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Abstract:
This article proposes an integrated approach to law reform for the civil society sector in China by looking at four different issues:

1. Making the existing regulations for social organizations (shehui tuanti, SOs), nonprofit non-commercial entities (minban fei qiye danwe, NCEs), and foundations (jijin hui) more user-friendly, including making it possible for de facto networks that provide and coordinate disaster relief to be recognized, perhaps as semi-legal entities for a short period of time. The liberalization of the SO regulations should permit mutual benefit organizations to be established in order to fully implement the freedom of association guaranteed by Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution.

2. Making public fund-raising easier for small and medium-sized CSOs.

3. Passing the Charity (cishan) Law to coordinate the development of the law governing public benefit organizations and begin the process of privatizing charity in China. This should eventually lead to establishing a public benefit commission comparable to the public benefit commission in Japan, which is patterned after the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

4. Relaxing the controls on volunteering. While the current municipal rules may work well with regard to a planned event such as the Olympics, they impede the development of volunteer networks at times of national disasters.

Abstract:
Against a short backdrop of the current regulation of civil society organizations in China and the dual management system, this paper discusses several recent developments in the regulatory structure. While dual management is still the system, experiments are being made to create more space for civil society.

Abstract:
During the last decade of the 20th Century and the first decade of the 21st, the legal and fiscal enabling environment for civil society in Japan moved from a 19th Century paradigm that inhibited its growth to a more modern model. The new model recognizes the importance of civil society for domestic economic growth, for addressing modern social issues, and for working with the government to meet societal needs as the demography of Japan ages and changes. This article draws on the experience of the first wave of reform in the area (the creation of a new legal form called the Specified Nonprofit Corporation or SNPC), but it concentrates on the more recent reforms that have revised a century old Civil Code and made Japan an example of an excellent legal and fiscal environment for the not-for-profit sector.

Abstract:
This article provides first and overview of the historical development of the laws and regulations related to NPOs in China since 1988, when the first Regulation on Foundation was published. It then addresses the important problem of reforming China’s public institutions – known as shiye danwei in pinyin. Although some of these institutions are being spun off from government to form profit-making companies, many of them will be placed into NPO form, either as social organizations (SOs) or non-commercial institutions (minban fei qiye danwei or min fei). This presents a host of problems, because the existing SO and min fei regulations are not strong on issues of transparency and accountability. Accordingly, the article proposes remedies for the current situation that would enable important state-owned assets to be “privatized” into NPOs but also to be protected from possible fraud and misuse.