When did Japanese international cooperation NGOs begin working? It is said that its beginning can be traced to a medical mission composed of Christian doctors and medical students sent to China in 1938. The mission was sent in response to damage caused by the Japanese military invasion and to provide care for refugees. For the following 20 years or so, this work was disrupted because of the intensifying war and, in the post-war period, the need to reconstruct Japan itself. International cooperation by citizens resumed at the end of the 1950s.

The 1960s saw the birth of organizations that are still active today: Japan Overseas Christian Medical Cooperative Service (JOCS, established in 1960), born out of the group that sent the above medical mission to China… and the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA, established in 1969), among others. During the same decade, many citizens’ groups were formed to address and resolve issues in labor, pollution, atomic/hydrogen bombs and security fields, as they became serious social issues.

During the 1970s, the Pacific Asia Resource Center (PARC) was born, focusing on analyzing developments in citizens’ movements as well as in political and economic fields in Japan and distributed such analysis and information overseas through the creation of its English newsletter, named AMPO.

In the 1980s, public interest in global environmental problems and other international issues grew through media reports, as many events attracting worldwide attention occurred (such as the famine in Africa). It was also during this decade that Japanese branches or partner organizations of international NGOs began to increase in number. Network-type NGOs emerged and began to play a large role in information- and experience- sharing among organizations, distribution of information to the public, promotion of advocacy work, facilitation of dialogue with the government, promotion of national-level NGO networking and others.

The number of newly established organizations was the greatest during the 1990s. This occurred against a backdrop of world-shaking events that generated greater interest among citizens in world affairs and a sense of participation in international cooperation. As many as 130 groups and 20,000 volunteers from inside and outside Japan rushed to the affected areas, helping to raise awareness of the roles of volunteers and NGOs. Further, public opinion increasingly began to favor giving civic organizations juridical person status, which led to the enforcement of the Law to Promote Specified Non-profit Activities at the end of 1998. Now, many organizations enjoy greater social recognition as specified non-profit corporations.

In the latter half of the 1990s, many NGOs experienced deteriorating financial conditions (due to the stalled economy). Various government funds to support NGO work began to be made available. In addition to the NGO Project Subsidy (1989) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the NGO Agricultural and Forestry Cooperation Program (1989), the Postal Savings for Global Voluntary Aid was launched by the Japan Post in 1991. It was followed by the Construction Program by the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport in 1992 and the Japan Fund for Global Environment in 1993.

JICA started to strengthen cooperation with NGOs. JICA launched the Community Empowerment Program in 1997, the Development Partnership Program in 1999 and the Small Scale Development Partnership Program in 2000. These programs were remodeled later into the JICA Partnership Program and other relevant programs that still continue today.

Organization for Industrial,Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA)
Caring for the Future Foundation (CFF)
Kyoto-Samar Friendship Association (KSFA)
Intercommunication Center for Asia and Nippon (ICAN)
21st Century Association
Kokkyo naki Kodomotachi (KnK)
Campaign to Assist the Construction of Electric Power Plants in Ifugao (CACEPPI)
HACCP Training and Consulting Association
IKAW AKO
International Keeping Good Sannan (IKGS)
International Nursing Foundation of Japan
Japan Agricultural Exchange Council
Japan Ear Foster Parent Association 
Love Our Own Brethren Inc. (LOOB Inc.)
 RIT/JATA Philippines, Inc.

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