Page 173 - The Drucker Lectures

154 [ The Drucker Lectures

What we are going to build in the next 30 or 40 years is the third
sector—the “social sector.” Government will be in it; govern-
ment has a part to play. And business will be very heavily in it.
This is perhaps more so in Japan than any other country simply
because your businesses are so much more organized. With the
big keiretsu [networks of companies forged through historical as-
sociation and cross-ownership], with the main banks, and with
organized industry groups, business can act. So I think, yes, in
Japan the social sector will depend very heavily on business—not
just on business money but on business leadership, on business
participation.
The signs are there. When I look at Japan, there is nothing in
the world that can compare to the Keidanren [the Federation of
Economic Organizations]. Not just in power, but in responsibil-
ity. Sure, it represents an interest group, big business mostly, but
it represents big business in society. There is nothing like that
in any other country. So, you already have a very strong social
nonprofit sector. You are not aware of it, perhaps.
This is going to be—and I think one can confidently predict
it—the growth area of a modern developed society. It is going
to be incredibly diverse, because the needs are so diverse, be-
cause society today is so diverse. There is the need to maintain a
neighborhood and to keep the environment from being polluted,
and the need to do something about learning-disabled children.
And then you have rehabilitation needs; there are so many old
people who survive way beyond any earlier time span but need
help. Maybe they have had a knee replaced, and they need some-
body to work with them on learning to walk again. Or maybe
they have had a stroke, and they need to work with somebody to
learn to speak again. These are volunteer needs. Sure you must
have a professional to lead and supervise, but the work is very
largely by people who say, “This is my neighbor; these are the
people in my community.”