When Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka had bitter confrontations with senior bureaucrats of the ministry, the term "administrative officials" was suddenly highlighted. She hinted that administrative officials (bureaucrats) should simply follow her instructions whenever she used that term.

In fact, bureaucrats in Japan have been strongly influential in the government by managing daily business continuously with professional knowledge. It, however, is the democratic society that Diet members, who are entrusted by the people with sovereign power through general elections, actualize initiative policymaking and then carry out these policies. During her bitter confrontation with bureaucrats, supposedly she dared to use "administrative officials" to hint that they should "merely take care of clerical works" and their bureaucratic performance should be controlled by politicians.

The expression "merely clerical work" is often used to refer to: making documents, filing, accounting, copying, sorting, mailing, answering to inquiries, and so on. In general, clerical work covers the whole of these operations and gives an impression of being dull and uncreative.

However, the other day I came across a remark suggesting the indispensability of "clerical work"; in that "It is clerical work that puts movements forward". This quote comes from Ms. Fusae Ichikawa, who played a pivotal role in helping women to obtain women's suffrage and engaged in various civic movements in Japan. Her remark is expressed in plain language but hits on the essential quality of clerical work as well as the nature of civil movements.

When we think about a "movement", we are inclined to turn our attention to noticeable actions such as street actions, demonstration parades, rallies, and speeches. But without steady and modest "clerical work", any movement could not be actualized.

For instance, the minutes of proceedings of meetings make it possible to share the opinions and discussions even with absentees and readers and to help all parties concerned keep up to date with next steps. Unless an application for a subsidy or a grant is written in plain and appropriate sentences, its proposal would not be chosen even though the contents are outstanding. Clerical work is the fundamental support of movements and civil activities.

It is difficult to share or divide clerical work with all members who participate in civil activities, in that a variety of people get involved based on their individual styles. Consequently, in many cases a working team called "Secretariat" takes care of the organization's clerical work.

When an organization is successful in setting up a solid secretariat, clerical work can be executed smoothly. Professionalization will be easily hastened with full-time staff, and activities will be strengthened. On the other hand, such an organization might encounter an undesirable situation, if the secretariat takes the leadership in proceedings activities. As a result of this misguided leadership, civil members and volunteers could be demoralized accordingly.

To avoid such a situation, secretariat staff should design their organizations so that anyone may participate in the activities and operational work as a volunteer. In this way, citizens are entrusted . It is also necessary that staff at the secretariat play roles as facilitators. One of their expected roles is to convey and share all the information brought to the secretariat with volunteers.

I believe it is the secretariats of civil movements that must take pride in their daily clerical work. It is these secretariats who play an essential role as facilitators to draw forth the potentiality of volunteers and to develop their efforts.

1. Trends in Volunteer Activities in Japan

Participation on the increase since 1990

People have always been involved in voluntary social activities, regardless of the country or the era. Throughout Japan's long history as well, there have been many prominent individuals active in the field of social activities. Particularly over the past ten years or so, however, more and more ordinary citizens are becoming involved in such social participation activities as a regular part of their day-to-day lives.

Fig. 1 shows the results of a "Public Opinion Poll Regarding Social Awareness," conducted by the Prime Minister's Office Public Opinion Research Bureau. In polls taken since 1991, some 60% of Japanese citizens have a desire to do something useful for society. (This question was not included in polls taken in 1994, the year of the Kobe Earthquake.)

The fact remains, however, that the ratio of individuals actually participating in social activities is around 27% (1996 Basic Survey of Social Lifestyles; approx. 33 million persons), or around half that of England and the United States, where the ratio of participation is over 50%. In other words, there is a gap between the desire to participate in such activities and actual participation. The question of how to close this gap has become one of the key issues in terms of Volunteer Management.

Among the active 27% mentioned above, many people - particularly those involved in activities on a continuing or organized basis - are registered with Volunteer Centers. Nearly all municipalities in Japan have a Council of Social Welfare, and around 90% of these operate volunteer centers. (Aside from these Councils of Social Welfare, there are also independently operated volunteer centers.)

Fig. 2 shows the movement in the number of volunteers registered with volunteer centers run by Councils of Social Welfare. Many of the volunteers registered with volunteer centers run by Councils of Social Welfare are active in the field of social welfare, and although in many cases this does not include volunteers active in fields such as international cooperation and environmental protection, it is safe to say that this increase in the number of registered volunteers is indicative of the fact that continuous, organized volunteer activities and civic activities in Japan are gradually increasing in vigor.