Chapter 2 - Against the Drive for Institutionalization: Two Decades of Disaster Volunteers in Japan

Abstract

The present chapter describes two decades of disaster volunteers in Japan and draws out implications for society. According to the author's own long-term fieldwork and participation in a nonprofit organization, an ethnographic history of disaster volunteers is described. It is divided into four stages. The first stage is the dawn of disaster volunteers after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The powerful drive of institutionalization over the expansion of disaster volunteerism occurred at the second stage. In the third stage, an extension of activities occurred. Finally, at the fourth stage, currently a networking of volunteers is moving against the drive for institutionalization. This discussion is followed by an example of action research for keeping a disaster volunteers network embedded in Japanese society. The author attempted to motivate previous survivors to help survivors of the Tohoku region in East Japan in return for the support they had received in the past. It is concluded that the almost two decades of disaster volunteerism give us a glimpse of the future of Japanese society with the network of disaster volunteers, which would work against the drive for institutionalization, at least, intermittently.