Pacific Mini-Games 2025 Opens in Palau

Since July 2023, Mr. Yoshiaki Arai has been dispatched as a JICA Volunteer on Baseball for the Palau National Olympic Committee & The Palau Baseball Federation. He was appointed as Coach as soon as the National Team for the Pacific Mini-Games was established and has supported the Team’s strengthening by accompanying them to the training camp in Taiwan.

In addition, JICA Volunteers dispatched to other pacific countries, Mr. Ken Tamaki (Fiji Baseball) and Mr. Yuta Abe (Samoa Wrestling) are also accompanying their team as Coaches for the games.
We wish a successful victory for the Palau Baseball Team as well as all the Teams involving JICA Volunteers and the overall success of The Pacific Mini-Games.

JICA’s volunteer program named Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), which began in 1965 with the dispatch of 29 personnel to five countries, will celebrate its 60^th anniversary in 2025. Since then, JICA has dispatched approximately 57,000 JOCVs to 99 countries for various fields. About 3,000 members have been dispatched to the fields of sports.

JICA Volunteers were first dispatched to Palau in 1997 and have continued to provide cooperation in the field of sports.
Through The Pacific Mini-Games, we hope to increase interest in sports in Palau and the rest of the Pacific Region and we will continue to contribute to the sports field through JOCV Program.