What is an NPO? From Disaster Volunteering and Community Spaces to Climate Change Countermeasures

When I mention in class that "Keio University is also an NPO," the students all look puzzled. This is likely because it doesn't overlap with the "image of an NPO" that many people tend to envision. However, if an NPO is defined as an organization where people with a common purpose voluntarily associate and work together for society independently of the government, then the origins of Keio University were exactly that. Furthermore, it is an entity that has produced many NPOs.

Long before they were named NPOs, our society had these kinds of private, non-profit, public-interest activities. They have strengths in fields where government response is difficult and profit-oriented activities are unsuitable, and their presence has grown as intermediate groups such as families and local communities have weakened. In fact, they are more diverse than one might imagine; even Wikipedia, where volunteers create articles, is operated by a U.S. NPO.

In Japan, 1995 marked the "First Year of Volunteering" during the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which served as a catalyst for drawing public interest toward NPOs. Specified Non-Profit Corporations (NPO corporations) were born from this trend, and their number currently stands at just under 50,000. Today, corporate forms have diversified, and among the 100,000 total general incorporated associations and foundations, many perform public-interest activities; thus, NPO does not necessarily equal an NPO corporation. While they are universal entities in society, NPOs in a systemic sense change depending on the country and the era.

However, diverse and complex entities are difficult to understand and are therefore prone to being viewed with prejudice; the public image and the actual reality of NPOs sometimes diverge significantly. In particular, the term "non-profit" makes them appear somewhat self-sacrificing (which easily invites impressions of hypocrisy), but non-profit here means that maximizing profit for distribution to stakeholders is not the objective. It is a misunderstanding to think that everything is free or unpaid.

Naturally, there are problematic organizations, but the entire NPO sector tends to be judged based on the impression of a single case. Just as there are trusted governments and untrusted ones, or popular companies and "black" (exploitative) companies, these things likely happen because a sufficient understanding has not yet been reached.

Just as Keio University is, there are surely many that will become indispensable organizations for society. I would be happy if this book helps, even a little, in understanding that world.

What is an NPO? From Disaster Volunteering and Community Spaces to Climate Change Countermeasures

Gen Miyagaki

Chuko Shinsho

288 pages, 1,078 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.