Consumer activism in Japan emerged in the wake of the devastation of the Second World War. Ironically, it was the American Occupation forces in Japan that had paved the way for the development of such a movement. They encouraged ordinary Japanese to form groups in support of political causes, viewing even radical forms of citizen activism as effective vehicles for grassroots democratization in a country whose people had been accustomed to being governed from above . As the Japanese people were granted the rights and privileges of citizenship, many flocked to the labor unions, the political parties, the professional interest groups, and to the consumer cooperatives and women’s organizations that eventually assumed a leading role in the post-war consumer movement .
These post-war consumer activists embraced a simple but pressing goal: the improvement of the national standard of living, which had fallen below subsistence level following the war. They formed alliances with workers, farmers and small businessmen against big business and black marketers, and in the process they began to form a distinctive image of the consumer, not only as survivor but also as citizen, both of civil society (shimin) and of the national polity (kokumin) .
The kokumin dimension of this new-found consumer identity reflected the activists’ concern for the state of the national economy and their willingness to ally with producer groups in order to strengthen the economy . Thus, it was natural for consumers to close ranks with producer groups in Japan. One particular expression of these alliances was the establishment of food cooperatives.
Food cooperatives work by getting good food to urban groups that have no direct access to farms. Direct links between consumers and farmers have had spectacular success in Japan, with the rapid growth of consumer cooperatives, sanchoku (straight from the place of production) groups and teikei schemes (tie-up or mutual compromise between consumers and producers). This extraordinary movement has been driven by consumers rather than by farmers, and mainly by women. There are now some 800 to 1,000 such groups in Japan, with a total membership of 11 million people. These consumer-producer groups are based on trust, and put a premium on face-to-face contact. Some of these have had a remarkable effect on farming, as well as on environmental matters. One of the largest and best-known consumer cooperative groups in Japan is the Seikatsu Club .
The Seikatsu Club
The Seikatsu Club is a Japanese food cooperative that aims not only to supply wholesome food to its members, but also to fundamentally change the relationship between producers and consumers and between people and their environment. It started in 1965 when a group of householders formed a collective buying organization to purchase quality milk at lower prices. They believed then that the companies which dominated the milk market in Japan were offering an inferior product and manipulating prices .
Since that time, the Seikatsu Club has grown and organized itself into a larger tertiary organization of similarly named cooperatives that have been set up since 1990 into the Seikatsu Club Consumers Cooperative Union (SCCU). The SCCU consists of an association of 25 consumer cooperatives active in 15 administrative divisions (or prefectures) of Japan, which altogether have 259,000 members, most of whom are women. In addition, the SCCU has seven associated companies, including a milk factory .
The SCCU undertakes the development, purchasing, distribution and inspection of consumer materials (food, general daily goods, clothes, publications), operates a mutual assistance fund and publishes public relations and ordering information for pre-order collective purchases. In addition, the entire union gets involved in issues, such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by setting up committees and establishing projects run by Seikatsu Club members and SCCU staff .
The Seikatsu Club member unit is modeled after the nearly 200 independent branches, all of which have independent management and activities. Seikatsu Club funding comes from the members, who make monthly contributions of 1,000 yen per person. The accumulated contributions total 23,100 million yen, an average investment of approximately 90,300 per member. The turn-over of goods among the cooperatives in the Union as of March 2004 amounted to 76,200,000,000 yen (US$690,000,000) .
The avergae Seikatsu Club member spends one-third of their total food budget on cooperative products. Members with the highest utilization rates (the top 25 per cent) spend approximately 70 per cent of their total food budget on cooperative products. These figures are seen as indicating “a partial boycott of the existing commodities (food) market” even though the total impact of consumer cooperatives on the Japanese economy is still relatively small . Data from the Japanese Consumer Cooperative Union in 1999 show that consumer cooperatives account for some 2.7 per cent of total retail sales and are the largest food retailers in Japan with around 7 per cent of the food market.
The Seikatsu philosophy and practice
At the end of the Second World War, the spirit of enterprise came to dominate the social atmosphere in Japan, encouraging mass production and mass consumption. As the Japanese economy recovered, then grew by leaps and bounds, extravagance and the wasteful use of resources came to characterize the Japanese lifestyle. The emphasis on the outward appearance of most consumer products and the use of agricultural chemicals and additives such as artificial coloring, preservatives, etc., worried the housewives which formed the first Seikatsu Club.
