Octobers will never be the same again for Yuki Itoh and his friends.

Together they attended their first-ever Halloween party, held last weekend at the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club. The event, organized by volunteers from J.P. Morgan, was part of a series of activities held in Japan recently for the company's Global Day of Service.

It is the kind of corporate-sponsored community work that is bringing many tried and tested foreign ideas and activity models to a country where volunteerism has little viable infrastrucutre and corporate philanthropy remains virtually invisible.

Yuki and a dozen children from the Support Network of Chronically Sick Children, all under long-term hospital care, and many of them of them confined with severe disabilities to wheelchairs, were in no time willing initiates, clearly enthralled by the kaleidoscope of Jack-O-Lanterns and witches dancing around them.

Community work is broadly mandated by corporations around the world and is playing an increasingly important part in a company's public profile. Though Japanese companies are quick to point out the dearth of tax incentives available to them compared to their global counterparts, it's clear that great synergies can be created with a little organized good will.

In the last two weeks alone, for example, JP Morgan has staged a broad range of projects, including an English conversation class for a cafe staffed by developmentally impaired adults, forest conservation, and the taking of service dogs in training to a facility for handicapped residents.

Every effort, no matter how small, helps to integrate the beneficiaries with the outside world, while raising public awareness and fundraising opportunities for their support groups.

Not to mention fun and a treat bag full of memories for the volunteers. Yoshimi Funaki brought along three friends to the party. "The best part," she enthused through the mouth opening in her woolly sheep costume, "was the oneness I felt with everyone. I'd definitely do it again."

As the children and their families finished the last of their goblin-frosted cakes, it was off to join another gathering of over 100 mostly European children for a costume parade organized by volunteer parents of the YCAC.

Meanwhile, 11-year-old Mio Tanawaki was busy making conversation using English phrases she had been practicing for the occasion. Her eyes lit up when her helper suggested she would make an excellent interpreter and cultural ambassador.

The fairy dust has hardly settled, and team leader Sawako Hidaka is already thinking about how she might be able to help make it happen.