International comparison of insititutional frameworks and supporting measures for the nonprofit and co-operative organizations

开放的政府和高效的企业是21世纪社会经济发展的前提，而有活力的市民社会也应是可持续发展的基石。虽然非营利组织和合作组织被视为构建公民社会的关键角色，并被寄予厚望，但与欧洲和北美发达国家相比，支持它们的制度安排和措施似乎远远落后。因此，本研究的主题是“非营利组织与合作组织的制度框架与支持措施的国际比较”。虽然“合作社”一词本身已被理解，但“非营利”一词在日本尚未普遍使用。但在其他国家，“非营利”或“不以营利为目的”是常用的，而在我国，NPO （Non - profit Organization）是被广泛引入的。因此，我们试图通过比较其他国家的制度框架来思考我国非营利组织和合作组织的未来。为此，我们认为对书面文件进行研究并访问一些欧洲国家是很重要的。这份报告由两部分组成。第一部分提出了日本新环境下消费者合作社法改革的相关问题，这是本报告的核心。第二部分介绍了其他国家，主要是英国和意大利的非营利组织和合作组织的制度框架。最初我们打算涵盖德国和欧盟，但研究结果将在其他场合发表。法律正在改变，也应该随着时间的推移而改变。自明治时代以来一直延续的法人制度被新法律所取代。预计将利用新法人制度建立市民社会。

While the open government and efficient enterprises are the prerequisites for the socio-economic development in the 21^<st> century, the viable civil society should also be the corner stone for the sustainable development. Although the nonprofit and co-operative organizations are seen as the key players in building the civil society with greater expectations, the institutional arrangements and measures supporting them seem to be far behind in comparison with the advanced nations in Europe and North America. Therefore, this study dealt with the theme 'international comparison of institutional frameworks and supporting measures for the nonprofit and co-operative organizations'.While the term 'co-operative' has been understood per se, the term 'nonprofit' has not generally used in Japan. But 'nonprofit' or 'not for profit' is commonly used in other countries, and the NPO (Non Profit Organization) is widely introduced in our country.Therefore we sought to think about the future of the nonprofit and co-operative organizations in our country by examining their institutional frameworks in comparison with those in other countries. To this end we thought it important to make a research on written documents and visit some countries in Europe.This report is composed of two parts.Part I presents issues pertaining to the reform of the Consumer Co-operative Law under the new environment in Japan, which constitutes the core of the report.Part II deals with the institutional frameworks of nonprofit and co-operative organizations in other countries, mainly UK and Italy. Originally we intended to cover Germany and the EU, but the results of research will be published on the other occasion.The law is changing and should change with time. The corporation system that continued since the Meiji Era gave way to the new Law. It is expected to establish the civil society by using the new corporation system.