Besides, Japanese consumers since the 1950s have paid increasing attention to product safety. This was prompted, on the one hand, by medical advances that had enhanced the population’s awareness of public health hazards, and by the widespread use of synthetic additives in food products. The emphasis on safety and purity was further reinforced by traditional beliefs and values. Shinto, Japan’s closest approximation of a native religion, puts great store on ritual purity, a value that has become manifest in everything from household cleanliness to personal hygiene and food safety .
“No” to a consumerist society
The Seikatsu Club eschewed the modern consumerist ethos of buying the “best” product at the cheapest price, without considering the various processes that go into making the product. The Seikatsu Club checks the source of its goods to ensure their safety and quality . It also demands that environmentally sound processes are used at the point of production. Organic farming methods which use a minimum of artificial pesticides and fertilizers are the norm among Seikatsu’s suppliers. Moreover, the speed of distribution – direct from the producer to consumer – eliminates the need for chemical preservatives or irradiation .
In addition, the Seikatsu Club ensures that the products themselves are environmentally safe. For example, in 1979, the SCCU developed its own original natural soap to replace synthetic detergents. This was part of its campaign to totally ban synthetic detergents .
The Seikatsu Club also intentionally uses no labels to indicate that its products are “eco-friendly”. The feel that such labelling has been co-opted by mainstream corporations that are more interested in “greenwashing” their corporate images than in actually reducing their impact on the environment. As there is no need for products to be attractively displayed in stores, packaging can be simple and recyclable, reducing the volume of garbage. Moreover, the efficiency of the system is such that no products are left unsold and to be thrown out at the end of the day. .
Combining Western and Japanese values
While cooperatives in Japan can be viewed as extensions of the Western ideals of individualism and freedom, they nonetheless draw inspiration from traditional Japanese cultural values which emphasize group cooperation and social harmony. Thus, the Seikatsu Club combines Western notions of individual autonomy and self-help with Japanese notions of collective efforts and active involvement in local communities .
Sanchoku and sustainable agriculture
One uniquely Japanese system which evolved from the relationship between producers and consumers is the sanchoku. The sanchoku is a movement as well as a coop business that emerged from the cooperation between Japanese consumers and Japanese producers to ensure a stable supply of safe, high quality products at stable and reasonable prices. The sanchoku movement was initiated by the co-ops to check the dominance of the public wholesale market and the major food companies in the distribution of perishable and processed food. To achieve this objective, the movement encourages the development of regional agriculture and industry, and promotes sustainable agriculture while seeking to reform the agriculture system. It aims to support the production of local farmers, keep food costs down, and make sure food is safe to eat .
A Seikatsu Club member has said in an interview that they are doing what governments should be doing, which is to sustain farming. The Seikatsu Club believes that they are fulfilling this role everytime they negotiate with farmers to buy their produce, making sure that farmers are paid what they spent on production, and on top of that, paying the farmers to sustain their healthy products and their health .
Furthermore, the Seikatsu Club supports the notion that all countries should be moving towards forms of self-sufficiency which are both ecologically sustainable and in accordance with local cultural traditions. Katsumi Yokota, Seikatsu Club’s well-known spokesperson, has declared that the organization is “against the complete liberalization of agricultural trade, because we believe every nation should support its own basic food production” .
Approach adopted by the Seikatsu Club
Strategies and Tactics
The system developed by the Seikatsu Club and similar food cooperatives in Japan is based on the principle of “local production for local consumption”. Most of the suppliers are local farmers and collectives.
1. The “Sanchoku” System
In the traditional market system the flow is from producers to consumers: producers produce goods which they must then advertise and persuade people to buy. The cooperative system provides an alternative to the market system by reversing this flow: the consumers take the initiative by telling producers exactly what they want. The principle of sanchoku – “direct from the producer” – creates a relationship of interdependence between producers and consumers. Over time, consistent patterns of consumption and production develop which help to stabilize this relationship. Consumers are supplied with quality products at a fair price while producers are assured of a secure livelihood and a reasonable income. The sanchoku system also eliminates the need for a middle man. While the cooperative functions to coordinate orders, its purpose is not to generate profits but to serve its members .
