2-(1) About the NPO Corporate System and NPO Law

"NPO (Non-Profit Organization)" is a collective term for organizations that engage in various social contribution activities and do not aim to distribute profits to members of the organization.
Therefore, although it is permitted to conduct a business aimed at profits, the profits obtained from the business will be used for various social contribution activities.

There are many NPOs that do not have a legal personality. However, if you do not have a legal personality, inconvenience may occur, such as not being able to open a bank account or rent an office under the name of an organization.
The non-profit organization system is a system that allows NPOs to acquire a legal status through simple procedures with the aim of eliminating such inconveniences and promoting NPO activities. A corporation that has acquired a legal status (*) based on the NPO Law (Non-Profit Promotion Act).

※Corporate status: Those that can be the subject of rights and obligations other than individuals

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred in January 1995, and citizen volunteer activities demonstrated great power in this disaster. In addition, at that time, efforts to address local issues such as welfare and community development by civic groups were also expanding.
As an environment improvement to activate the voluntary and voluntary activities of citizens, a corporate system that can easily obtain a corporate status is required, and it was enacted by the legislative legislation in March 1998.

A major feature is that it respects free corporate management and the involvement of the competent authority is minimized as much as possible based on the premise of citizens' selection and monitoring through information disclosure.
The competent authority may exercise the minimum necessary supervisory authority only if there is a reasonable reason that is suspected of violating the law or the Articles of Incorporation.

Under the NPO Law, the room for discretion of the competent authority is extremely limited in determining the requirements for establishment, and the competent authority must certify when the application of the organization conforms to the requirements stipulated in Article 12 of the NPO Law. It has been with. In addition, it is a rule that the confirmation method should be performed by a “written examination” instead of a fact-finding examination.
For this reason, the certification of the competent authority does not guarantee the reliability of the organization. Based on the publicly available information, it is required that each citizen makes a decision.

The NPO Law respects free corporate management and is a system that assumes the selection and monitoring of citizens through information disclosure, so an information disclosure system that is unprecedented in other corporate systems has been developed. I am.
Specifically,

• Publication and inspection system by the competent authority at the time of application for certification (Article 10 of the Act)
• A system for viewing business reports, etc. at non-profit organization offices for interested parties (Article 28 of the Act)
• A system for viewing business reports, etc. by the competent authority for general public (Article 30 of the Act)

Three of them are specified.