News

President Yoshiko Y. Nakano received the highly distinguished title of Panglima Jasa Negara (P.J.N.), which literally means a person who has rendered remarkable and meritorious service to the nation, from the King of Malaysia. President Nakano flew to Malaysia to attend the award ceremony that was held at the Royal Palace in Kuala Lumpur on 22 July 1999.

In receiving the title, she was also given a title of the peerage, Datuk, and she may now be called, in Malaysia as well as in other countries, Datuk Dr. Yoshiko Y. Nakano. She is the first to receive this title on two counts; as a woman of foreign country and as the leader of an international NGO.

The Malaysian Government decided to confer this title on President Nakano because of her role as the leader of OISCA International, which has a long tradition of serving Malaysia, and for Malaysian people, through training projects, the Children's Forest Program (CFP), exchange programs, and many other voluntary activities. Since 1967, OISCA has received the largest number of industrial trainees for the training program in Japan from Malaysia, and has provided them with opportunities to acquire practical skills and techniques in various basic industries. In addition, training centers for rural community development and agricultural development were run in Sabah and Kelantan for many years, which are currently being managed by former OISCA trainees with the support of local government agencies.

In recent years the popular CFP has spread to the States of Kelantan, Sabah, Malacca, and most recently, Pahan. The CFP inauguration ceremony was held in Pahan on 23 July 1999 and the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), an environmental NGO in Malaysia, is working together with OISCA to promote the CFP in the region.