Agricultural Co-operatives in Japan: The Dynamics of their Development

Abstract

It was over a hundred years ago that Japan embarked upon a unique mission of transforming itself into a modern dynamic society which could confidently compete with the industrialised and powerful West. The Meiji Restoration of 1868, as it is called, indeed has proved to be a turning point in the history of Japan which revolutionarily changed the orientation of the society and thereby set in the process of rapid industrialization and economic development. The post-war period saw a yet new phase of this process of Japan emerging as one of the leading and most dynamic economies in the world, joining the select ranks of developed nations, hitherto confined only to the countries located in Europe or North America. Japan's modernisation and the dynamism of its economy and society have thus become subjects of immense curiosity and study for the people all over the world. Cooperative movement in Japan has been an important element that helped greatly the process of modernisation of the agricultural sectors in the country. With a history of more than one hundred years, the Japanese agricultural cooperative movement over this long period has always most successfully responded to the demands of changing times and socioeconomic conditions of the country. In the present-day Japan, when the agriculture sector has a vastly .different and in a way subtle role to play in Japanese economy, the cooperatives are developing ways and means to impart a new dynamism to the agricultural and rural sector. The Japanese experience of agricultural cooperative movement and its story of continuity and change, I believe, should be of immense interest and great relevance to other countries, especially those as are moving in the path of modernisation and economic development.