Volunteering is a recent and highly visible phenomenon in Japan, adopted as a meaningful social activity by millions of Japanese and covered widely in the Japanese media. This book, based on extensive original research, tells the stories of community volunteers who make social change through their everyday acts. It discusses their experiences in children's activities, the parent-teachers association, juvenile delinquency prevention campaigns, and care of the elderly. It explores their conflicts and their motivations, and argues that personal decisions to volunteer and acts of volunteering, besides being personal choices, are productive of larger discussions of the needs and directions of Japanese society.

Contents:
Introduction Part I: The Volunteers 1. The Life and Death of a Volunteer 2. Life Choices 3. Civic Leaders Part II: The Programs 4. Cultivating Children 5. Preventing Juvenile Delinquency 6. Helping Others Conclusion