Looming wall of law Owing to efforts of Yajiro Shinagawa (1843-1900, later the Interior Minister) and Tosuke Hirata (1849-1929, later the president of sangyokumiaichuokai (general association of cooperatives)), who had met in Germany studying abroad, sangyokumiai (cooperatives) law was enacted in 1900. In the year, it has also been enacted the Insurance Business Law. Keijiro Okano (1865-1925, Doctor of Laws, later cabinet legislation bureau director), who was a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, played central role in drafting both of laws. Insurance Business Law allowed only company organization (stock company, mutual company) to operate insurance business. The cooperatives organizations had not been allowed insurance business. On the … Continue reading →

Leaders of sangyokumiai (cooperatives) interested in insuranceIn Germany, Raiffeisen (1818-1888), whose cooperatives model was adopted by Japanese sangyokumiai (cooperatives), envisioned the cooperatives insurance in 1872. He tried to carry out it in the rural credit cooperatives, but the German government refused it. Then he withdrew it and later carried out it based on modified plan. In Japan, executives of sangyokumiai (cooperatives) also seemed to have been interested in insurance from early times. Yoshio Udo (1876-1937), who became vice president of sangyokumiaichuokai (general association of cooperatives) later, published a paper titled “Insurance business and Cooperatives” in the magazine “sangyokumiai, No. 14” issued in December 1906. He also cited the name of … Continue reading →

Medical cooperatives aiming for rescuing farmers “I have a consultation. Please come. Kagawa.” Taiichi Kurokawa(1908-1985), later managing director of National Mutual Insurance Federation of Nogyokyodokumiai (agricultural cooperatives), received this telegram on 9 January 1931. “Kagawa” written in the telegram was Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960), indispensable person for talking about cooperatives movement and cooperatives insurance business in Japan. The next day Kurokawa rushed to Kagawa, who lived in Tokyo for the rescue in the Great Kanto Earthquake. Yoshimichi Kodachi (1899 – 1979), who had worked on Kobe consumption cooperatives (current Consumers Co-operative Kobe) under the Kagawa, also visited Kagawa. Kagawa said, “I decided to establish medical cooperatives. Do it together with Kodachi.” … Continue reading →

 Preparing establishment of the National Health Insurance Association When Toyohiko Kagawa established Tokyo medical utilization cooperatives, he had habit of saying, “Medical cooperatives movement is preparation exercise for making the National Health Insurance (NHI) Association.” At that time, Ministry of Interior was studying the legislation of the National Health Insurance. At last, in July 1934, “National Health Insurance Bill (draft)” was announced. Kagawa had already published a paper entitled “National Health insurance and medical insurance” in magazine “Medical cooperatives movement” November 1932 issue. In it he claimed, “In order to extinct the poverty of our country and remove the life anxiety, implementing the health insurance for the public masses is … Continue reading →

Toyohiko Kagawa serialized in “Ienohikari (Light of home)” His novel complained cooperatives insurance by credit cooperatives Toyohiko Kagawa wrote a society faction novel in which he themed the cooperatives. It was “The Land of Milk and Honey” that Kagawa serialized in Monthly magazine “Ienohikari (Light of home)” for two years since January 1934. This became a big reputation so that publication number of copies of the magazine reached 1 million copies. The stage of the novel was poor village of Aizu area of Fukushima prefecture. Facing rural lives difficult due to cold weather damage, main character, Tosuke Tanaka, went out to the capital. Soon he took pneumonia and entered to … Continue reading →