Nonprofit Education in Japan: Trace of Expansion and New Directions

Abstract

In response to the rapid growth of the nonprofit sector, universities in Japan have increasingly recognized nonprofits as an important arena to include in their curricula. This paper reports on the current status of nonprofit education in Japan through analyses of three data sets: institutions, courses and faculty. The paper finds that over 25% of universities in Japan today offer at least one nonprofit course. Economics, management, and global/international studies are the top three departments or majors in which these courses are offered. We identified 411 courses taught by 328 faculty. Over half of these courses provide an overview of the nonprofit sector in comparison to the public and private sectors. We also find that while academics comprise more than half of the faculty, a good number of practitioners and pracademics are also engaged in teaching nonprofit courses.