| Research Abstract |
This research provides a comprehensive industrial organization analysis of the development of the nonprofit sector, encompassing such entities as grant-making foundations, private nonprofit schools, grass-root non-governmental organizations, donations and volunteering.
In the aftermath of the Great Hanshin Earthquake that hit the city of Kobe and the western part of Japan in 1995, nonprofit activities have gained a great deal of attention among ordinary citizens, as well as policy makers and researchers.
In the first year we investigated the roles of nonprofit, for-profit and public service providers, and how they compete one another in the same market. We also investigated how the roles of nonprofit organizations changed overtime.
As for sub-sectors, we investigated health and elderly care sectors in the second year, and culture and education sectors in the third year. We shed some lights on the changing role of private schools in the education sector, and the possible roles of for-profit hospitals in the health care market.
In the fourth year we investigated what the dominant organizational forms of providers of various social services are, and what typical shares of private nonprofit providers are in the major industrialized countries.
In sum we founded that the nonprofit organizations have played more and more important roles in the various social service sectors in Japan as well as other developed and developing countries.
Some of the important policy implications of this research are: (a) tax reforms to put stronger incentive to donate are necessary to strengthen the financial structure of the Japanese nonprofits, (b) government and nonprofit partnership would be fruitful to provide social services more efficiently, (c) fair competition among service providers with different ownership structures is quite important.
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