(Preliminary translation)

White Paper on the National Lifestyle

(Fiscal Year 2000)

November 2000

Economic Planning Agency

Government of Japan

This is the provisional translation of highlights from Part 1 of the Kokumin Seikatsu Hakusho, which was submitted to the Cabinet on November 10, 2000. This paper introduces the primary ideas of that White Paper. For quotations, please refer to the White Paper written in Japanese.

Volunteering is expected to play a much more significant role in enriching the lives of Japanese people. The reasons are threefold.
First, as the economy is changing drastically to reflect the various influences on the lifestyles, people have started to develop relationships with one another through mutually shared interests or tastes, rather than through mainly job-based human connections, the dominant mode to date. Volunteering for and joining an NPO (Nonprofit Organization) is one way to do that.
Second, the benefits of services that volunteers provide with their original ideas have been recognized against the background that governments and private enterprises may not respond sufficiently to the varying needs of people.
Third, volunteering not only enables the self-realization but also makes a significant contribution toward enhancing the quality of life of the entire community.

However, it is necessary to note that qualifications exist for volunteering. Volunteering is not an act of virtue in all cases. It should not translate into a unilaterally forced deed to a recipient with no consideration of social rules. In doing volunteer activities, efforts are needed to become helpful to relevant people and to receive the appreciation and support of the public.
It is important to build a society in which volunteering is not something special, but something that everyone does naturally in normal, daily life.

Chapter 1: Active Volunteers in Various Fields

Section 1: Facts about Volunteers

One out of four people has acted as a volunteer in Japan. This ratio is lower than that of the U.S. and U.K. across all the age brackets (Figure 1).
Volunteers in Japan are classified, in terms of working condition, into the following: housewives 40 percent, retirees 20 percent, employees 10 percent and self-employed 10 percent.
Three out of four people hope to contribute to society in some way (Figure 2). Two out of three people have an intention to do volunteering, one of which has not yet done it. This means that the willingness to volunteer is fairly high if we include those with no prior experience.

Section 2: Attractive Nature of Volunteering and Its Start

According to a survey among acquaintances, 36 percent of correspondents have friends who are also volunteers, while 64 percent do not (since they have not done volunteering) (Figure 3). However, one third of the latter people hope to remain friendly with comrades through volunteering.
Those who share the important value of volunteering maintain their volunteer connections. In this sense they work as one method to expand human linkages that are based on the principle of "similar tastes."

Section 3: Backgrounds of Rising Interests in Volunteering in an International Perspective

There are many differences in incentives and reasons to start volunteering between Japan and the U.S.
First, the activities for acquaintances and a sense of obligation often make people volunteer in Japan (Figure 4). On the other hand, attitudes toward fulfilling personal satisfaction are relatively strong in the U.S.
Second, there are few in Japan who consider "serving as an example to others" to be a reason to volunteer.

Chapter 2: For Volunteering to Prevail

Section 1: Difficulties That Volunteers Face

The major difficulties for volunteers are time constraints and lack of information about activities (Figure 5).
One method to ease the time constraint is for workers to take the day off with pay to volunteer and the leave for volunteering for long-term activities. Therefore, it is desirable for such working practices to be introduced, promoted and utilized. But the number of private companies adopting those practices remains as low as 20 percent. At the same time, organizations welcoming volunteers need to make an effort to offer programs in which even workers under time constraints can readily participate.
To cope with the lack of information, volunteer opportunities with information outlets over a wide range of areas should be established. Volunteer centers should be strengthened, and volunteer coordinators should be fostered.
Furthermore, the psychological impediments to volunteering would be reduced by obtaining information of NPOs prior to making activities and by participating in the trial opportunities made available to first-time volunteers.

Section 2: Issues Relating to Motives for Volunteering

Many people expect education to play a role in understanding the nature of volunteering. About half of those surveyed support the idea that schools should provide the opportunities for students to learn about and experience volunteer activities (Figure 6). However, opinions vary whether volunteering should be formally placed as course units in schools.
Regarding compensation, people who consider that volunteers should not receive any compensation for costs or remuneration declined from 30 percent in 1993 to 19 percent in 2000 (Figure 7). It is necessary to understand that there are activities receiving expense compensation and/or modest remuneration.

Chapter 3: For the Vitalization of Giving

Section 1: Facts and Issues for Giving

Annual charitable giving per household in Japan is 2,900 to 3,200 yen. When they make such donations, they feel not only the genuine sense of social contribution but also peer pressure or a sense of being forced.

