This paper aims to survey the performance of social enterprises and examine how they solve various social problems.　Social enterprises can be regarded as a new model of modern nonprofit organizations.　They work to challenge and solve the various social problems we face today, such as environmental and well-being issues, inequality of educational opportunities, and disparity in income distribution.
　　Although prompt action must be taken to overcome these problems, government by itself cannot resolve the problemsm satisfactorily, so social enterprises have recently stepped in and are changing the boundaries.　From the viewpoint of sustainability, these enterprises need to profit through their own business to accomplish their various targets.　They also need to receive contributions or investments to continue their activities.　Many start-up social enterprises struggle to obtain resources, such as manpower, contributions and grants.　Success stories in social enterprises impact various fields.　Through struggles and tough experiences, some enterprises obtain business know-how so they can support other members.　This movement suggests that the citizens support social enterprises like incubators.
　　Ministry of International Trade and Industry （MITI） reported about 27 cases in the recovery process from the Tohoku Earthquake in the Social Business Case Book.　We examined these cases and show how social oriented corporations and business oriented non-profit organizations deal with the various tasks.　Short-term problems, such as basic services for daily life, were addressed by seven non-profit organizations and three for-profit organizations as their mission.　Medium-term or long-term problems, such as business chances, were dealt with by for-profit organizations.
JEL Classifications: D63, H44, M14