The purpose of this research is to think what we should do in order to develop Social Enterprise (SE) to create jobs for the disabilities.
Lately there are many books (Kerlin 2009, Osborne 2003, Pekkanen 2008, etc.), which argue about Social Enterprise (SE) or the civil society in Japan. They mainly focus on the civic movement after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. On the other hand, this article deals with the revision to the Civil Code and the revision of the NPO law after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.
Table shows Japan’s main NPOs and the number of organizations (Tanaka 2015). In USA, NPOs of favorable tax-treatment are in a lump regardless of active field under section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code. On the other hand, it is a plural system in Japan. There isn’t a legal system for SE. Namely, there are many laws regulate SE, several government offices relate to them. Violet colored ones (number 5, 8, and 9) are traditional in the social welfare system, on the contrary, green colored ones (number 2, 3, and 4) are new type.
The support to the handicapped can't be said as fully even ordinary times. It becomes much more difficult at the time of the disaster. Reconstruction support was provided in place of the original project entitled “Support for job creation in local communities” under “the New Public Commons” policy. Its goal was to create and promote business start-ups, as well as job creation, to contribute to the reconstruction effort after disaster. “Social enterprise” start-ups were supported so that innovative businesses would solve regional difficulties in the disaster areas.
In these circumstances, 4 new-comer small sized NPOs in Fukushima prefecture united each other corresponding to “Government Failure”. They set about employment creation and transportation support for the handicapped person. And this united NPOs are supported by 6 social welfare-related experienced NPOs in Tokyo Metropolitan, where is about 250 km distant. In other words, one social enterprise network was formed. According to the social enterprise typology of Defourny and Kim (2011), this SE may be Model B: “work integration social enterprise” (WISE). This Unity called “SAT”, meaning that it can keep up with demand for the user at once, made working places for the disabilities coped with small local company and hired skilled drivers, who were retired taxi company, for transportation cars.
This SE made the network of NPOs and the professionals, kept the autonomy of each nonprofit, cut cost and risk, develop new business, and create new values. Of course, there are problems that need to be addressed. For example, there is a need to support for networking of small sized SE and to eliminate inequalities in the tax system between new-comer small sized NPOs and traditional social welfare corporations.
References
Defourny, J. and Kim, Shin-Yang., 2011, “Emerging models of social enterprises in Eastern Asia: a cross-country analysis”, Social Enterprise Journal, vol.7, Iss:1, pp.86-111.
Kerlin, J., (ed.), 2009, Social Enterprise: A Global Comparison, Tufts University Press.
Osborne, Stephen P., 2003, The Voluntary and Non-Profit Sector in Japan, Routledge Curzon
Tanaka Takafumi, 2015, “Current State of NPOs and the New Public Commons”, in Adachi Yukio, Sukehiro Hosono, and Jun Iio (ed.) Policy analysis in Japan, Policy Press, ISBN 9781847429841
Pekkanen, R., 2008, Japan’s dual civil society; Members Without Advocates, Stanford University Press.
