Japan

Abstract

This chapter highlights the 1990s, when civil society captured the imagination of civil society, a process that developed since the early post-World War II period. It was, indeed, around the 1990s that civil society (shimin shakai) and such ideas as volunteering (borantia katsudō), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profit organizations (NPOs), community building (machizukuri), and citizens� activities (shimin katsudō) became topics of broad scholarly, media, and public attention, both in Japan and among foreign observers of the country. Avenell�s analysis considers long-term historical transformations, international influences, and numerous immediate regulatory, political, and social developments that helped to propel civil society into the limelight. Show more