Exploring the meaning of philanthropy and its relevance to Japan
Building on his work with colleagues at Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan, earlier this year, Professor Tobias Jung, Director of the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good, has been working with the Japan NPO Centre (JNPOC) on a new blog series that outlines and critically examines the meaning and nature of philanthropy, and discusses philanthropy’s relevance for, and applicability to, Japan. The first contribution, published today with the title “To unlock philanthropy’s potential for Japan, we need to understand its meaning” outlines a set of seven criteria that a theory of philanthropy needs to address, and proposes an alternative casting to the way philanthropy has prominently been perceived historically.
Commenting on the new series, Professor Jung said:
“I am really delighted about this collaboration with JNPOC. During my time as Visiting Professor at Kwansei Gakuin University earlier this year, a key question that kept on coming up was the meaning of the term philanthropy. While the term was introduced to Japan around the 1980s and 1990s, it comes across as lacking clarity and ambiguous. This is definitional confusion is actually a wider challenge in the philanthropy research field. The new JNPOC blog series gives us the opportunity to revisit and reconsider the meaning of philanthropy, philanthropy’s relationship to other, related, ideas, such as charity, look at good and bad practices associated with philanthropy that have developed over the years, and collectively consider whether and how philanthropy might contribute to addressing pressing contemporary social and economic challenges in Japan.”
The Japanese version of this blog is available at https://npocross.net/3129/, while the English translation can be accessed at https://www.jnpoc.ne.jp/en/insights/to-unlock-philanthropys-potential-for-japan/
The photo shows Professor Jung with Professor Ishihara and members of his laboratory at a workshop exploring the meaning of philanthropy at Kwansei Gakuin University, Hyogo, Japan, Spring 2024