Abstract
In a study aimed at shedding new light on the relationship between accountability and ethical climate in the nonprofit sector, a survey was carried out on executive directors in two groups of social services nonprofits in the UK and Japan. A close relationship was found between the way in which they perceived statutory accountability demands and their ability to identify downward accountability mechanisms and ethical climate in relation to ‘independence’ and ‘law and codes’. These findings provide a preliminary insight into the differences in the relationship between nonprofit organizations and government in the two countries.