Three basic principles which underlie the sanchoku system make it unique :
- the origin of the product and the name of the producer should be clear to the consumer – the co-op, through newsletters, weekly product catalogues, and signs in the supermarkets, provides co-op members with detailed information. In some cases, producers would visit co-op stores and discuss their products with co-op members;
- the consumer should be aware of the method of production – information on the method of production is provided to coop members. The products must meet specifications of quality, size and delivery dates, all of which are spelled out in most contracts. In addition to the contractual requirements, producers must also abide by agreed conditions as to how the product should be produced. In particular, there are restrictions on the use of chemicals. Sanchoku is seen as a way of guaranteeing the safety of products for members. Co-op staff or their representatives regularly visit their suppliers and products are tested to ensure that standards are met.
- There should be exchanges between consumers and producers – consumers are encouraged to visit supplier’s farms and special events are organized by the co-ops to allow members to see how their food is being produced. Producers are also encouraged to meet members and would visit city consumers and home-stay with co-op members’ families. The exchange of information between producers and consumers enables both parties to share experience and better understand and meet each others’ needs.
Under the system, it is the organized consumers who contact the producers and in that manner the consumer takes the lead in organizing the producers who can meet their purchase orders. It may happen that the producers organize themselves, but they have to get in touch with an organized consumer group for their produce to have an outlet.
How sanchoku produce is sourced depends on the location and size of these co-op societies. If they are located in a megalopolis like Tokyo, it is not possible to source locally due to the lack of capacity. It is also unrealistic for the large societies to concentrate on a limited number of partners; they need to diversity sources/partners to ensure sufficient supply and hedge the risks of a poor crop. In contrast, those co-ops located in areas where agricultural production plays an important role within the local economy tend to source from local producers. The idea of Chisan Chisho, or “locally consume what is locally grown,” has special appeal to a bulk of consumers living in the proximity of production areas .
2. Pre-order collective purchase through the “Han”
As described in a paper and illustratively shown in Annex A, the basic organizational unit of the Seikatsu Club is the han (“small group”- often used to refer to a group of people living in the same area). Ideally, a han consists of seven to 10 households. Its responsibilities include gathering orders from individual members, passing on the orders to the local center, receiving products from the delivery truck and distributing them to the members of the han. Individual orders are placed a month in advance and forwarded from the local center to a regional center and finally to the cooperative union, which collates them and then places a single order directly with each producer. The goods are delivered bi-weekly by a delivery truck to the neighborhood han, which then distributes them to individual members. Since the food is coming straight from the producer, it is extremely fresh. Eggs, for example, are delivered the day after they are laid and arrive unwashed. The han system eliminates the need for storage and thus also the need for artificial methods of preservation, such as chemical preservatives or irradiation.
Since the producers receive the orders in advance, they can anticipate how much of a given product will be needed in the coming months and are often able to adjust production accordingly. Producers are thus able to fill orders directly to meet actual needs, and are not simply producing vast quantities of a product which they must subsequently try to sell on the open market (with no guarantee that they will be able to sell everything they have produced.) There is no need for expensive advertising.
The cooperative system thus eliminates overproduction and waste, improves efficiency, reduces the stress caused by discrepancies in supply and demand, and helps to stabilize prices. Ultimately, it provides more security for both producers and consumers: consumers are assured that their demand for goods will be met while producers are confident that the goods they produce will be sold.
Since goods are delivered directly to consumers, the cooperative has no stores, giving the han system several advantages over the conventional store system. In the han system there is no need to invest in commercial property and buildings. Even though there are still expenses in maintaining offices and depots for the cooperative, paying salaries to the coordinators and delivery personnel and servicing delivery trucks, overhead costs are still considerably lower for han-based cooperatives than for conventional stores. There is no need to hire managerial experts who must ensure that the supply of goods in the store roughly matches actual consumer demand. Delivering directly to the han also gives members direct involvement in at least part of the labor process. For all the above reasons, overall costs can be reduced and efficiency improved, often resulting in lower prices for consumers.
3. Low stocking density of basic goods
While the major supermarkets stock 300,000 kinds of merchandise, the Seikatsu Club deals only with about 3,000 general consumer goods items of which 60 per cent are basic foodstuffs, such as rice, milk, eggs, frozen fish and vegetables.
