The Rise of Japanese NGOs
Title | The Rise of Japanese NGOs PDF eBook |
Author | Kim D. Reimann |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 2009-12-04 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1135236550 |
Looking at domestic politics, transnational diffusion, the state’s relationship with civil society and societal actors, the book demonstrates how and why NGOs active in global issues have become more visible in Japan and are now established players in the policy making process.
Civil Society in Japan
Title | Civil Society in Japan PDF eBook |
Author | K. Hirata |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 222 |
Release | 2002-08-16 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0230109160 |
Civil Society and Japan's Foreign Aid examines the changing relations between the Japanese state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting effective aid policies and analyzes the changing nature of policy making and governance in Japan. It is based on extensive research in Southeast Asia and Japan, investigating the role of Japanese aid in fields such as education, health care, environmental protection, and economic development. It analyzes the key players in aid policymaking, including donor governments, multinational organizations, international and local NGOs, the business community, and aid recipients.
Another Japan Is Possible
Title | Another Japan Is Possible PDF eBook |
Author | Jennifer Chan |
Publisher | Stanford University Press |
Pages | 442 |
Release | 2008 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780804757812 |
This book looks at the emergence of internationally linked Japanese nongovernmental advocacy networks that have grown rapidly since the 1990s in the context of three conjunctural forces: neoliberalism, militarism, and nationalism. It connects three disparate literatureson the global justice movement, on Japanese civil society, and on global citizenship education. Through the narratives of fifty activists in eight overlapping issue areasglobal governance, labor, food sovereignty, peace, HIV/AIDS, gender, minority and human rights, and youthAnother Japan is Possible examines the genesis of these new social movements; their critiques of neoliberalism, militarism, and nationalism; their local, regional, and global connections; their relationships with the Japanese government; and their role in constructing a new identity of the Japanese as global citizens. Its purpose is to highlight the interactions between the global and the localthat is, how international human rights and global governance issues resonate within Japan and how, in turn, local alternatives are articulated by Japanese advocacy groupsand to analyze citizenship from a postnational and postmodern perspective.
Late Developers in Global Civil Society
Title | Late Developers in Global Civil Society PDF eBook |
Author | Kim DoHyang Reimann |
Publisher | |
Pages | 540 |
Release | 2001 |
Genre | Civil society |
ISBN |
Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan
Title | Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan PDF eBook |
Author | Henk Vinken |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 267 |
Release | 2010-03-25 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1441915044 |
Civic engagement is a concept of action that has become part of common vocabulary, not only in the West but also in many other regions of the world as well. A growing, yet still small number of scholarly works has recently emerged showing how in Japan citizen activism, volunteering, and social action for a public cause are dev- oping. This present volume is another, and in my view, important addition to the body of knowledge on civic engagement in Japan. The majority of books on related issues in Japan take on the perspective of organized civic life, in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or nonprofit organizations (NPOs): we know quite a number of things about the quantitative trends in these organizations, on their positioning, on their difficulties, and on the institutional contexts in which they have to work. We know relatively little – except for a small number of topical qualitative case studies – on broad issues that relate to civic engagement in Japan, inside or outside these formal organizations. This volume is the first to offer a wide scope of broad variety of forms of civic engagement in contemporary Japan. The volume is quite forceful in counterbalancing oversimplified ideas on an “ideal” civil society in which state, market, and civil society organizations are in- pendent and at best take on oppositional stances.
The State of Nonprofit Sector Research in Japan
Title | The State of Nonprofit Sector Research in Japan PDF eBook |
Author | Aya Okada |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 84 |
Release | 2017-11-06 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 900435946X |
Despite a long history, the organized field of research on voluntaristics in Japan has emerged only in the past two decades. This article presents a comprehensive review of voluntaristics research in Japan through an overview of past studies and recent hot topics. Nonprofit sector and voluntary action research, now termed voluntaristics (Smith, 2016), is reviewed here using four approaches: organizational, economic, employment, and charitable giving. Discussion of recent changes in the political-legal environment for nonprofit agencies and associations as well as of collaboration among nonprofits, governments, and businesses are presented. The article also covers some of the key topics in recent years, including rising social movements and advocacy, social impact bonds, social capital, and information and communication technologies (ICT) and social media. In discussing the emergence, expansion, and diversification of nonprofit research in Japan, the article makes two main arguments. First, we argue that studies of voluntaristics are rather recent in Japan, still in pursuit of their own originality. Second, we argue that nonprofit research in Japan is constantly looking for an ideal relationship with practice. Research appears to have not fully caught up with the changing landscape of nonprofits in action, and research has not been able to guide practice into the best next steps. The article highlights characteristics of nonprofit sector research in Japan as well as suggesting key questions for future research.
Becoming One
Title | Becoming One PDF eBook |
Author | Chika Watanabe |
Publisher | University of Hawaii Press |
Pages | 257 |
Release | 2019-01-31 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0824877543 |
International development programs strive not only to alleviate poverty but to transform people, aid workers and recipients alike. Becoming One grapples with this process by exploring the work of OISCA*, a prominent Japanese NGO in central Myanmar. OISCA’s postwar origins at the intersection of Shinto, secularism, and rightwing politics, and its vision of inter-Asian solidarity and a sustainable future helped shape the organization’s ideology and activities. By delving into the world of its aid workers—their everyday practices, discourses, and aspirations—author Chika Watanabe seeks to understand the NGO’s political, social, and ethical effects. At OISCA training centers, Japanese and local staff teach sustainable agricultural skills and organic farming methods to rural youth. Much of the teaching involves laboring in the fields, harvesting produce, and caring for livestock: what they can’t use themselves is sold at nearby markets. Watanabe’s detailed and multi-sited ethnography shows how Japanese and Burmese actors mobilize around the idea of “becoming one” with Mother Earth and their human counterparts within a shared communal lifestyle. By exploring the tension between intentions and political effects—spanning environmentalism, cultural-nationalist ideologies of “Japaneseness,” and aspirations to make the world a better place—Watanabe highlights fascinating questions and both positive and negative outcomes. Becoming One weaves together vivid descriptions of the intensive, intimate, and “muddy labor” of “making persons” (hitozukuri) with the wider historical resonances of these efforts, decentering common understandings of development, NGOs, and their moral and political promises. This engaging and thought-provoking book combines insights from anthropology, development studies, and religious studies to add to our understanding of modern Japan. *Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement