When we look at the history of earlier social workers and the zeal of people who apply to the social work section of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, we can feel the power with which they have improved themselves through devotion to people in difficult situations who need support. I believe this power derives from the following process centered on mission awareness.
"Social workers devote themselves to their practice. When they have mission-awareness (i.e., when they consider not what they want to do, but what society needs them to do, and give it their own significance) they transcend thinking about themselves and reintegrate with the meaning of their own lives."
In this paper, I examine the above process by surveying the literature. In particular, I discuss the significance of this mission-awareness and how it is formed in a social work practice. I put special emphasis on the significance of transcendence and reintegration.