Saga JETs have won AJET’s Race to the Top Challenge by raising the most money for charity and committing the second most hours to community service.

Saga JETs give back to their communities in many ways. It’s never too late to get started!

This past year National AJET set ambitious goals for JET community involvement: 1,000,000 yen raised for charity and 10,000 volunteer hours of community service. To allow JETs to log their contributions to the community, AJET introduced the JET Community Service Tracker, an online form designed to collect data on volunteer hours served and charity money raised by JETs around Japan.

AJET used the JET Community Service Tracker to determine the winners of the Race to the Top Challenge, a contest to see which prefecture could raise the most yen and volunteer hours per JET. The challenge ran from November 1, 2013 through April 31, 2014. After six months, AJET is proud to declare the winners of the Race to the Top Challenge!

Top 3 Prefectures: Money Raised

1. Saga (48 JETs) ￥400,000, ￥8,333 per JET
2. Niigata (102 JETs) ￥551,888, ￥5,410 per JET
3. Oita (80 JETs) ￥185,019, ￥2,312 per JET

Top 3 Prefectures: Community Service

1. Yamagata (81 JETs) 1189 total hours, 14.6 hours per JET
2. Saga (48 JETs) 294 total hours, 6.1 hours per JET
3. Hokkaido (263 JETs) 1476 total hours, 5.6 hours per JET

Nationwide Total

￥2,105,258 and 3676 hours

Congratulations to every other prefecture on your JETs’ efforts!

The JET Community Service Tracker is still up and running. The information on the Tracker allows AJET to share the positive impact JETs make in their communities with the Japanese Ministries that support JET and with the Japanese public. Please visit the JET Community Service Tracker and continue to log your JET community’s positive impact!​