Giving Back to Society by Returned Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers

What are the roles and contributions ofInternational volunteerreturned returned international volunteers? The present chapter first reviews the literature on what and how international volunteers give back to societyGiving back to society upon returning home, focusing on evidence on returnedVolunteerreturned Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs), and presents a quantitative study of volunteering across 10 service domains by returned JOCVsReturned JOCV after a decade of international volunteering and their values and personality. A total of 228 returned JOCVsReturned JOCV, who participated in a two-year international volunteering program approximately ten years ago, completed a short online survey for this study. The results show that returnedInternational volunteerreturned JOCVs with higher levels of opennessOpenness to change contributed more days of volunteering especially in the domain of international cooperation. On the other hand, self-transcendenceSelf-transcendence, which is known to be associated with philanthropy, had no association with volunteering in any domain. For personality traits, only weak relationships were found. Implications for practice and future research directions are further discussed.