Volunteering

Before taking this class and especially before reading the required material the volunteer group assigned me, I had never given much thought to what the term volunteering actually implied. I have always associated volunteer working with going abroad, helping the less fortunate - but I realize now that the term is much broader than that.

As the assignment text also states, there is a line between volunteering and other sorts of work that one participates in without the idea of pay. I would perhaps draw this line and call volunteer work all work that is done on ones own volition (of course) and does not involve pay or other physical rewards. As I stated in the beginning, I used to consider volunteer working as work done towards people and situations one is not necessarily directly connected with, and I still hold that belief to some degree. Especially in the West, where the need for local volunteering is limited, it can be seen as a tendency to travel abroad and do volunteer working in places that one previously had no affiliation with.

As is the case after the 3.11 earthquake though, you clearly see people volunteer working within their own country, and I do not think the term volunteering holds that much of a different meaning in Japan than other places in the world, but the way Japan in a big degree is a homogeneous society may increase the willingness to help out a bit. One difference one might point out though is the way it is almost seen as a requirement for Japanese people with the capacity to help, to go and do volunteer work. I am not sure, but I believe that this notion would not be that strong if a disaster of the same magnitude happened in Europe.