DEVELOPMENT-JAPAN: Slowly, Space for Activism Grows

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 15 2003 (IPS) - Disillusioned with his job in the sales department of a construction company, 29-year-old Taro Nishimura quit to travel to India for a year, and is now a volunteer for a non-profit organisation working with the visually disabled here in the Japanese capital.

“The rigid corporate structure was too much to take,” says the young man, who lives with his parents and also does odd jobs to make a living. ”I wanted to work for the betterment of the community so I decided to leave as quickly as possible.”

Nishimura, according to experts, represents a growing group of young people who prefer to join civic organisations and find this work more meaningful despite the financial and career sacrifices that come with it.

Often, this also means poorer salaries – Nishimura makes an average 1,500 U.S. dollars monthly or about half of his former salary – and a shaky future in the fledgling non-profit sector.

Majority of those in non-profit work are part-time workers and it is not unusual to find them struggling to find funds to keep going.

But activists contend that the growing room for non-profit activities has helped create a new value system, one that helps civil society carve out a niche for itself in a country that has traditionally been used to thinking that the family should take care of welfare – and that policies should be left to the government.

“Non-profit organisations (NPOs) illustrate a new perception. People, disillusioned with rigid bureaucracy, see us as being effective and committed to a cause,” says Akira Matsubara, spokesman for the Coalition to Support the Registration of Organisations, which provides information on NPO certification.

Japan only had laws for setting up non-profit organisations in 1982, which shows how it is a latecomer when it comes to civic involvement.

A landmark for Japan’s grassroots movements came in an Oct. 1 speech by the respected international diplomat Sadako Ogata, who took over the reigns of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which on that day became independent from the foreign ministry.

In her speech, former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ogata said that development cannot be administered from bureaucrats’ desks. “I’d like to give more authority to those working in the field,” Ogata explained. Ogata’s appointment is part of a government-led reform plan on Japan’s scandal-tainted ODA.

A sign of the changing times has been the rapid rise of non-profit organisations – a total of 12,056 registered as of March this year, up 84.1 percent from a year ago. This is quite a significant jump, even though it is still far away from the one million registered in the United States for instance.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also estimates that there were 176,000 workers, 97,000 of them part-timers, employed at Japanese NPOs in 2000. The figure is expected to increase to 418,000 by 2010.

Given these growing numbers, the government introduced a revised NPO law this May that streamlines registration procedure.

According to the Cabinet Office, the new law now has 17 selection fields adding to the established 12, and helps evaluate NPOs’ purposes better. Welfare and international cooperation top the list, followed by youth issues, environmental protection and education.

Moreover, the government has conducted new studies that prove NPOs play a vital role in fostering economic growth.

A study to that effect, publicised in August by a government study panel, says that he growth of the non-profit sector will create more jobs and services.

It forecasts that with more drastic deregulation by 2010, NPO activities could help expand the economy by 65 billion dollars or 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product, up from almost 7 billion yen (7 million dollars) in 2000.

Such an impact, the report adds, would create 1.59 million jobs, a massive increase from the new 176,000 gained in 2000.

To achieve this target, the study suggests the government shift 10 percent of public services to NPOs.

In this direction, the Japanese NPO law has also established a new category, that of activism towards the revival of local economies and reduction of the current 5.4 percent jobless rate.

Seizing the opportunity is Tetsuro Fujiawara, who registered his NPO, Senior Masters Network, last November in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The small organisation survives on membership fees and small grants, and provides mental care and other services for the unemployed.

“I started an NPO with seven other unemployed men because new jobs are hard to come by. The work is spiritually rewarding,” he says.

Takatoshi Yamada, 65, registered Ginza Nozomi, which provides voluntary help to debt-ridden companies, in May. He says NPO certification is important to put an official cap on his advocacy and to facilitate fundraising efforts.

Despite the enthusiasm, several sticky points remain. A major grouse with activists is the government’s insistence of retaining strict conditions that makes coveted tax-exempt status elusive.

This ”high-handed” system, they complain, has long acted as a deterrent to the growth of non-profit groups. ”Financially it is a struggle for NPOs in Japan. Unless more is done on this front, we cannot promise the breakthroughs western counterparts have made through activism in their countries,” explains Matsubara.

Rigorous requirements were needed before tax-exempt status was granted to only 15 organisations so far in Japan, most of them large ones working with the needy.

Japanese NPOs also suffer from low membership fees compared to other countries. Greenpeace Japan, for instance, reports only 4,300 local members compared to more than 500,000 in Germany.