Kanae Minato, the author of numerous works including “Confessions,” spent two years from December 1996 as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) in the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific, where she worked as a “domestic helper.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the dispatch of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) to the Kingdom of Tonga, and to coincide with this anniversary, Mr. Minato, a Tongan OV, was interviewed by Mr. Tachibana, Director General of the JOCV Secretariat.
Please enjoy the story of Kanae Minato’s life, including how she applied for the cooperative, her life in Tonga, and how her experience as a cooperative worker affected her.
A hanging advertisement I saw on the bus to work was a turning point in my life.
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake happened when I was in my fourth year of college, and afterwards I got a job at an apparel manufacturer and worked at a department store in Kyoto. On the bus to work, I saw an advertisement for a cooperative recruitment, and it said that there would be an information session in Umeda on the next regular holiday of the department store, so I decided to go. In the materials I received at the event, there was a request to teach home economics to students at a girls’ high school in the Kingdom of Tonga. I had read “The Island Closest to Heaven” and had been interested in the southern islands since I was in elementary school, so I felt that this was a project I should go on! I felt that this was the case for me. Perhaps it was my experience in the disaster that made me want to take on the challenge of doing what I could, when I could.
I was convinced from the moment I saw the request for Tonga at the information session that this was the project for me, and I applied without hesitation. I was most worried about my language skills, as I did not have a high level of language ability, and the project was to teach at a school. Before my dispatch, I spent the mornings at a training center learning the language and the afternoons studying cross-cultural understanding, which was necessary at my destination. I really enjoyed this. I was the youngest generation to join the cooperative at the age of 23, and I learned many things from people who had joined after gaining a variety of working experiences. At universities, people with similar interests often gather together, but at the training center, there was such a diverse group of people that I felt like I was spending my youth in a second life.
At the time, lifestyle-related diseases were a problem in Tonga, and I went there to give nutritional guidance. However, no matter how much nutritional guidance I gave, logic and feelings differed. During breaks, teachers would put four tablespoons of sugar in their milk tea, or they would say, “I am not afraid of dying because I can be close to God. I sometimes wondered how to go about our activities. I also collaborated with other members of the Housekeeping Corps and held cooking classes, but when my two-year term ended, I returned home thinking that I had not left any results.
However, I had the opportunity to revisit Tonga in 2015, and when I visited the school and met the then principal, he had lost all his weight. Instead of sweet milk tea, he was drinking herbal tea from his garden, and although I didn’t see any results at the time, I was reminded of how important it is to connect in this way.
Days in Tonga that led to “Author: Kanae Minato
At that time, few corps members brought personal computers with them, and letters were the primary means of communication with Japan. I wrote letters to various people, such as friends from school, people I became friends with at the training center, etc., and often received replies. In those letters, I wondered if there were many words related to “hot” in a hot country. It was interesting to find various aspects of people, and I wondered if this person was interested in such things. Indeed, I counted and found that there are about 8 different ways to say “hot” in Tongan, and I wondered if this was the one for “hot” today. I used this one and was told by the Tongans that this one was the correct one for today. There were also many books left behind by the past participants, and each of them had carefully selected their favorite books and brought them with them, so there were many interesting books. It was the time in my life when I read more books than any other time in my life because I missed the Japanese language.
Living in Tonga, a place with a different religion and culture, I have come to be able to think together in a positive direction even though we have different values. Rather than lamenting over what we don’t have, we have learned to think about what we can do with what we have and how we can live, and we have gained the strength and resilience to overcome the situation.
To everyone in Tonga who has supported me and is considering applying
Thanks to the people who treated me like family in Tonga, I was able to work without feeling really hard. I would like to express my desire to return the favor I received in Tonga to Tonga. At the same time, I feel that there is something I can contribute to the next generation in Japan as a way of returning the favor.
It’s been 25 years since I returned home, but I can remember it like it was yesterday, and I feel it has helped me through some of the toughest times today.
I was able to see the world in my own arms, or rather, I was able to see that country as a country where one of my classmates had been, and I no longer felt that world events were a stranger to me.
If you are at all interested in the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, I recommend that you go to a briefing session. I especially want young people to experience JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. You may have a hard time after going, but it is not uncommon for people to regret having gone. Rather than worrying about a lot of things, I would like you to take it first because it is really a valuable experience. For me, the advertisement hanging on the bus to work was really a “trigger”. I want people to know that they have the option of becoming a cooperative worker, and I believe that the timing is right when it occurs to you.
During the interview, I had a lot of fun with Mr. Tachibana, Director General of the Japan Cooperation Volunteers Secretariat, who had also experienced the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and had applied for the JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program after seeing an advertisement hanging in a train on his way to work.
The JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program has sent more than 55,000 people to 99 countries so far, and like Mr. Minato, those with experience may have decided to apply for the program because “life is just one opportunity.
The deadline for the 2023 JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers Fall Recruitment is Monday, December 11, 2023 at noon. For more information, including how to apply, please visit JICA Overseas Cooperation Volunteers
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