Section 2: Measures for Vitalization

There are many benefits to "matching" gift programs: employers match their employees' donations, in many cases by the same amount. This means an employee could double his/her giving to an NPO. The companies can make a contribution to society by respecting the intentions of employees.
However, only 5 percent of companies in Japan have matching gift programs in operation (Figure 8). But they are expected to play an important role in realizing diversified donations. It is hoped that companies will consider this arrangement.
Donations to specified nonprofit corporations, which are NPOs certified by the Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities, cannot be deducted from taxable income. There is an argument that such donations should be treated with preferential taxation, since they are one means to support specified nonprofit corporations. This argument is currently being debated.

Chapter 4: Friendship Exchange and Volunteering in Terms of IT (Information Technology)

Section 1: Enhanced Human Relations with IT

The Internet facilitates the linkage of people of the same tastes with each other. According to a survey, about 50 percent of correspondents have increased their contacts with distant or lost friends with the help of the Internet (Figure 9). Roughly 40 percent answered that the number of friends without face-to-face contacts increased.

Section 2: New Types of Volunteering with IT

IT has created various possibilities for volunteering. For example, "personal-computer volunteers" are prevailing as salaried-men and elderly people with PC skills volunteer their time to people in need in this field. "Information volunteers" are especially valuable in communicating disaster-related information. In particular they were famous for their role in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. "Virtual volunteers" are coming out as they teach remote students with IT and visit patients in hospitals.
Even if a person faces time constraints, he/she can contribute to society in many ways in terms of his/her knowledge. IT is expected to further expand the opportunities for volunteering.

Chapter 5: Promotion of Volunteer Activities and the Role of NPOs

Section 1: The Rising Expectations of NPOs

NPOs are groups for volunteer activities and civic organizations. Their development has gathered momentum since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. In 1998, the Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities, submitted by Diet members, was enacted. As a result, NPOs may obtain the legal status of a corporate body.
Expectations for NPOs are rising. NPOs are able to organize volunteer activities done by individuals. The following merits therefore exist. First, time constraints for volunteer activities are more manageable when people join NPOs than when people undertake volunteering on their own. Second, NPOs can provide the continual services of volunteers. Third, NPOs can accumulate expertise and special skills.
Two-thirds of NPOs operate in the fields of health and social welfare (Figure 10). Areas such as community building, fostering children, and social education account for about 30 percent of NPO activity. As this shows, the activities of NPOs widely vary.
NPOs have various merits in comparison with the public sector and private enterprises: they operate under their own codes of conduct, deal with situations flexibly, offer unique rewards, and are engaged and focused in their activities.
When governments contract with NPOs, they expect that "NPOs provide improved services that more closely match the needs of citizens" and that "NPOs are able to provide services that administrations can not provide on their own."

Section 2: What Is Necessary to Foster NPOs?

NPOs face the following difficulties. First, their revenue structures are so fragile that many NPOs are very small in financial terms. Second, increasing membership and recruiting staff are not easy. Third, finding office and activity space is very problematic (Figure 11).
The environments of NPOs need to be developed with administrative support, by giving full respect to the independence of NPOs. With that in mind, various supporting measures are desirable for NPOs such as administrative help concerning finance and location, information assistance to facilitate close linkages between citizens and NPOs, and intermediary support with other organizations.
NPOs need to obtain the understanding and appreciation of citizens. Citizens could support NPOs by becoming members, by volunteering their time and skills. The bottom line is the idea that it is the citizens who foster NPOs.

Conclusion

People start volunteering by doing activities that they want to do. When individuals seek new relationships by opening windows to society, they find joy in discovering an entirely new world --- a world in which they can share their dreams and hopes with fellow volunteers. NPOs, created by the voluntary participation of individuals, can provide opportunities to open up such windows.
Each of these willingly opened windows is very small. However, when a spectrum of windows starts to open in a wide variety of places, the possibilities of interchanges in society as a whole increase by millions. Moreover, needs that could not be met by an administration or enterprise will be satisfied through volunteering, and people's lives will be enriched. This is a society in which volunteer activities are not considered to be something special, but to be a commonplace activity that everyone does in his or her daily life.
Japanese people find virtue in unrevealed acts of kindness, and tend to think that good deeds should be done without having others know about them. However, if volunteer activities become a part of everyday life, Japan could optimize its favorable environment, one in which three out of four citizens wish to contribute to society.
The economy and society, which have been focusing on standardization, mass production, and scale expansion, are now becoming more diversified, non-material, and information-oriented. Under these circumstances, the time has come for all people --- citizens, NPOs, enterprises, and the administration --- to take steps forward in concerted efforts to steadily build a society with a myriad of open windows.