The failure of civil society? : the third sector and the state in contemporary Japan /

Ogawa (Stockholm Univ.) writes an interesting, provocative examination of the development of civil society in contemporary Japan. The book focuses on the growth of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in Japan as a direct result of the 1998 NPO Law. Ogawa sees the rapid growth of NPOs (30,000-plus as of March 2007) as a clear sign of the growth and institutionalization of civil society in Japan. He thoroughly grounds his research in the civil society literature while noting its "ethnocentric Western intellectual origins." Ogawa uses the case study method by way of "action oriented" ethnographic research. It is here that many readers may question his methods, as Ogawa's field research placed him as an active participant in the NPO that he was studying, rather than as a neutral observer. Readers will have to judge for themselves the academic and scientific merits of this choice; however, it does provide a very good insight into the merits of the growing use of ethnographic research. This book will be of interest to students on non-Western civil society, scholars of contemporary Japan and of social entrepreneurship, and research methodologists. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. K. J. Cooney Northwest University