Working Papers of the The Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project Lester M. Salamon, Director Helmut K. Anheier, Assistant Director DEFINING THE NONPROFIT SECTOR: JAPAN Takayoshi Amenomori Japan Center for International Exchange 1993 Suggested form of citation: Amenomori, Takayoshi. "Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Japan." Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, no. 15, edited by L.M. Salamon and H.K. Anheier. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, 1993. ISBN - 1-886333-16-5 8 The Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, 1993 All Rights Reserved Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project Institute for Policy Studies The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland 21218 U.S.A. DEFINING THE NONPROFIT SECTOR: JAPAN Introduction1 Recent years have seen significant changes in the Japanese nonprofit sector. Within a relatively short period of time, a number of important initiatives were launched: the "1% Club" was created by the Federation of Economic Organizations, Keidanren, one of the major interest groups of business in Japan. Member companies of the Club pledge to donate at least one per cent of their pre-tax profit for charitable purposes. As of February 1991, 203 companies have joined this club. The concept of mecenat or corporate sponsorship of arts which had previously been introduced in Japan, resulted in the establishment of the Association for Corporate Support for Arts in early 1991. At around the same time, a large public foundation for the support of art was created, and in Osaka, the Chamber of Commerce announced the start of the first community foundation in Japan. Moreover, the Council for Better Corporate Citizenship, an organization recently set up by Keidanren, represents a mechanism through which corporations can make tax deductible donations to overseas recipients. Finally, in April 1991, another large public fund, the Fund for Global Partnership, was established "to help achieve closer relations between Japan and the United States, and to contribute to a better world through the cooperative efforts of both countries."2 To a certain degree, these initiatives which typically involve the joint creation of a council or committee to coordinate activities as well as to allocate and to distribute funds, are in response to criticism from abroad. It was argued that while continuously expanding business overseas, Japan had not taken on broader responsibilities and was now urged to make a greater contribution to the international community. Moreover, the significant wealth accumulated in Japan since the 1960s and especially in the latter half of the 1980s may also have been a factor contributing to the expansion of nonprofit activities and philanthropy. However, there may be other underlying reasons as well. For one, a new concern about quality of life emerged at the grass-roots level and people began to re-examine the fruits of economic success, achieved with considerable sacrifices such as long working and commuting hours, and often less enviable living conditions. Apart from that, Japanese society is now facing new kinds of social problems ranging from environmental issues and the weak integration of the foreign labor force to school violence and the situation of the elderly. These problems may require new institutional responses, and have, thereby, shifted more attention to the nonprofit sector. It is therefore quite important and timely to seek a better understanding of the nonprofit world in Japan. That surprisingly little is known about it is, in part, a reflection of the way in which the sector is located in the institutional setup of Japanese society. Even though private nonprofit organizations have existed for centuries, they do not, in common understanding, form a 1 Takayoshi Amenomori is a Senior Program Officer at the Japan Center for International Exchange in Tokyo. The author and editors wish to thank Ms. Mio Ohta of JCIE for her help in editing this paper. 2 This quote is taken from the "Program Guidelines of the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership." 1 Amenomori Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Japan sector distinct from both the public and the private business sectors. In fact, the nonprofit sector is so much influenced by the dominant other two sectors that the term dai san sekut~ (third sector) refers to a hybrid sector of quasi-public, quasi-business organizations, but it does not depict a distinct institutional sphere. Certainly, the Japanese nonprofit sector is difficult to define and measure: many organizations are not registered, let alone incorporated. Although quite a lot of statistical material is routinely collected from nonprofit organizations, it is often impossible to separate out the nonprofit sector. Many nonprofit organizations are virtually treated as part of government. There are also many mass organizations and community-based groups which, deeply rooted in Japanese society and cultures, are difficult to describe in terms used to depict organizations in Western societies. The nonprofit sector in Japan is a mirror image of Japanese society, and a product of its complex history. Therefore, in order to understand the way the nonprofit sector is defined and located in contemporary society, it is useful to examine its history. Historical Note Japan has a long tradition of philanthropy, though it usually represented a weak rather than strong historical current in the development of Japan. As a consequence, historical accounts and analyses too easily pass over the role and scope of traditional philanthropy in Japan, and little is known about the motives of founders as well as the activities and development of past institutions. The earliest records date back to the 7th and 8th century and suggest that hospitals and charities (e.g., feeding the hungry) were established within the precinct of large Buddhist temples like the TÇdaiji and the ShitennÇji. Such early examples of charity usually were initiated by benevolent nobilities and high ranking monks. It must be emphasized, however, that the Buddhist temples were by no means independent institutions; rather they were established in the interest of either the state or powerful clans. Buddhist temples used to organize fundraising campaigns called Kanjin, in order to raise funds from the public for activities like casting Buddha images, running orphanages and homes for the aged or for some other public purpose. Kanjin is considered to be one of the major indigenous forms of Japanese fundraising efforts. Buddhism in Japan was from the beginning utilized for political causes, but especially after the 17th century, when every Buddhist temple was brought under the control of the central power, consequently losing its independence. Every household was required to register at some temple, so that the temples became part of the feudal administrative system. However, the decline of Buddhism did not necessarily lead to an equal decline of charity itself. Charitable activities inspired by other beliefs and thoughts started to emerge, especially during the civil wars of the 15th and 16th century, and in the Edo-period (1603-1868). For instance, wealthy merchants in Osaka, the center of commerce in the earlier Edo-period, made 2 Amenomori Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Japan generous contributions to private tutorial schools called Shijuku, where classical literature as well as modern and Western learning was taught. These schools were organized as KÇ, or private associations, which find their origin in the mutual-help groups gathered around temples. Private schools, however, were not confined to large cities like Edo or Osaka, and they also flourished in rural areas. In the first half of the 19th century, literacy was already a necessity for merchants and the better-off farmers. Thousands of village institutions known as Terakoya (temple schools) were in existence, and they paved the way for the modern educational system, established under the Meiji regime in the late 19th century. The Kan-on-kÇ may be regarded as one of the first examples of large-scale organized philanthropy in the field of social welfare and relief. It was established in 1829, when Nawa Saburoemon Sukenari, purveyor to Lord Yoshiatsu Satake, offered to make a large donation to alleviate poverty in Akita Domain. Nawa proposed to purchase land for agricultural production, and to use the proceeds to assist local peasants and orphans. Eventually, 191 others contributed funds to this relief project. Historical documents praise Kan-on-kÇ as a financial asset that, belonging neither to the authorities nor to the people, has a special character. The Kon-on-kÇ established by Nawa still exists today as a social welfare organization (see below). While Buddhism, and later Confucianism and Shintoism, played an important role in the development of philanthropy in Japan, there was also a short period of Christian influence. In the 16th century, the Jesuit missionaries established nursing homes and leprosy hospitals in different cities. Social Service groups called Misericordia collected donations on a regular basis. Some of them survived well beyond 1638, the year Christianity was banned. It was only in the late 19th century that Catholic and Protestant missionaries were once again allowed to propagate Christianity. They began to establish missionary schools nationwide, especially at the secondary level. With the exception of some prominent examples of private nonprofit initiatives, the Shogunate and the provincial