The emerging voluntary sector in Japan: issues and prospects

This paper provides an overview of the Japanese third sector with a particular focus on organisational issues. It begins with background information on the third sector in Japan and offers reasons why the sector has remained relatively underdeveloped. It then discusses recent changes in Japan which have contributed to the development of the sector. The second part of the paper explores management and organisational issues for Japanese voluntary organisations at two levels. Management issues are analysed at the sectoral level, drawing on two quantitative surveys on the sector carried out recently. Secondly, attention will be shifted from sectoral to organisational problems drawing on the findings of the author’s exploratory small-scale research project on several large Japanese NGOs. In conclusion, a number of future implications and policy issues are addressed.