by the people who have lived in the area for a long time. I am still happy when people feel at home and colorful, and I am happy to see that. This humble attitude, he says, was learned during his time as a cooperative worker, when he was accepted by the local people.

In April of this year, Mr. Oku opened a new exchange center, Haltas, in the same city. In the future, she would like to share her expertise in creating colorful and inclusive places like HARUTAS. In order to realize our vision of creating a community without loneliness, we need a lot of places to stay. Although there are some legal difficulties, such as the provision of subsidies, we would like to see more places like Colorful and HARUTAS throughout Japan.

JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers are tasked with solving problems in developing countries. The ability to identify issues and solve them in cooperation with people around you is a skill that is used to solve social issues in Japan and around the world even after you have served your term of service.

Many returnees, including Mr. Tokushima and his wife, continue their activities to solve social issues as members of the international community, making the most of their experience as a member of the Japan Cooperation Volunteers after their two-year term of service is over. Although the focus of attention tends to be on activities in developing countries when talking about the Japan Cooperation Volunteers, it can be said that their power and thoughts are even more evident in their activities after their term of service.

JICA provides career counseling and job placement services to support the ambitions of returning members. JICA supports efforts to give back to society the experiences and abilities of the returned members.

Along with the activities of JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers in developing countries, their activities after their return to their home countries will also be of interest.

In addition to Mr. and Mrs. Tokushima, reports from the eight recipients can be found here.

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