The Voluntary and Non-Profit Sector in Japan

The Challenge of Change

Stephen Osborne, Stephen P. Osborne

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781134533718
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Japanese History
• Index: History

The voluntary and non-profit sector is an important and emerging feature of Japanese society. It is a response both to the changing nature of this society and to political and social trends that have encouraged the Japanese government to see this sector as a potential provider of public services. It is also part of the emergence of 'civil society' in Japan. This book explores the roots of the societal challenges that voluntary and non-profit organisations face in Japan and evaluates their future impact on Japanese society. Containing contributions from leading researchers, internationally as well as from key practitioners from Japan, this book is essential reading for any student of Japanese studies or the international non-profit sector.

Part I

Background to the sector

1 The voluntary and non-profit sector in contemporary Japan

Emerging roles and organizational
challenges in a changing society

Stephen P. Osborne

Introduction

Over the past decade there has been a global upsurge in interest in the contribution that voluntary and non-profit organizations (VNPOs) can make to society. A classic example of this interest is the seminal Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-Profit Research Project, which seeks to map the extent and activity of VNPOs across the world (Salamon and Anheier 1994, 1997). Three broad strands can be discerned in this interest. Whilst these three strands do clearly overlap, nonetheless each has its own distinctive concerns and challenges.

The first strand concerns the pressure to reform and decentralize the state in both the industrialized market economies and in the developing and transitional nations. On the one hand this reflects concerns over the costs and size of government and the extent to which it can provide public services in an efficient and effective way (Pirie, 1988; Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). On the other hand it reflects a longer-term concern to use VNPOs to empower people within society, and to offer them a proactive, rather than purely responsive, role in the provision of public services (Berger and Neuhaus, 1977; Gladstone, 1979).

This latter point links into the second strand, which concerns the role of VNPOs as facilitating the development and sustenance of a ‘civil society’ (de Oliveira and Tandon, 1994; Deakin 2001). Whilst the meaning of ‘civil society’ is open to diverse interpretations (Osborne and Kaposvari 1997), nonetheless its achievement is held to be a core component of societal development across the globe and Welzer (1995), and Fukuyama (1995) have further linked its existence to national competitiveness in global markets.

The final strand concerns the role of VNPOs as agents of ‘sustainable development’ across the world (Fisher, 1993). It explores their ability to respond to local needs flexibly and in ways which are resource and environmentally efficient.

These strands are as evident in Japan as elsewhere – and particularly the first two. As will be seen below, there are both global pressures toward the development of a VNPO sector in Japan and local ones derived from a perceived need to reform and re-legitimate the state. This makes the task of understanding this emerging sector of Japanese society particularly timely.

This chapter will outline briefly the existing literature about the nature and extent of the VNPO sector in Japan. It will then draw a balance sheet of the strengths and weaknesses of this sector in Japan and discuss their implications for the future development of the VNPO sector in Japan.

As will be seen below, whilst there is a limited, though developing, literature which describes the structure of the VNPO sector in Japan, there is not a substantial literature which explores the key managerial challenges for such organizations. This latter concern is the focus of the remainder of this book.

Existing literature on the VNPO sector in Japan

Several writers (Lohmann, 1995; Amenomori, 1997) have noted previously that there is comparatively little written about VNPOs in Japan or their role in relation to social policy and public services. Two examples will make this point. A recent social history of contemporary Japan (Thomas, 1996) makes no reference to them at all; nor does an equally recent evaluation of family social policy in Japan (Boling, 1998).

This present review will concentrate upon two areas. These are the broader societal background to voluntary activity in Japan and the specific role and activities of VNPOs in relation to public services.

Before commencing this review, though, a basic point must be made about the need to differentiate between ‘old’ and ‘new’ style VNPOs. The older, more institutionalized forms of VNPOs are heavily incorporated into the state and act as, for example, mainstream social welfare service providers. They are dependent upon the state for their very existence. The newer, ‘grassroots’ VNPOs are very much the product of local communities and independent (i.e. voluntary) initiatives. Deguchi (2001) uses the term institutionalized non-profit organizations (I/NPOs) to denote the former and non-institutionalized non-profit organizations (N/NPOs) to denote the latter group. This chapter will focus primarily upon the latter group, and the terms N/NPO and VNPO will be used interchangeably.

