Blackwell Reference Online

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In 1995, a flurry of news articles announced that a “volunteer revolution” was under way in Japan. Ironically, the occasion was provided by the massive earthquake that struck the Kobe-Osaka area early in the morning on January 17, 1995, killing over 6,400 people and rendering more than 300,000 homeless. In the wake of the disaster, as government agencies fumbled in red tape, over a million volunteers from all over Japan mobilized to provide emergency relief to the victims. This outpouring of civic-spirited initiative was hailed in the press, and some scholars soon concluded that, when added to other trends, the volunteer boom signified the advent at long last of a modern “civil society” in Japan. Of course, civil society is defined variously, but the broadest contemporary usage draws from Alexis de Tocqueville to locate civil society in “the social relations and structures that lie between the state and the market.’ Some emphasize the proliferation of organizations and associations while others, especially in Japan, think primarily of the qualities and activities of “citizens.’ Political scientist Iokibe Makoto explains that, “When Japanese political scientists use the term ‘civil society,’ it is usually as the abstract concept of the society of citizens in contrast to the apparatus of the state. The same term may remind Americans of more specific, nongovernmental private organizations. ... log in or subscribe to read full text