When China’s NPOs were just emerging，Japan’s NPOs were far ahead in their development. In terms of the reasons，besides Japan’s implementation of an NPO Law in 1998，Japan also rolled out a set of complementary policies at the federal and local levels. Accordingly，this article treats Japan’s NPO system as a policy system. Employing both quantitative analysis of the NPO policies of cabinet offices and local autonomous administrative entities as well as inductive reasoning，the article discusses the policy system’s guiding principles and content，the impacts of the central and regional governments，and the future direction of the system. The study finds that Japan has already generally established a guiding principle for NPOpolicy-a “new publicism”（“新公共性”）and that cabinet offices have implemented NPO programs entitled “‘New Publicism’ Advancement Meetings” and “New Publicism Assistance Work”. Problems such as policy consistency from administration to administration，policy coordination between central and local governments，and policies morphing into “official projects” may still persist. Yet，because it has a strong guiding concept，is laid on strong social foundations and galvanizes citizens’ powers，“new publicism” has been notable for how smoothly its implementation has proceeded. Autonomous local bodies have passed “assisting regulations”，“assisting guides”，“assisting measures”，“fund systems and joint work plans”，“information network centers” and other measures in order to ensure a high rate of implementation of NPO policies. Though problems with orchestrating central and local policy and squabbles over powers between the lower levels of government may sometimes result in “joint action failures” or “joint action maneuvering”，the establishment of “division of powers” in society and formation of competition between localities will increase the degree of implementation of an NPO policy carried forward by the vehicle of “joint action”. Based on Japan’s experiences，China should endeavor to establish a guiding concept for its NPO policies consistent with the needs of China’s situation. In addition，a very high priority should be placed on NPO-building within the greater project of society building. At the central government level，China should hasten to reform and improve basic laws concerning NPOs. In addition，local levels of government should be actively encouraged to play a role in creating innovations in the area of NPO policy.