Less vocal and publicity-seeking than their Western counterparts, Japanese environmental NGOs have nonetheless achieved a substantial presence in China, reports Robert Efird

Japan and China have been described as “neighbors separated by a mere strip of water,” an expression that emphasizes both the physical proximity of the two nations as well as their extensive and longstanding cultural affinities. These historical and cultural connections help to explain why more Japanese NGOs are engaged in exchange with China than with any other country, while the shared geography is one reason why so much Japanese NGO activity in China is focused on the environment. Yet the activities of Japanese environmental organizations in China remain largely unknown to both non-Japanese NGOs and the Chinese public. This is unfortunate, for though often small in scale and constrained by uncertain funding and scarce institutional support, a number of these NGOs have nevertheless established strong, successful relationships with Chinese counterparts and made significant contributions to Chinese social welfare and environmental protection.

Numerous but invisible

According to the most recent National Directory of NGOs and NPOs Engaged in International Exchange (2002) complied by Japan’s Society for the Promotion of Japanese Diplomacy (Nihon Gaikō Kyōkai), nearly a thousand Japanese NGOs and NPOs are involved in China-related activities, almost double the number engaged in the second largest focus of Japanese NGO activity (South Korea).

So why are Japanese NGOs so little known to the Chinese public? In the opinion of Shoji Onogi, director of the Japan-China Environment Service Center and one of the co-founders of the environmental NGO BEV-NET (Beijing Environmental Network), there are several reasons.

“First, Japanese NGOs are usually small in scale. This is related to Japan’s domestic laws: the policies that give preferential tax treatment to companies donating to NGOs are not as progressive as those in North American and European countries. Second, Japanese don’t generally like to engage in self-promotion . . . Third, many Japanese environmental NGOs don’t have permanent offices or staff in China, particularly staff engaged in public relations. Fourth, there is the language barrier. Fifth, in China Japanese environmental NGOs don’t engage in many activities aimed at exchange or mutual understanding.”

Some point out that Japanese NGOs do engage in aggressive self-promotion in Japan as a means of securing support, and their activities are hardly “invisible” to the local Chinese people in their project areas. But there is agreement that funding is a key issue. As Onogi points out, many Japanese environmental NGOs suffer from a lack of consistent institutional support and are heavily reliant upon donations and yearly grant applications. This weak funding base acts as a major impediment to Japanese NGO activities in China, and it also constrains the ability of Japanese NGOs to form partnerships with local Chinese NGOs.

Professor Wang Ming of Tsinghua University’s NGO Research Institute feels that money is indeed the main reason for the relative lack of Sino-Japanese NGO collaborations. Money is what bonds Chinese NGOs to large European and American NGOs, he says, and Japanese NGOs simply don’t have those resources to offer. Moreover, he notes, whereas European and American NGOs often dispatch personnel to establish a presence in China, hire Chinese staff and then work through them to find local collaborators, Japanese NGOs rarely place staff in China unless a project has already been agreed and started.

Nevertheless, Wang stresses, Japanese NGOs do have a lot to offer Chinese NGOs--in particular, important technical skills. “There are lots of projects being done out there, but without the proper technical skills they aren’t effective,” he observes. As a notable example of Japanese technical contributions, Professor Wang specifically cites Japanese NGO successes in afforestation.

Four case snapshots

According to Onogi, most of the Japanese environmental NGOs in China are engaged in afforestation activities. “The results of a recent survey by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) showed that there were nearly one hundred Japanese NGOs engaged in afforestation in China, with their area of activity focused on the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. In addition to tree planting, they are also involved in the creation of environmental education curricula, the exchange of information on the environment, the promotion of mutual understanding, and technical collaboration for environmental protection.”

In fact, many of these 93 groups listed by JICA are civic groups and (Sino-Japanese) friendship and exchange organizations that do not fit the conventional definition of “NGO,” much less “environmental NGO.” But the level of involvement is still remarkable. As well as tree planting in Inner Mongolia, designed to address desertification, Japanese NGOs have been active in planting trees to combat flooding, particularly in the Yangtze River watershed following the devastating floods of 1998.

As an example of successful Japanese environmental NGO engagement, both Onogi and Professor Wang cite the achievements of Green Earth Network, or GEN. GEN has received a great deal of attention due to its achievements, the length of its involvement in China and the lectures and writings of its founder, Kunio Takami, who has authored a popular Japanese book on their activities that is also available in Chinese translation.

GEN began its activities in Datong, Shanxi Province in 1992 and has had an office there since 1994. In addition to their tree planting and environmental education efforts, they have established a 20 hectare combined research center, nursery and demonstration garden and an 86 hectare botanical garden in the Datong area. Like a number of other Japanese tree planting organizations in China, GEN also conducts “tours” throughout the year that bring participants over from Japan for tree planting activities.