The existence of this group of N/NPOs is especially precarious and problematic, not least because of the difficulties in their securing resources. Until recently, they were not able to have any formal relationship with government, because of their lack of legal status in the Japanese system. This has been rectified in part through the 1998 NPO Law, the roots and implications of which are discussed in further detail in this book. The 2000 Long Term Care Insurance Law also offers possibilities of stable long-term funding for such VNPOs from the state – though this has also raised issues of incorporation of these organizations into the prevailing statist systems (Imada 2001; Kawashima 2001). These points wil be returned to at the end of this chapter, and throughout the book.

Voluntary activity, civil society and the VNPO sector in Japan

Key analysts on voluntary activity in Japan have argued for the necessity of understanding it within the dominant cultural paradigms of the region. Such writers often highlight Buddhist and Confucian beliefs as the prevailing philosophies within which to understand voluntary action.

Lohman (1995) is especially important here. He uses a formulation of civil society as the Commons (Lohman 1992) with which to contrast voluntary action in Western societies with that in the Asia-Pacific region. He argues that nothing precisely like the contemporary non-profit organizations of the Western market economies existed anywhere in Asia prior to the twentieth century. However, this is not the same thing as saying that there were no pre-existing conceptions of voluntary activity and mutuality, which are wider than organizational forms alone. Just as Christianity provided the philosophical breeding ground for ‘voluntaryism’ Osborne 1996 in the West (Collins and Hickman, 1991) so Buddhism provided this breeding ground in Asia through

a complex of Buddhist religious beliefs supporting gift exchange [and] associated with the concepts of dharma and dana … [T]hese characteristics point to the existence of a traditional Buddhist model of a commons ‘which shares some, but certainly not all, of the characteristics of western models of … voluntary action’.

(Lohmann 1992: 155)

This theme is developed by Amenomori (1997). He argues that the Buddhist roots of the voluntary sector in Japan have meant that, far from being counter-posed to the state, as in the Western formulation of civil society, the voluntary sector has traditionally been vertically integrated, and interdependent, with the state for its existence (the I/NPOs of Deguchi, above).

This integrated model of the state and voluntary activity has led others to argue that civil society is a term without meaning in the region. Thranhardt (1992: 280) has argued that the Confucian philosophy which underlies much community action in Japan, negates the principle of voluntaryism, in the Western sense (Etzioni, 1968; Osborne, 1996), because ‘abstinence from communal action would violate the principle of harmony that is at the centre of the classical Confucian world’.

Taking this argument to its conclusion, Serrano argues that:

Civil society is a concept alien to Asia. It refers to the self-organization of citizens in contrast to the state or government, and is rooted in the Western tradition and political culture.

(Serrano 1994: 271)

Like the above writers, Serrano argues that the Confucian and Buddhist models emphasize this interdependency and integration of the public and the private rather than their separation. Finally, Knight also concurs that there is no such entity as civil society in Japan, which has an independent and voluntary separation from the state. He develops this argument further, by emphasizing the moral hegemony that the state holds in Japan:

The [state] is conceived to be a moral entity … [it] continues to assume moral leadership in post-war Japan … As a result of [the] absence of countervailing institutions, the state continues to dominate the public realm.

(Knight 1996: 224)

The implication of this for the voluntary principle in Japan is that it is very hard to conceive of voluntary action in independence of, or indeed in counter-position to, the state. Rather, it is dependent upon the state for its legitimacy (Deguchi 2001). This gives local government a key role as the legitimator and regulator of non-profit activity. Moreover, this role, far from being seen as bureaucratic interference in the activity of VNPOs, as it often is in the West, is viewed rather as the positive sanctioning of such activity. Amenomori (1997) calls this model ‘vertical interdependence’. Such a model clearly gives local government a significant role as facilitating the institutional legitimacy (Di Maggio and Powell, 1988) of VNPOs in undertaking public services. This role is turned to next in this chapter.

VNPOs and public services in Japan

Several studies (Yamamoto, 1992; Yamamoto and Komatsu, 1996) have made the point that there is a tradition of private philanthropy in Japan stretching back to the eighth century, though this has invariably been seen as something entirely separate from the provision of public services (see also the chapter in this book by Imada, on the philanthropic tradition in Japan). Thranhardt (1992) and Amenomori (1997) have also detailed the extent of organizational forms of voluntary activity in contemporary Japan, whilst Amemiya (1997) also provides an excellent treatment of the legal framework for such organizations and groups, though prior to the 1998 NPO Law.

