ABSTRACT
Studies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) tend to draw attention to issues of globalization, which relates to the transnational status of corporations, the standardization of professional CSR discourse, and the perceived increase of the global impact of operations. At the same time, however, CSR can be examined from the angle of local community, as a developing socio-structure with its own unique set of representatives who bring forward initiatives in connection with companies operating in the region. Stakeholders representing local community have a choice of which company to cooperate with. It is likely in the near future we will begin to see growing competition between companies for the right to work with local stakeholders as partners. Such a trend is evident in the Japanese context, and is particularly pertinent following the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011, which devastated the lives of whole communities up and down the coastline of the Tōhoku region and led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which raised both local and international alarm.