In a recent publication on Japanese NGOs in China that includes an extended discussion of GEN’s activities, Professor Akio Takahara writes that while GEN’s successes may be unique, their experiences illustrate two circumstances that are widely shared among Japanese NGOs in China: the importance of a good working relationship with the local Communist Party and/or government and the “institutional frailty” of NGO activities due to their heavy dependence upon external funding.

While the importance of stable funding and the cooperation of local officials are widely acknowledged, GEN’s founder Takami has noted a third key determinant of success that has received less attention, namely an accurate perception of the needs of local Chinese residents that are most directly affected by Japanese projects. As a means of assessing the attitudes of local residents, GEN conducted a large-scale survey of the needs, preferences and circumstances of local residents in 1999.

Another Japanese NGOs that has been unusually active in afforestation activities is the Chinese branch of OISCA International, a Japanese organization devoted to agricultural assistance in developing countries. OISCA’s projects in China began in 2000 and include afforestation work in both the Yangtze River basin and in Alashan, Inner Mongolia. In addition to these planting projects, OISCA established a center for agricultural technical cooperation at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University in 2002 and in 2006 opened the Alashan Desert Ecological Research and Training Center at their Inner Mongolian project site. As a major international NGO with a well-established reputation, OISCA has been very successful in applying for grant aid and receives substantial Japanese corporate donations. They recently added a Beijing office to their offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong and their China-based activities are likely to expand in the future.

In contrast to the activities and institutional structure of GEN and OISCA, the small Beijing-based BEV-NET (Beijing Environmental Volunteers Network) is an exclusively volunteer-supported organization with a core staff of less than twenty active members that was established by a group of Japanese environmentalists in 2000.

According to one of the current core members, Keiko Akiba, BEV-NET’s goal is to raise awareness of environmental problems in China and encourage environmentally responsible action in people’s everyday lives. The group’s activities include sponsorship of talks, study groups and a yearly forum on environmental issues, tours of local organic farms, eco-tours and afforestation activities in collaboration with other Japanese NGOs and clean-up campaigns. Akiba says that many of BEV-NET’s volunteers are Japanese overseas students who hear of the organization through word of mouth or announcements placed in Beijing’s four Japanese-language periodicals. By comparison with the large funding needs of organizations such as GEN and OISCA, the voluntary nature of the organization and the relatively small scale of their activities frees BEV-NET from heavy dependence on external sources of support. However, their lack of a stable institutional infrastructure (such as paid staff and office space) makes organizational continuity a constant challenge amidst fluctuating membership.

A final example of Japanese NGO activity in China is the group Mekong Watch, which is a Japanese NGO that conducts research and advocacy concerning the Mekong River basin’s development and the role and impact of Japanese development financing on local communities. Perhaps due to the multinational character of Mekong Watch’s mission and the abundance of international and Chinese NGOs in their Chinese project area (Yunnan Province), Mekong Watch’s activities in China are unusual in their frequent interaction and collaboration with non-Japanese NGOs.

Private and public funding

Although the example of BEV-NET demonstrates what can be accomplished without substantial funding, external support remains a key issue for most Japanese environmental NGOs. Excluding individual donations, sources of external support may be broadly grouped into two categories: private and governmental.

Private funding includes assistance from (primarily Japanese) corporations and foundations. A number of the large number of Japanese corporations with operations in China—including Hitachi, Mitsui and Matsushita/Panasonic—provide support to Japanese NGOs (and sometimes Chinese NGOs) engaged in environmental activities.

One private Japanese foundation that has been particularly active in grantmaking Japanese NGO activity in China has been the Aeon Environment Foundation, which has supported a number of afforestation and environmental education initiatives.

Although Mekong Watch has received funding from the Mott Foundation, most Japanese NGOs in China do not appear to be taking advantage of non-Japanese sources of private funding.

In addition to private sources of assistance there are also some public sources of funding for Japanese environmental NGOs, provided by the Japanese government. For more than a decade the Japanese government’s ODA to China has heavily emphasized financial and technical assistance for cooperative efforts in environmental protection. Examples of grant aid projects include the Sino-Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection (established in 1996) and the Sino-Japan Forestry Ecology Training Center Project (established in 2003) in Beijing, while over 30 billion yen in loan aid has gone to combat air pollution in three designated Environmental Model Cities: Guiyang, Chongqing and Dalian.