On the one hand they emphasize the substantial tradition of volunteering in Japan that derives from the Buddhist and Confucian concepts of community referred to above. This volunteer-based activity includes a volunteering movement (borantia Katsudō), often organized through Volunteer Centres, and local community based mutual-aid organizations (the nin’i dantai and jinkaku naki Shadau). An example of this tradition is the work of the Japan Youth Volunteers Association in promoting volunteering among young people as a response to the 1995 Kobe earthquake (Kōroki, 1995).

On the other hand, they detail private non-profit organizations which are invariably vertically integrated into the state in providing local services (I/NPOs). Such organizations require government approval for their existence and provide social services as an ‘add-on’ to state provision. These organizations include social welfare corporations (shakaifukushi hōjin) and special public corporations (tokusha hōjin).

Interestingly, Palley and Usui (1995) make the point that, even within the Confucian paradigm of the Asia-Pacific region, the Japanese model of social welfare is far more reliant upon government for the planning and provision of social services than are other societies. Korea, by contrast, has developed a model with a greater element of voluntary, family and community involvement. Esping-Anderson (1997) goes even further by arguing that there is ‘hardly anything unique’ (p. 187) in the Japanese welfare system – though this point is contested by others. Nagao (1994) and Kawaguchi (1999) provide an overview of the Japanese social welfare system, whilst the Ministry of Health & Welfare (2000) also provides an excellent summary of recent developments.

Finally, Menju and Aoki (1996) have documented the recent growth of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Japan, which focus upon issues of civil rights and social need at a regional and international level. In contrast to the Buddhist and Confucian roots of the non-profit sector focused upon Japan itself, Menju and Aoki make the point that many such NGOs take their philosophical basis from Christianity and its concept of public service for individuals.

Conclusions from the existing literature

It is apparent from the foregoing that Japanese society has neither the tradition of voluntaryism (Osborne, 1996) and civil society (Deakin 2001), as developed in the Western market economies, nor an established role for VNPOs as acting in independence from the state (I/NPOs). Rather a cultural paradigm is dominant which emphasizes the importance of mutual aid as an essential component of society and where the development both of social services and of non-profit organizations is dependent upon the sanction and leadership of local and central government. The public and the group are far more dominant than the individual (Knight, 1996).

This paradigmatic hegemony in Japan is now under threat for four reasons. First, Japan is as susceptible to the trends of globalization and convergence as is any nation on the globe (Suganuma, 1995). As organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund increase their global significance, so does the hegemony increase of their preferred institutional paradigms. For such global actors, the active role of VNPOs in society is seen as evidence both of the existence of a civil, or ‘free’ society and of the efficient delivery of public services. Whilst many writers (such as Lynn, 1996, and Flynn, 1997) have rightly argued that it is wrong to overextend the globalization thesis, nonetheless the impact of such events as the recent economic crisis in the Asia-Pacific region can only strengthen these global pressures.

Second, there is an ongoing concern over the latter half of the twentieth century to decentralize Japanese society and to move away from the centralized legacy both of the shogunate and of the military dictatorship of the 1930s and 1940s (Amenomori, 1997; Imada 2001). This reform is not an easy one, however, as the power of the centralized state has proven hard to shift. Aldrich (1999) for example, has argued that whilst government reform has given local government local autonomy in Japan, it remains vertically integrated and controlled by central government.

Third, and most recently, there is increasing concern within Japan for administrative reform of the state. Two pressures have driven this forward. The first has been a sustained determination, since the First Provisional Commission for Administrative Reform in 1962, to improve the productivity of the public sector and to limit its cost (Tashiro, 1994). The recent economic crisis in the Asia-Pacific region has made this pressure an even more urgent one. The second pressure has been one for reform because of growing public concern over the corruption and the lack of public responsiveness of public services in Japan (Kaneko, 1997, reported in Flynn, 1998).

Finally, there has been a growing recognition that the ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• List of contributors
• Series editor’s preface
• Acknowledgements
• A note on terminology
• The voluntary and non-profit sector in Japan A guide
• Part I Background to the sector
• Part II The changing context of the voluntary and non-profit sector in Japan
• Part III Key managerial challenges for the sector
• Part IV The voluntary and non-profit sector in action in Japan
• Part V Conclusions
• Index