2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Research on nonprofit or charitable organizations ---Its legal structure and regulatory framework
| Project/Area Number |
15530060
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Civil law
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
NOMI Yoshihisa The University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, Professor, 大学院・法学政治学研究科, 教授 (50009841)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
HIROSE Hisakazu The University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, Professor, 大学院・法学政治学研究科, 教授 (30009849)
OMURA Atsushi The University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, Professor, 大学院・法学政治学研究科, 教授 (30152250)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2004
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| Keywords | nonprofit / charity / association / co-operative / nonprofit corporation / NPO |
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| Research Abstract |
What are the requirements for nonprofit or charitable organizations? This question is not easy to answer, because there are different kinds of nonprofit or charitable activities in our society. According to the diversity of nonprofit or charitable activities an optimal structure of organization will differ. This was the main idea we have confirmed in our research.
First, we began with rethinking the meaning of a corporation with charitable purposes. In such a corporation the members have only a right to vote, but they do not have any right on the property of the corporation. This is because it makes it sure that members and directors of the charitable corporation can act solely for the benefit of the charitable activity avoiding conflict of interest. In short, a charitable corporation is a method to create "nobody's property".
Secondly, the diversity of nonprofit or charitable activities requires flexible framework of legal entity. In Japan we have so far only for two types of corporations, for profit corporation and nonprofit/charitable corporation. Forprofit corporations can have a capital which is important in doing business. But nonprofit/corporations are not allowed to collect money from the citizens to form a capital. This is a great drawback of the present system. We came to a conclusion that the law on nonprofit/charitable corporation should allow nonprofit/charitable corporations to create a capital. In fact we have already in our legal system the so-called co-operatives. But this is allowed only in limited areas. We think that it should be allowed more generally.
Thirdly, another viewpoint we discovered in our research is that the type of organization suitable for a certain purpose depends on the situation of the market. For example a business association will choose the type of organization according to the market they are involved in. But the research on the relation between types of organization and the market is still to be done.
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