The Council for Regulatory Reform has released its proposal on agricultural reform which calls for revisions of agricultural committees, agricultural cooperatives and agricultural production corporations. It is a monstrously unjust proposal which paves the way for private companies’ unrestricted entries into the agricultural sector and practically forces the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) group to split up. We cannot possibly accept the proposal which is uncomprehending and ignorant of the fact that the JA group is a private cooperative organization. The JA group is now in the heat of reforming itself. We must work together to fight back against moves to dissolve the group.
The proposal is an apparent effort to break up the JA group under the name of regulatory reform, and a political interference in an independent private organization. It is also an attack towards the cooperative sector as a whole. The government should never allow such a proposal to be reflected in its revised growth strategy to be announced in June.
The proposal on reforming the JA group includes abolishing the supervisory system by the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), turning the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations (JA Zen-Noh) into a corporation, transferring local JAs’ credit business to Norinchukin Bank, limiting non-farmer members’ use of JA services and revising the conditions for appointing members of JA’s board of directors.
It is questionable whether the council’s agricultural working group which compiled the proposal really understands the historical origin and the fundamental significance of cooperative organizations. Needless to say, the objective of the JA and other agricultural federations is to allow individual farmers, who are economically weak, to join hands under the umbrella of a cooperative to work on increasing their incomes and ensuring stable food supply for the people. The JA exists for its members and it is an autonomous organization which serves its members to the best of its ability. The JA is bound under the Agricultural Cooperative Law to offer user-oriented services, and that is why it differs clearly from corporations which are influenced by their shareholders.
If organizations such as the JA Zen-Noh and prefecture-level agricultural cooperative associations become private companies, they will not be able to engage in joint economic activities aimed at improving farmers’ incomes, and their price negotiating power for farm machinery and fertilizers will weaken. Individual farmers can stand up to hard-bargaining retail giants because they gather under a cooperative. If the cooperative organizations become private companies which pursue profits, will they be able to adjust the supply-demand balance across prefectural borders as they do now?
The council’s proposal to abolish the system of the JA-Zenchu supervising primary agricultural cooperatives is based on misunderstanding that the system is depriving local co-ops of originality. JA-Zenchu is stated by law as a supervisory institution for member cooperatives. The JA group is an organization which respects each cooperative’s activities to the maximum extent and encourages member cooperatives to share knowhow among them to enhance one another. The JA group is not a hierarchical structure. As JA-Zenchu President Akira Banzai told a press conference on Thursday, May 8, JA-Zenchu’s role is to work as a driving force for the JA group to demonstrate its ability as a whole. The council’s idea of transferring credit and mutual aid business from local co-ops is also completely irrational, as it ignores the competitive advantage of Japanese cooperatives’ business management which is regarded as a model for cooperatives around the world.
We hope the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will conduct constructive debates on agricultural reform, based on accurate understanding of the status quo. The JA group is currently working on a reform plan aimed at expanding farmers’ incomes. In order to fight back against unjust interference, it is indispensable to properly disclose information and make efforts to reform ourselves. Let us unite as a group to stand against the attack.
(May 15, 2014)