Bustling with resilience and enthusiasm, Yukiko Yamahashi sets the tone for one of the few Japanese NPOs (nonprofit organizations) that still retains any degree of independence from government control. This means, of course, that it is regarded as troublesome, and a price has been paid.
As Yamahashi — secretary general of the Small Kindness Movement Executive Office in central Tokyo — explains: "We lost a lot of membership as a result of negative press. But our movement is healthy and increasingly active abroad. SKM has its roots in a speech made by Dr. Seiji Kaya, president of Tokyo University in March 1963. "Talking to graduates, he said he wanted them all to bravely practice 'small kindnesses,' triggering an avalanche of goodwill that would result in kindness prevailing throughout Japan."
Kaya had worried that because his country was undergoing rapid postwar development, young people in the '60s were losing out on ideals and finding a purpose in life. Since their energy had to go somewhere, it poured into the student movement.