Can an inanimate concept be the subject of 通報する?


> 学校で市の保健所に通報しました。  
>  The school has notified the city health centre.

I'm assuming this で is the same as in 二人で, for example, and refers to the
school as a collection of people. So a more literal translation would be "as a
school, we have notified ...".

Would it make sense to just say 学校 **は** 市の保健所に通報しました, or is it weird to have
an inanimate object/concept doing the notifying?




学校が/は市の保健所に通報しました is possible and means mostly the same. As to why not just
say 学校が/は, I think there are at least two things. 1) As you mentioned,
学校/'school' is inanimate. It's not impossible to let an inanimate thing be the
subject of an action (like 通報する) , but there is a certain tendency to avoid
that. 2) 学校が/は will make it sound like an external observer is speaking, like
a journalist, not 'we'='school'. Again, I think this is merely a tendency,
though.

Here is a similar example from
<https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/midstudy.html>

> 温暖化対策の中期目標（2020年どれだけ削減するか）について **政府で** 検討をしています。

This is from a government website. If it was 政府が, it would sound _a bit_ more
like someone other than the government is reporting it.

I don't think this is in the same category as 二人で. If you compare AとBは二人で通報した
and AとBは学校で通報した, the latter can only be read as using 学校で as location. (In
other words, the subject-like interpretation becomes impossible.) I think in a
sense the 学校で in this question replaces a subject, but 二人で doesn't.




学校が/は市の保健所に通報しました is possible and means mostly the same. As to why not just
say 学校が/は, I think there are at least two things. 1) As you mentioned,
学校/'school' is inanimate. It's not impossible to let an inanimate thing be the
subject of an action (like 通報する) , but there is a certain tendency to avoid
that. 2) 学校が/は will make it sound like an external observer is speaking, like
a journalist, not 'we'='school'. Again, I think this is merely a tendency,
though.

Here is a similar example from
<https://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/midstudy.html>

> 温暖化対策の中期目標（2020年どれだけ削減するか）について **政府で** 検討をしています。

This is from a government website. If it was 政府が, it would sound _a bit_ more
like someone other than the government is reporting it.

I don't think this is in the same category as 二人で. If you compare AとBは二人で通報した
and AとBは学校で通報した, the latter can only be read as using 学校で as location. (In
other words, the subject-like interpretation becomes impossible.) I think in a
sense the 学校で in this question replaces a subject, but 二人で doesn't.

