ABSTRACT
This potential is predicated on the fact that the minsei-iin, and even more so the roojinkai, are not totally dependent on the city officials for guidance, financial help or job evaluation. Moreover, in ways no different from the case of voluntary welfare groups in other post-industrial societies, the welfare workers and members of the old-folks clubs are not ultimately accountable to government representatives (Townsend, 1983:182). For if the accountability of the local authority worker is primarily to his employer for public money spent, for the volunteer it is ultimately to no one but the people he works with and his or her own conscience.
