A Brief Chronicle of the Modern Japanese Consumer Cooperative Movement

The movement, which dates back 130 years ago, was born through learning from the Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale, a British cooperative, which developed in response to capitalistic-economic conditions and situations of workers since the industrial revolution. The Japanese cooperatives, however, developed later after the cooperatives in Britain and other European nations but could not fully expand to the extent that they could influence the society before the end of the Asia-Pacific War.

It was only after the 1960s when the movement got widely organized and developed after receiving the support of consumers and citizens.