The Social Education and Civic Hall (Kominkan) in Japan: A Case Study of Kawasaki City

In Japan, social education refers to the organized, extra-school programs in learning, recreation and sports provided mainly for the youth and adults. A public institution called civic hall (kominkan) has played a pivotal part in the social education of post-war Japan. This paper examines the current state and future prospect of the social education and kominkan, based on a case study of Kawasaki City. Instituted in the late 1940s as a part of the drastic educational reform, kominkan has been settled in Japan through the modernization of facilities and personnel in the 1960s and the remarkable expansion of activities in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, however, there have been concerns that the recent administrative and educational reforms stressing rationalization, private sector initiative, globalization, and national competitiveness are likely to lead to the weakening of kominkan. The analysis shows that the national policy change has not produced uniform repercussions at a local level. The overhaul of social education system in Kawasaki for the past decade has taken the course of strengthening kominkan, laying increased emphasis on the principle of citizen participation and local autonomy. The continued stay in power of the progressive city administration since 1971 provides a backdrop for the development. The role of kominkan and social education has been limited in serving for the realization of participatory democracy and local autonomy. The experimental programs recently undertaken by kominkan in Kawasaki, however, exemplify the possibilities and directions to invigorate the social education of kominkan: increased attention to the socially disadvantaged who have been forgotten in the social education and strengthened ties with community. The continued commitment of officials will be a key to the vitality of kominkan and social education

The Social Function of Neighborhood Organization in Japan: Old-Fashioned Chonaikai and New-Fashioned Jichikai

There have been arguements on the nature and prospect of the postwar chonaikai/jichikai, a virtrally ubiquitous neighborhood organization in Japan. The central issue is whether the organization is a modern and voluntary citizens" organization for grassroots democracy and autonomy, a non-voluntary and conventional institution subsidiary to the administration, or a spontaneous organization as an expression of the "cultrual pattern" peculiar to Japan, With a view to substantiating the arguements, I investigate three areas in the southern part of Kawasaki City and a rather new residential complex along the coast of Kamakura City. The analysis focuses on the socioeconomic composition and stability of population, structure and leadership of the organization, substance of activities, and annual revenue and expenditure. The chonaikai/jichikai activities vary substantially across areas. Among the critical variables for the acitivation of the neighborhood organization are the stability of population and organization leadership. The combination of these two variables classifies the neighborhood organizaions into four types: administration-dependent, autor omy-oriented, mixed, and reviving one. The more homogeneous and stabler in population and the more volunteers and younger in leadership, the more activated is the neighborhooe. organization. Despite the variation, however, the most fundamental activities of neighborhood associations involve the supplementation of administrative service. The multifunctionality and historical tenacity of neighborhood organizations is rather attributed to the administrative need. The neighborhood organization has adapted itself to the changing circumstances, and the recent effort for revitalization by tempering it with the voluntary association-like activities is a part of the adaptive process. As long as the lowest level of formal administrative organization continues to cover a relatively large size of area and population and unless the administration is determined to institute a radically new mechanism intermediating between the administration and individual residents, the neighborhood organization will survive, at the least, as an organization supplementing the administrative function