This Japanese state-level emphasis on environmental protection in China has also included the creation, in 2000, of the Sino-Japanese Greenification Exchange Fund (or “Obuchi Fund”) to support afforestation activities by Japanese NGOs. By all accounts, this fund has played a major role in stimulating and supporting Japanese NGO tree-planting projects in China.

Public funding for environmental projects is also given through the Japan Fund for Global Environment, which was established by the Japanese government to support NGO conservation activities in Japan and abroad. This fund is open to both Japanese and non-Japanese NGOs engaged in environmental projects in developing countries, and it has recently supported China-based projects in the areas of afforestation, water and air quality, environmental education and trilateral cooperation between China, Korea and Japan.

A third public funding source for Japanese NGOs is available through the Chinese office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an independent administrative agency of the Japanese government that coordinates assistance to developing countries. JICA’s Grass Roots Technical Cooperation Program began in 2000 and has since supported four environmental protection-focused projects by Japanese NGOs in China, including collaborative projects between Japanese NGOs and Chinese partners.

In 2004 JICA also established a Chinese NGO-JICA Japan Desk within its China headquarters in Beijing, in order to enhance collaboration and understanding between Chinese and Japanese NGOs, and to provide resources to Japanese NGOs working in China. As part of this new initiative, JICA has cooperated with the Chinese Association of NGOs (CANGO) to hold three annual forums for Sino-Japanese NGO exchange, collaboration and development. These forums have featured presentations from both Chinese and Japanese NGOs on their projects in China, including a large number of environmentally focused projects. However, the application process for JICA’s Grass Roots Technical Cooperation Program is dauntingly complex, and too few Japanese NGOs make use of JICA’s resources. The staff member in charge of the NGO-Japan Desk, Ms. Wang Li, says that while she gets many calls from Chinese NGOs seeking Japanese partners, she has yet to be contacted by a single Japanese NGO looking for a Chinese collaborator.

Conclusion: problems and potentials

Though it is clear that Japanese environmental NGOs have been slowly expanding their activities in China over the past decade, this growth continues to be hampered by a number of factors. Funding is of course a perennial concern, particularly for small-scale NGOs. But a further problem for Japanese NGOs in particular is their relative lack of contact and exchange with other NGOs in China, both international and domestic. If Japanese NGOs are invisible to the rest of the NGO community, it seems that often the opposite is also true. This mutual lack of awareness can prevent Japanese NGOs from taking advantage of opportunities for funding and collaboration, both with Chinese and non-Chinese partners. As one means of addressing this lack, the Sino-Japanese Forestry Ecology Research Center in Beijing is currently discussing plans for a major symposium to facilitate exchange between representatives of Chinese, Japanese and other international NGOs.

One potential resource for Japanese NGO growth in China is represented by the nearly 20,000 Japanese students studying at Chinese universities, the second largest group of overseas students by nationality. As BEV-NET’s example demonstrates, in the short term these students can be an excellent source of volunteers for Japanese NGOs in places like Beijing. In the long term, the consequent growth in Chinese-speaking Japanese should also facilitate greater Japanese involvement in China and enhanced exchange between Japanese and Chinese NGOs. For Chinese NGOs, the Japanese language skills of Japanese foreign students in China can be crucial to securing support from Japanese granting agencies, corporations and foundations.

Some have cited the history of conflicts between Japan and China as an obstacle to Japanese NGO involvement in China and Sino-Japanese collaboration. While these conflicts cannot and should not be denied, they are often overemphasized. There is ample evidence that Chinese and Japanese are willing and able to move beyond such frictions and collaborate in the pursuit of mutual benefit. Environmental protection is a prime area for such collaboration. After all, as Onogi observed, despite their differences China and Japan share a common enemy in environmental pollution. Cooperation in this area has the potential to not only benefit Japan and China’s shared environment, but also to nurture a sense of shared purpose and values.

Robert Efird, Ph. D., is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Seattle University

RESOURCES:
Aeon Environmental Foundation: http://www.aeon.info/ef/
Beijing Environmental Network (BEV-NET): http://www.geocities.jp/bevnetbj/index.html
Green Earth Network: homepage3.nifty.com/gentree
Japan-China Environmental Service Center: www.jcesc.com
Japan Fund for Global Environment: http://www.erca.go.jp/jfge/english/index.html
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) China Office: www.jica.go.jp/china/index.html
Mekong Watch: www.mekongwatch.org
OISCA (Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement) International: www.oisca.org
Takahara, Akio. “Japanese NGOs in China.” In Peng Er Lam, ed. Japan’s Relations with China. (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2006)
Sino-Japanese Forestry Ecology Research Center: www.cnjp-forestry.cn
Sino-Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection: www.sepa.gov.cn/japan