The Seikatsu Club also offers only one brand of each type of product it sells. This brand is usually superior to the rest but serves multiple purposes. This practice eliminates competition among the various brands as well as the need for superfluous advertising, whose costs are passed on to consumers. As a result, consumers are less apt to be manipulated and are ultimately more in control of their purchasing choices .
The focus on only one type of product gives the Seikatsu Club an advantage over traditional retail outlets in terms of purchasing power as it can place a much larger bulk order. On a per-item basis, the purchasing power of the Seikatsu Club often exceeds that of major retail outlets .
The standardization of the size of containers makes them easier to recycle. Reducing the number of types of products and buying in bulk means that cooking methods have to be adjusted, however. Traditional cooking methods, while sometimes laborious and time-consuming, are emphasized over the convenience of “heat-and-serve” dishes .
4. Independent control and auditing system
The SCCU has also established safety, health, and environmental principles which guide its operations. Producers ratify these principles in order to participate in the system and work with Seikatsu Club members to achieve improvements in terms of the principles. This system is different from general environment and quality control standards and certification systems. Producers make information public based on the independent standards in agriculture, fishery, stock raising and processed food. The Independent Control Committee, consisting of Seikatsu Club members and producers, examines the degree of attainment of standards and revises standards to a higher level. Under the supervision of the Independent Auditing Committee, Seikatsu Club members carry out “mass independent auditing”. This auditing of the sites of production by members is one of the unique activities of the Seikatsu Club .
5. Product labeling efforts against genetically modified food and products
In January 1997, the Seikatsu Club, in cooperation with producers, inspected every consumer item in the market and adopted its own labeling system which excludes genetically modified (GM) food, feed and additives. It also conducted a campaign among local governments in Japan to have GM food labelled as such, submitting a petition signed by 680,000 people to the national assembly .
Working with other cooperative groups, the Seikatsu Club has formed the “Stop GM Rice Cooperative Network”. It has conducted a national survey of GM food labeling and demanded that the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Health and Welfare update the food labeling system in Japan .
It also sent observers to the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Food Derived from Biotechnology (BT Task Force), which formulates international standards for GM food. While there, the Club representatives submitted a petition that the participating countries of the Codex recognize the establishment of traceability, fully compulsory labeling, full implementation of the precautionary principle, safety inspections by third parties as a basic principle. It attached with such demands the petition of 600 other organizations .
7. The Green System
Aside from food safety, the Seikatsu Club is considered with the proper disposal of packaging materials after use. As packaging makes up some 60 per cent of household waste (based on Seikatsu Club’s estimates), the Seikatsu Club adopted the use of the “multiple reuse returnable jar/bottle”, in cooperation with the producers and the bottle industry. This activity, begun in 1994, is called the Green System, short for Garbage Reduction for Ecology and Earth’s Necessity. The reuse of milk bottles and the recycling of milk bottle caps and picking bags (personal bags for pre-ordered items) has been recently added to the system .
Threats and opportunities
The Seikatsu Club is just one of the many consumers cooperatives that are trying to provide safe food to Japanese consumers. The others are the Zen-Noh (the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations) Security System, the Nichirei “Kodawari” (obsession) food and the the Oisix e-commerce, among others . Groups such as these, including the Seikatsu Club, are getting a closer look these days, for their unique approach towards the distribution of safe food products to Japanese consumers.
Recently, there has been increased concern with food safety among consumers in Japan, triggered by the outbreaks of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also called “mad cow” disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle ) and highly pathogenic avian influenza, as well as problems with fraudulent food labeling . This has resulted in a loss of confidence in food and undermined the confidence of consumers in the administration of the agri-food industry . This situation, however, may strengthen the role of the consumer cooperatives in responding to these consumer concerns.
Meanwhile, Japan’s food self-sufficiency (on a supplied calorie basis) has stagnated at 40 per cent for six successive years since FY 1998. This is because the industry has been unable to initiate independent and continuous efforts on issues such as achieving a well-balanced diet and improving the productivity and quality of agriculture . One major factor behind this decline is the changing agricultural structure, especially the lack and aging of family labor .
All these trends will have to be considered in the context of the present thrusts of globalization, particularly the liberalization of agricultural trade, which are currently being pushed in discussions on the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture. The pressure to open up Japan’s market to foreign suppliers is expected to increase. It remains to be seen how the Seikatsu model will hold up given the influx of exports.
