Can Intermediary Organizations Rise to Growing Expectations? InsightsEssays: Civil Society in Japan

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Posted on July 31, 2024

Japan NPO Center (JNPOC) has a news & commentary site called NPO CROSS that discusses the role of NPOs/NGOs and civil society as well as social issues in Japan and abroad. We post articles contributed by various stakeholders, including NPOs, foundations, corporations, and volunteer writers.
For this JNPOC’s English site, we select some translated articles from NPO CROSS to introduce to our English-speaking readers.

 

Can Intermediary Organizations Rise to Growing Expectations?

Kenji Yoshida, Managing Director, Japan NPO Center

 

The Japanese government recently published the Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform for FY2024, setting the direction for the government’s key issues and budgeting for the fiscal year.

For several years, the central government’s basic policies have mentioned support for NPOs as it relates to efforts to prevent loneliness and social isolation as well as to assist start-ups. However, this year’s policies go one step deeper. Specifically, they emphasize support for NPOs through intermediary organizations.

 

The Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2024

“In addition to promoting donations, we will work on developing the social sector by reinforcing our backing for private-sector entities working to address social issues, including intermediary organizations that assist projects NPOs undertake.”

(from Chapter 2-6: Realization of the Inclusive Society Where People Can Experience Happiness, emphasis added)

The Grand Design of New Capitalism and Action Plan 2024 (Revised edition)

“To support NPOs addressing social issues, we will provide flexible funding in the early stage of their projects, secure and develop their human resources, and train and assign project coordinators, through intermediary organizations that support NPO projects.”

(from Chapter VIII-2: Support for NPOs and Public Interest Corporations Addressing Social Problems, emphasis added)

While references to “intermediary organizations” exist in the individual policies of various ministries, their definitions vary significantly.

Nevertheless, it is unusual for the Basic Policies, which deal with the government’s prioritized issues, to refer to “NPO support through intermediary organizations.” Could it be that an unprecedented boom in intermediary organizations is about to arrive?

This reference arises against the backdrop of a growing recognition that social issues are intricately intertwined and require public-private partnerships and collaboration across nonprofits sectors and beyond government silos. This is why the need for operational support for NPOs and capabilities for coordinating diverse entities have been gaining attention.

Several organizations have approached me to reexamine the nature of their intermediary support. These requests, related to their operation, often come from community-based, civic activity support centers (i.e., public and private NPO support centers).

According to the NPO Support Centers Surveys conducted by the Japan NPO Center, the establishment of civic activity support centers in municipal areas peaked in the early 2000s. Many were built amid the wave of decentralization and administrative and financial reforms, which led to the rapid development of public-private measures and civic activities support measures. Regional committee meetings were held in various places; it was through this process that many NPO support centers were set up. However, this approach is now 20 years old.  

Initially, many local municipalities commissioned the operations of NPO support facilities to local organizations involved in the planning stage of these regional committees, but this approach was gradually replaced by a designated administrator system, intended to improve facility services while reducing management costs. This arguably paved the way for subsequent budget cuts by local governments and limited their involvement to providing physical infrastructural support.

Now the central government is focusing on intermediary support capabilities, with an emphasis on non-material support such as NPOs’ operational support and stakeholder coordination. Both capabilities require a high level of expertise and networks, which cannot be attained overnight.

Given the mismatches between the government’s expectations and the current state of intermediary organizations, it is time for a serious reconsideration of the function and nature of intermediary organizations.

 

Original text by Kenji Yoshida (JNPOC’s Managing Director) originally posted on June 27, 2024; translated by JNPOC.

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