第2セッション
The Civil Society in the 21st Century and Expectations on NPOs
―A Japanese Perspective―
Tadashi Yamamoto
I. Evolution of the Civil Society Debate
1. Semantic Confusion over "Civil Society"
Discussion on "civil society" is often quite confusing, but that confusion is even more compounded when the term is juxtaposed against "NPOs," as is the case with the title of the session for which my brief contribution is being made. As will be discussed later, "civil society" can be used in reference to how society is organized, and also is being used increasingly to mean nonprofit organizations or NPOs. In order to avoid this confusion, the term "civil society organization" is used in referring to NPOs and NGOs. There is another dimension to this confusion when the discussion takes place across the cultural and linguistic boundaries as is the case of Japan's participation in the external dialogue on this subject. The Japanese translation of "civil society," shimin-shakai, tends to be understood in the way the word shakai is understood, namely, connoting geographical space rather than association of people as the term is understood in Western society.
One other less serious cause of confusion in Japan's participation in international discourse in this area is the more frequent use of NPOs over NGOs. This comes from the fact that the term NGO was introduced to Japan first in reference to nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations in overseas programs such as development assistance and refugees, and, thus, when such nongovernmental organizations starting operating within Japanese domestic context dealing primarily with social issues within Japan, the term NPOs has come to be used to encompass nonprofit organizations engaged in domestic as well as international activities.
2. Evolution of Definition of the Civil Society
Without getting into cross-cultural or cross-linguistic confusion, the term "civil society" is confusing enough even in Western nations, as "civil society" seems to mean different things to different people in different contexts. First, it can represent a philosophical concept such as the one originating out of Hegelian philosophy, a realm in which free, self-determining individuality sets forth its claims for reaction of its wants and for personal autonomy. Secondly, the term can connote the way society is organized. In that usage, civil society may be regarded a synonymous to "civic society." Third, the term civil society is increasingly used in reference to nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, including organizations, including NGOs, NPOs, groups of volunteers, independent policy research institutions (or "think tanks"), and organized philanthropies such as foundations. Fourth, the term has been used with a different emphasis in different contexts: earlier, in connection with the democratization process in the former Communist countries, and, then more recently, in connection with the growing debate on governance of domestic societies.
Indeed, the term "civil society" found its way into contemporary parlance through its association with the people who fought against communism in Eastern Europe. It is argued that the dissident East European intellectuals of the 1970s and 1980s were trying to imagine what kind of community they wanted in place of communism, and they turned back to the concept of civil society.1
