Online manga released by the Japan International Cooperation Agency are featuring the experiences of Japanese development aid workers in Asia and Africa to shine a light on their role in the country's official development assistance.
Six manga, in Japanese and English, tell the stories of how aid workers have struggled in pursuing initiatives, such as a subway development project in India and the promotion of sports in strife-torn South Sudan, and how they had been received by local people. The works have been released online since October.
The manga were adapted from the "Project History" book series published by JICA since 2010 with 35 titles, including those translated into English and Spanish.
The manga adaptation aims to "convey to a broader audience the significance of Japan's aid to developing nations and that of JICA's work as well as the thoughts of those involved in the projects," the agency said in a press release.
JICA also said it hopes the manga can tell the stories in a more personal context.
Yoko Sumita, a member of manga artist group "birujiros" which illustrated four of the six manga, said, "As the story progresses, the expressions of characters become livelier, and that is a point I hope readers will take notice of."
The stories also include a project initiated by members of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers in cultivating information technology resources in Bangladesh and a project to expand access to education in Pakistan, where the literacy rate is low at around 60 percent.
The two other manga depict refugee relief activities in Uganda and reconstruction and recovery efforts following a typhoon disaster in the Philippines.
The manga also show the differences in the values and mindset between people in Japan and aid recipient countries, JICA said.
Tomoko Suzuki, who wrote the scripts for all six manga, was quoted by JICA as saying that she "tried to be conscious that there are different sets of values in the world" when describing how Japanese aid workers and local residents interact.
"We would be happy to see the manga used not only as an educational material about developing nations, but also as a way to convey the charms of residents there," said Suzuki, director of Tokyo-based design firm ROOM810.
