Social enterprise (SE) is when nonprofit organizations engage in market activity, and "profits" are used by the organizations to meet their social missions. The development of SE is a global phenomenon, especially among the "most developed nations." Internationally, its growth has been prompted by declining government support for social programs, a blurring of distinctions between the for-profit, nonprofit, and government sectors, and the increased influence of business paradigms on non-business sectors. Formal SE activity is most prominent in the U.S. and the U.K., and is at a more nascent stage of development in Japan. This research proposes to 1) document the development of SE in nonprofit social services in Japan through case-studies, 2) look for similarities and differences in Japanese SE as compared to the U.S., 3) begin to develop testable hypotheses about the development and growth of SE in Japan through grounded theory 4) disseminate the findings through publications.