Providing Volunteer Opportunities in Japan

Summary

We make it easy for both foreigners and Japanese to volunteer to help the Tokyo community, no matter what language they speak. We have pretested projects and put the societal needs in context for all.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

Even with the growing societal concerns in Japan, structured volunteerism is very new to Japanese society. In addition, the nonprofit sector is very underdeveloped. There are no tax laws to encourage charitable giving, and not much encouragement is given to individuals who wish to volunteer. With all of these factors, there are true impediments to volunteering in Japan for both Japanese and foreign nationals. We aim to address these concerns by providing bilingual volunteer opportunities.

How will this project solve this problem?

We are doing our part to grow the "3rd" sector in Tokyo. While helping friends or family is a cultural norm here, assisting those you don't know is a more recent development. We're helping foreigners & Japanese serve the community better together.

Potential Long Term Impact

Hands On Tokyo(HOT) serves as a bilingual volunteer organization connecting 800 volunteers to worthy projects within the Tokyo community. HOT will assist approximately 500 seniors, children and adults in participating more fully in society.

Project Message

HOT is not only able to connect volunteers with NPOs, but also to provide traditionally understaffed NPOs with additional resources to plan and implement volunteer programs.
- Dawson (Steven) Lin, Former President and CEO Asia, CAPMARK

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources