In Kanto area at the end of Edo period, two splendid farmer leaders appeared.They are Yugaku Ohara (1797-1858) and Sontoku Ninomiya (1787-1856). Two people challenged the reconstruction of rural areas that were devastated by the Great Famine of Tenpo years and Tenmei years. Yugaku established the mutual organization (“senzokabukumiai” (association of ancestors shares)), for the purpose of survival of the families, at Nagabe village (now Nagabe, Asahi-city, Chiba prefecture) Association’s management methods are as follows; ①Each association member contributes farmland equivalent to 5 gold cars, and all members share them and reserve the profit obtained from them, ② Until the reserve per family becomes equal to or more than 100 … Continue reading →

Meiji government after the Meiji Restoration aimed for “encouragement of new industry”, and tried the promotion of agriculture, main industry at that time. Mr. Tohru Shimizu, general manager of Basic Research Division of Norinchukin Research Institue Co.,Ltd, points out that Meiji government ordered the European literature, invited European scholars, and at last found out about existence of mechanism of European cooperatives. Tosuke Hirata (1849-1925) studied in Germany after he joined the Tomomi Iwakura delegation. He met Yajiro Shinagawa (1843-1900), Interior minister after, who had been stationed in the local. After returning home, Hirata became bureaucracy, and drafted “credit cooperatives bill” in order to protect small and medium-sized producers from loan … Continue reading →

Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960) was the person of “anyway, action”. At the age of 21, while studying as a Christian God student, he moved into the slums of Kobe city. While leading the labor movement in the Kansai region, he established consumption cooperatives in Osaka city and Kobe city. At first he started “movement of poverty relief”, and gradually he transfered the emphasis on “movement of poverty prevention”. When the Great Kanto Earthquake occured, he rushed to the site and provided soup kitchen for the next day. After the earthquake, he transferred his activities to Tokyo, and established consumption cooperatives and credit cooperatives in downtown and also fonded University Co-op. He … Continue reading →

When considering the headwaters of the cooperative, it is difficult　to compare Japan and Europe, especially Japan and UK. Because the era background is totally different. The Industrial Revolution, which began in around 1760 in UK, has promoted economic and social change. As a result, any farmers or any urban workers had to “work and live” as “wage workers”. Progress of the industrial revolution began to cause the wage problems and unemployment problem.Therefore workers established cooperatives to ensure the daily necessities such as groceries, and began the activities to protect their own life spontaneously. However, these cooperatives for “life-defense” could not produce network since they were spontaneous, ended in “isolated experiments”. … Continue reading →