Seikatsu Club Consumers' Cooperative Union, Japan

"We refuse to handle products if they are detrimental to the health of our members or the health of the environment." - Shigeki Maruyama, member.

The Seikatsu Consumers' Club Co-op (SC), an organisation of ordinary housewives, is not an ordinary consumers' cooperative. SC has become a formidable commercial enterprise serving over 230,000 households since it's formation in 1965. It began when a single Tokyo housewife organised 200 women to buy 300 bottles of milk to reduce the price. The Co-op, which has developed since then, places emphasis on direct producer/consumer links to moderate and humanise the market. It operates on two basic principles: one is democratic autonomous management encouraging all members to participate, and the other is to maintain a cooperative close relation between SC members and producers.

With an advance ordering and joint buying system, SC enables its members to plan their consuming life and provides sustainability to producers. The SC is dedicated to the environment, empowerment of women and improvement of workers' conditions. Using environmental ethics that make economic sense the Seikatsu Club provides low-cost household goods without sacrificing health or the environment. They refuse to handle products detrimental to the environment or human health and they oppose wasteful lifestyles. They procure quality produce by signing a contract with local farmers to ensure the produce is safe to eat. The club buys the produce in exchange for a guarantee that only organic fertilisers and the fewest possible chemicals will be used. When they cannot find products of adequate quantity, or products that meet its ecological or social standards, they will consider producing it themselves as they have done with milk and natural soaps.

With the growth in female participation in Japan's labour force, the SC set up women workers' collectives to undertake both distribution and other service enterprises including recycling, health, education, food preparation and child care. Presently there are more than 200 organizations and 8,000 workers. The Seikatsu Club encourages political action and has managed to get over 100 members elected into various municipal offices, who through their principles and activities, "change daily life and change the society." The SC has also established a not-for-profit insurance company for its members.

The club is organised in hans (a local unit averaging about eight people). Each han elects a representative to its Branch (consisting of between 50 and 100 hans), which in turn develops it's own agenda and sends representatives to the General Assembly to set policy and elect the SC's Board of Directors. 95% of SC's members are women.

The fundamental principles of the SC are:

Create a new life-style in order to protect environment and health. Stop passive and resource-wasteful lifestyles based on commercialism.
Abolish differentials and discrimination. Realising that "prosperity" based on the sacrifice of other people both in and outside of the country should not be pardoned, SC promotes and encourages fair trade.
Establish autonomy of people. Stop following state control or an induction of commercial and industrial enterprises, but make every effort to create a community of autonomy and cooperation through our basic daily activities of collective purchase.
Enable women, who are the majority of members, to be independent. Today's highly industrialised society pushed women and local communities into subordinate and decentralised positions. We are not only criticising and confronting the situation, but are proposing to create a new lifestyle and alternative work.

The Seikatsu Club was recognised by the Right Livelihood Awards in 1989.

"We stand by the belief that housewives can begin to create a society that is harmonious with nature by 'taking action from the home'" - Seikatsu Club, 1988.