As a result, the Diet passed, by a unanimous vote, the Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities (the so-called NPO Law) in March 1998. The new law, which went into effect in December, promotes efforts by citizens to freely engage in activities that contribute to society. It does this by enabling citizen organizations to obtain nonprofit corporate status easily and without government offices dictating the kinds of activities they should engage in. It can be said that whereas the conventional public-service corporation system (public corporations and foundations) is premised on the relevant ministries' power to approve and supervise civic activities, the NPO Law paves the way for the removal of a significant number of official restrictions. As of December 1, 3021 citizen organizations have obtained corporate status since the NPO Law went into effect, and each has been actively promoting its activities.
Increasingly important role of NPOs
The direct significance of the NPO Law is that by making it easier for many organizations engaged in civic activities to obtain corporate status, the law enables these organizations to enter into different contracts and arrangements. The further significance of the NPO Law is that under its provisions the activities engaged in autonomously by citizens are institutionally recognized as socially important. In fact, most of the activities will probably be undertaken by volunteer organizations that do not require corporate status. Nevertheless, their importance to society is now recognized.
In the months and years to come, we expect more people to participate in private sector nonprofit activities. In addition to taking part in volunteer activities, people will have more opportunities to receive support as members of nonprofit organizations or to become full-time staff members of such organizations. Moreover, there will be more instances of people getting together to establish new NPOs. There is a possibility that, in tandem with these trends, various institutions that originally did not assume the importance of volunteer activities will now recognize their importance and transform themselves into institutions that nurture such activities and promote private sector nonprofit organizations.
Today in Japan many social institutions are being reformed. The establishment of the NPO Law can be seen as part of this trend. The public nursing care insurance system, however, that came into force this April, and the Decentralization Promotion Act is particularly helping to expand the role of local governments. The Social Welfare Law, revised this June, will probably change the way social welfare is provided. Moreover, the reorganization of ministries and agencies that will take place in January and the Free Access to Information Law, that will probably be enacted after that, will gradually change the role of the central government. This movement toward reform will serve to increase the importance of NPOs.
Particularly, in local administration, the cooperation between NPOs and the government has increased in importance, and that trend is already becoming prominent. Many local governments are considering measures to promote such cooperation, and new efforts are being made in this area, and there is a good possibility that administrative reform may be promoted in local governments through these efforts.
Also, companies are beginning to take notice of the existence of NPOs and are aiming to join hands with them. Such a trend is observed not only in their efforts to contribute to society, but also in their business activities proper.
