Hiroshima, August 1945
Nihon Hidankyo. a Japanese nonprofit organization has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The organization has been around since shortly after World War II ended, proving the inevitable resilience of Civil Society even after the most unimaginable catastrophe. But Japan's nonprofit organization law (NPO), which authorizes tax exemption and deductions for donations to specified nonprofit corporations, has been in existence only since 1998:
The word “NPO” entered into the Japanese lexicon with the establishment of the “NPO Law” in 1998 (its official name is Law to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities). This law established, Specified Nonprofit Corporations as a new legal entity, making it easier to set up an incorporated nonprofit and helping to popularize the term “NPO” to the Japanese public. As of 2015, the number of “NPOs” has reached more than 50,000, with 20 different activity types. Although Specified Nonprofit Corporations are often equated with “NPOs”, there are numerous legal entities (corporate types) that constitute the nonprofit sector in Japan.
From the Norwegian Nobel Committee, October 11, 2024
Nobel Peace Prize for 2024
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation
Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.
In response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, a global movement arose whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as “the nuclear taboo”. The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger context.
These historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons. The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.
Next year will mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120 000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A comparable number died of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed. Today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power. They can kill millions and would impact the climate catastrophically. A nuclear war could destroy our civilisation.
The fates of those who survived the infernos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were long concealed and neglected. In 1956, local Hibakusha associations along with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations. This name was shortened in Japanese to Nihon Hidankyo. It would become the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation in Japan.
Top 20 Charity Categories of Specified Nonprofit Corporations
darryll k. jones
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2024/10/japanese-ngo-awarded-nobel-prize-for-peace.html