One other factor that they have to take into account is the strong tie-up between the agricultural producers and the political system in Japan. These agricultural producers are organized into what is called the nokyo, a system of agricultural cooperatives. The strong relationship between the nokyo and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) often results in policies that prevent the consolidation of Japanese agriculture, which mostly consists of small-scale landholdings and weekend farmers. Japan’s highly protectionist policies, especially concerning rice, are also an offshoot of this system.
This strong tie-up and attempts to break it down will determine the kind of agricultural policies that would emerge as well as the viability of agricultural producers. When that time comes, the Seikatsu Club and similar food cooperatives will have to develop a similar producer-consumer relationship with producer groups outside Japan.
Political initiatives generated by Seikatsu Club’s efforts
The Seikatsu Club has always pursued a sustainable and ecological way of life and production in which people can manage their own lives by themselves. From that experience and in order to solve the problems that people face in their local communities, the Seikatsu Club has given birth to new social movements: the Network Movement and the Workers’ Collective Movement. .
The Network Movement aims to get Seikatsu Club representatives elected to local office and thus to take proactive action in the political arena. Part of the Seikatsu Club’s past campaign to ban the use of synthetic detergents was to appeal directly to local governments. However, it was felt then that in order for the citizen’s voice to be reflected in political work, it was necessary to participate in and reform politics. Groups of Seikatsu Club members therefore began to get together in the regions to form independent political organizations. Thus was born the Network Movement to elect representatives to local governments. The “Seikatsusha Network” (seikatsusha = people who live, in the sense of “inhabitants” rather than “consumers”) now consists of 141 representatives in local governments who are working to institutionalize policies to protect the environment and improve the welfare system.
The Workers’ Collective Movement aims to create a work place in local society. Workers’ collectives constitute a new, co-operative style of working, where workers fund, manage and work in their own enterprise rather than being employed by a for-profit corporation. Established by people in their local communities, these collectives now number about 400, engaging 15,000 people in enterprises such as box lunch preparation, bread baking and other food processing, care for the aged and handicapped, kindergartens, recycling, editing, advertising, designing, sorting and delivery of consumer materials.
Lessons from the Seikatsu Club’s experience
The Seikatsu Club and similar groups in Japan grew out of the unique features of Japanese history and culture. It might be difficult to try to develop it outside of that particular setting, but it might be useful to have the following elements, in order for a consumer-based effort like it to develop and ultimately succeed in another country and in a different cultural setting :
- A well-informed consumer sector aware of health and environment issues – Japan’s high level of education helped develop a well-informed consumer class that is aware of the need to have a healthy body and sound environment for one’s well-being; this kind of consumer may not evolve in a country which is less affluent, thus it is a challenge for advocacy groups based in lower-income countries to organize at least a similarly oriented consumers’ group;
- An organized community – as the han is the smallest unit of this cooperative endeavor, it might be worthwhile to examine if similar social groupings might be utilized for the same collective ends. The role of culture and similar religious influences may also be considered.
- A similarly organized producer’s sector – the Seikatsu Club, and even the sanchoku system, will not be successful if it did not have an equally capable partner in the transaction – the farmers themselves or the producers, who are even better organized and more politicallyconnected than the consumer food groups.
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This article is part of the book entitled Initiatives on Pro-small Farmer Trade. Download the complete article (with citations) here
One Response
Mi nombre es Gonzalo Perez, soy educador y especialista en desarrollo de cooperativismo y economía solidaria, y actualmente trabajo en mi país, Colombia, en la creación de la Escuela Internacional de Economía Solidaria. A través de la red conocí su página, y de ella he extraido una información muy valiosa sobre la experiencia de Seikatsu Club, Quiero entonces agradecerle la publicación tan importantes artículos, entre ellos el del libro sobre iniciativas para el el pequeño productor. Me gustaría mantener este contacto con ustedes, pues estoy organizando con la Universidad Javeriana de la ciudad de Cali un Encuentro Internacional de Gerentes de Empresas Cooperativas y Solidarias, y me gustaría invitar a gerentes de proyectos cooperativos exitosos del Asia; por favor me informan cuales podrían ser los posibles invitados.Gracias.