Civil Society in Japan: Democracy, Voluntary Action, and Philanthropy

Abstract

This chapter describes civil society in Japan: its historical contexts, its present state, and the challenges it faces in the twenty-first century. Civil society is translated as “shimin shakai” in Japanese. Shimin means citizen and shakai means society. Shimin is a rather confusing concept because shimin refers primarily to the resident of a city. Of course, when we talk about shimin shakai or civil society, shimin does not mean resident of a city. In this chapter, I define the term “shimin” or citizen as “any people who participate in civic engagement.” Civic engagement here means participation in public life. I use the term civil society to express the structure or system of society which allows any person to become civilly engaged. Public life can be divided into three spheres: the political, economic, and social spheres. I will, among many forms of civic engagement, refer to (1) democracy, (2) liberal capitalism, and (3) voluntary organizations and philanthropy. Democracy can be seen to exist as one system of civic engagement within the political sphere. Here I use the concept of procedural democracy formulated by Joseph Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy): “The central procedure of democracy is the selection of leaders through competitive election by the people they govern.” A system of civic engagement found within the economic sphere is liberal capitalism. By liberal capitalism I mean capitalism with virtue and ethics not based on market fundamentalism, in other words, capitalism with social responsibility. Lastly, civic engagement exists in the social sphere as carried out by nonprofit voluntary organizations supported by private philanthropy. It is vital for nonprofit organizations to have a voluntary fund source. Philanthropy is an act of voluntary private giving for social causes. Philanthropy is a system of civic engagement operating in the social sphere, facilitated by people in the economic sphere. The economic system which allows philanthropy by corporations, or corporate philanthropy, is liberal capitalism.