A Comprehensive Empirical Study on the Three-Level Civil Society Structure and Governance in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Germany, and China in Comparative Perspective

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This research project comprehensively and empirically surveys the structure of Japan's civil society. Our goal in this research, which includes comparative data from the United States, South Korea, Germany, and China, as well as Japan, is to identify the characteristics of structure of governance or interactions between governments and society in Japan. The structure here indicates the overall organization of civil society, and this research focuses on three levels, namely, neighborhood associations, social organizations listed in the telephone directory, and registered NPOs. The surveys were constructed by drawing on theoretical concepts including civil society, social capital, policy network, and governance. Through the five-year term of this research, we comprehend the reality of three levels of civil society in Japan, by using approximately 40,000 cases of organization data and more than 4,000 items of data from more than 1,000 local governments showing their close relationship with civil society. Although on a smaller scale, we also undertook surveys in Germany, South Korea, the United States, and China.