Neighborhood community associations, long taken for granted by residents for their ability to sort out problems their communities face, are in crisis.

These entities traditionally serve as the backbone of any residential area in Japan as they work to, among other things, improve neighborhood safety, keep an eye on residents in need of help and prepare for natural disasters.

But residents are increasingly withdrawing from such voluntary responsibilities, often citing their advanced age. In many instances, few are willing to serve as board members.

As a result, some organizations have been forced to disband or merge with others.

In 2018, Japan had roughly 300,000 neighborhood community associations, mostly voluntary organizations, according to an internal affairs ministry survey.

The average sign-up rate was about 71.7 percent for 600 municipalities surveyed in fiscal 2020, down from 78 percent in fiscal 2010.

A survey by the Cabinet Office from 2016 to 2017 noted that a lack of board members and others in positions of responsibility was cited as a challenge for such organizations by 86.1 percent of respondents, followed by the aging of board members at 82 percent.

Tatsumi Danchi, a metropolitan government-run apartment complex of around 3,300 households in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, offers a stark illustration of the growing crisis facing areas across Japan.

“Our neighborhood community association is at breaking point,” said Akira Takahashi, who served on its board as a clerical officer for three years. “We have managed to keep it going, but it will disappear in about 10 years’ time.”

Many of the board members are in their 70s and 80s. Invariably, the same people continue to serve on the board because no one volunteers to succeed them.

Some residents even opted out of the organization because they did not want to take on such responsibilities, Takahashi said.

The membership fell from about 2,800 in 2011 to around 1,800 in 2022 due to the aging of residents and other factors.

Although young people are living in the complex, they are generally said to have little interest in community activities.

Yukinori Takahashi, who heads Tatsumi Danchi’s neighborhood community association, said one difficulty is meeting the many requests from the ward government. Topics range from participation in traffic safety campaigns to recommendations of residents who serve as social welfare workers.

The number of “community-based organizations,” including neighborhood community associations, in Tokyo’s 23 wards and 26 cities fell to 8,787 in 2022, down 144 from 2016.

The western city of Chofu recorded the largest drop of 41 during the six-year period.

According to the city government, residents cited a lack of residents able to succeed as key members due to aging, a paucity of overall members and other factors that led to community-based organizations being disbanded.

In the city of Fukui, small neighborhood community associations, with 10 households or less, disbanded in succession over the past five years or so.

In fiscal 2022, city officials started discussions with neighborhood associations with five households or less, viewed as being at the greatest risk of survival, over possible mergers with nearby organizations. Two such associations merged into one.

Neighborhood community associations carry out a wide range of activities, such as assisting residents during a natural disaster and helping to keep their areas safe from crime, in cooperation with the city government.

City authorities fear such endeavors will no longer be possible if those organizations disappear, a representative said.

Kazushi Tamano, a professor of regional and community studies at Tokyo Metropolitan University, noted that neighborhood community associations are designed to familiarize residents by staging community events and encourage them to work together on local problems and in times of disaster.

“But the system of relying on neighborhood community associations for everything has been pushed to the limit,” Tamano said. “The burden of their operations needs to be reduced through discussions with administrative organizations.”

(This article was written by Takaya Katada and Kenichiro Shino.)