20 diverse fields of Japanese nonprofit activities with 50,000 various NPOs
When I participated in fundraising conferences in the U.S. and Australia, I have realized the uniqueness of the Japanese nonprofit sector. Even though Japan has been facing many social issues such as the decrease of the population and super-aging society, I believe there are many cases and knowledges worth sharing to foreign nonprofit sectors.
This article compiles general information about Japanese nonprofits based on public data and definitions by the law. It would be great if this article could help you understand the nonprofit sector in Japan.
According to the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, the number of nonprofit organizations in Japan is more than 50,000, even though it has slightly decreased the past five years after reaching its peak in 2017. Also, it is generally said that the increase between 2007 and 2017 was caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. From my perspective, I am sure the catastrophic disaster was an significant incident for nonprofits in Japan.
A point you have to know is this number excludes other organizations just like foundations and associations because Japan has a different registration system between them and nonprofit organizations.
The Japan NPO center has a figure to explain the Japanese legal framework on their website. I’d like you to see it if you are interested in details.
Variety of nonprofits in Japan
So what kinds of nonprofits are there?
Actually, there are 20 diverse fields defined as below by the law. However, please note that the following list is translated just freely by the author because there is no English information.
- Welfare including health and medical care
- Education
- Community development
- Promoting tourism
- Regional revitalization of fishing villages, agricultural, or mountainous areas
- Promoting academia, culture, arts, or sports
- Environmental protection
- Disaster relief
- Community safety
- Human rights advocacy or peace building
- International cooperation
- Contribution to the development of gender equal society
- Child development
- Contribution to the development of information society
- Science and technology
- Stimulating economic activities.
- Support for developing vocational skills or expanding employment opportunities
- Protecting consumers
- Activities to manage, coordinate, advice, or support the aforementioned activities
- Activities related to those listed above designated by prefecture or ordinances of designated cities
The following figure shows how many organizations in each fields there are. The top five fields of the most Japanese nonprofits is “ Welfare including health and medical care”, “Education”, “Child development”, “Activities to manage, coordinate, advice, or support aforementioned activities” and “Community development”. However, some organizations have activities in multiple fields. Therefore, the total number of the figure below is more than 50,360 organizations.
It could be said that “Activities to manage, coordinate, advice, or support aforementioned activities” is one of unique factors in Japanese nonprofit sector. This kind of organizations is usually called intermediate organizations, Chukan shien soshiki in Japanese. They have been historically contributing to the development of the sector. I will make some articles about what they have been doing.
